If we haven’t yet done the marketing equivalent of running up and slapping you in the face, then please allow us to introduce ourselves. Paddy Power is Ireland’s biggest, most successful, security conscious and innovative bookmaker. We operate via www.paddypower.com, our chain of retail outlets throughout Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, our Dial-A-Bet department and more recently our Mobile division. Whether you like the buzz and the human interaction of the betting shop or you’re deeply agoraphobic and have grave misgivings about the outside world, in one form or another Paddy Power is there 24 hours a day with a customer service team to match.

And here’s a quick run-through of the boring stuff. Paddy Power was founded in 1988 by the merger of three existing Irish bookmakers. From the outset the company took an unconventional approach to betting and adopted a commitment to offer greater value and fairness to customers who had for too long suffered from the whims and self-interest of a staid oligopoly. The meteoric rise of the company then and the continued strong growth of more recent years indicate it’s a formula that the customer appreciates.

As at February 2010, Paddy Power operated a total of 356 retail outlets (209 in Ireland, 8 in Northern Ireland and 139 in Great Britain. Almost two thirds of Paddy Power’s profits were generated outside of Ireland in 2010. We are the third largest online bookmaker and sixth largest online gaming business in Britain and Ireland and, at the current trajectory, we will have more shops in the UK than Ireland by 2013. The acquisition and growth of Sportsbet and IAS made us the number 1 online corporate bookmaker in Australia. New B2B activities have seen us expand into France, in partnership with PMU. A full year’s contribution from our Australian acquisitions is reflected in the results bringing greater visibility to the scale of the Group’s online business. In 2010, turnover was over €3.83 billion, up 39% on 2009. Underlying operating profit was €103.8 million, an increase of 48% on 2009. The Group’s total profit after tax was €97m. For further information on Paddy Power PLC, please check outwww.paddypowerplc.com.

Paddy Power