Paddy Power bets on more growth

The Dublin-based firm, which has doubled its UK estate to 165 shops in the last two years, said it was a period of “game-changing” developments for the industry, particularly in online betting and new markets.

Paddy Power boosted its number of online customers in the UK by 50 per cent to 710,043 and said profits from internet betting lifted 29 per cent to 74.3m euros (£61.9m), despite investment costs and less favourable results.

Almost half of its online sportsbook customers used smartphones to place their bets last month.

Across the group, Paddy Power took 4.6bn euros (£3.8bn) of wagers last year, an increase of 19% on the World Cup year in 2010, while pre-tax profits were up to 121.2m euros (£101m).

Chief executive Patrick Kennedy said that with only 9 per cent of the 285bn euros (£238bn) global gambling market currently online, there was significant scope for continued strong market growth.

He said that scale will be a pre-requisite to take advantage of the opportunities: “Put simply, we are determined that Paddy Power will be in the ‘big-get-bigger’ segment of operators.”

Operating profits in the UK shop estate have increased eight-fold since 2009 to stand at 10.5m euros (£8.75m).

It said it was one of the fastest growing retailers on the UK high street, adding it was unhappy with a Government review by shop guru Mary Portas that could make it harder for bookmakers to open new shops.

The company said: “We would be disappointed if job creation on the high street would be hampered by the introduction of anti-competitive policies without a proper body of evidence.”