It has been a busy year for Irish operator of both online and land-based gambling services Paddy Power. The company signed agreements with fellow operators and related business entities, saw certain changes in its management team, and announced a £6-billion merger with fellow gambling operator Betfair for the establishment of one of the world’s largest betting and gaming businesses in the world.
What is more, Paddy Power reported a continued growth in revenue, operating profit, and other key performance indicators over the past eleven and a half months, despite the effects of the newly introduced Point of Consumption tax and the increased Machine Games Duty rate, as well as the fact that there was no major sports event in 2015.
Over the past year, the Irish gambling operator signed new partnership agreements and renewed its existing ones with several gambling companies as well as other gaming-related businesses. In September, Paddy Power inked a partnership deal with Spanish fellow betting company Reta. Under the terms of their agreement, the Irish operator is to supply its sports betting product offering to Reta.
It was in September again when Paddy Power extended its existing partnership with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. The Irish operator has agreed to continue providing fixed-odds sports betting services to gambling customers residing in British Columbia. Paddy Power signed its first deal with the BCLC back in 2012. The betting and gaming operator also announced that it has extended its existing partnership with PMU, the French sports betting system.
Another strategic agreement that Paddy Power signed was the one with online casino games supplier NYX Gaming. Under the terms of their deal, a selection of the developer’s games went live for Paddy Power gambling customers through NYX’s Open Gaming System.
As mentioned above, the Irish operator saw some managerial changes over the past year. First and foremost, it was announced early in 2015 that Andy McCue would assume the position of the company’s CEO. Mr. McCue replaced Patrick Kennedy on the post. In addition, Peter O’Donovan was appointed as Chief Product Officer, Johnny Hartnett took the position of Managing Director of the company’s Online division, and Christian Woolfenden assumed post as Retail Managing Director. In October Mr. Woolfenden notified colleagues and media about his departure.
In April, Paddy Power announced the appointment of Gav Thompson as Chief Marketing Officer. Given the fact the Irish company is well-known about its creative advertising campaigns that often cause quite a stir, the post of a Chief Marketing Officer is an extremely important one.
And speaking of advertising, Paddy Power remained true to itself in 2015 and released a number of witty ads that were considered offensive by many, as usual. For instance, the gambling operator had an online advert being banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland for having exploited the immigrant crisis around Europe in order to promote the brand.
The proposed £6-billion merger with Betfair was certainly the biggest news Paddy Power had to reveal to customers and industry peers. In August, the two gambling operators confirmed that there had been ongoing talks about the potential consolidation. Last month, the proposed merger entered a regulatory review stage. It is now subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016.
Under the terms of the agreement between Paddy Power and Betfair, the first would hold a 52% stake in the combined entity and the latter would own 48%. The merged group would be headquartered in Dublin and Paddy Power Chairman Gary McGann would be Chairman of the Board of Paddy Power Betfair plc.
As it seems, the Irish betting and gaming giant will have another busy year. The company will be primarily focused on the completion of its merger with its fellow gambling operator. What is more, Paddy Power’s creative team will most certainly come up with a number of mischievous advertising campaigns to build upon the company’s reputation as the industry’s rascal. Last but not least, the gambling operator will definitely remain focused on driving further growth by introducing new products and reaching tentative agreements.
