PADDY Power, the Irish bookmaker that offers odds on everything from the winner of Big Brother to the next company chief executive to be sacked, reported yesterday that it had taken €48 million (£33 million) on the World Cup.
The company said that it had made a profit of about €4 million on the tournament, despite having to refund more than €1 million to punters after offering a moneyback deal on teams losing in penalty shoot-outs. England’s exit on penalties was particularly painful, costing €500,000.
Patrick Kennedy, chief executive, said that the group had also suffered at the hands of Irish punters thanks to a record ten victories by Irish horses at the Cheltenham Festival, an Irish winner in the Grand National and a Triple Crown for Ireland in rugby union’s Six Nations Championship.
However, Paddy Power reported an 11.5 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to €20.5 million in the first half of the year, while the gross win — the amount left behind by the punter — was up 30 per cent to €105 million. Basic earnings per share rose 10 per cent to 34.8 cents. The interim dividend is up 22 per cent to 9.43 cents.
Mr Kennedy said that the group’s strong marketing — it offered 70 different bets on some World Cup matches and hosted the first world strip poker championship — had served it well, producing a 27 per cent jump in the amount staked to €878 million.
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He said that the group, Ireland’s biggest bookmaker with 154 shops, had benefited from the scrapping of betting duty. In December the Irish Government announced the removal of the 2 per cent betting tax from July 1 and its replacement with a 1 per cent tax on the bookie. Paddy Power decided to absorb the 2 per cent charge the morning after the Budget and moved straight to tax-free betting at a cost of €4 million.
In Britain it lifted its estate to 51 shops. It expects to hit 60 by the end of the year, all within the M25. Mr Kennedy said that he did not expect to target other cities until gambling deregulation was introduced.