Irish bookmakers Paddy have today recorded impressive half year profits up 21% from last year to £54.5 million. Which was firmly thanks to an impressive taking at Euro 2012 in which the company took €78 million worth of bets over the three week tournament.
The major coup of the tournament came for the company when Danish striker Nicklas Bendner dropped his shorts to reveal his lucky Paddy Power pants after scoring against Portugal.Unsurprisingly Paddy Power immediately tweeted images of the pants, and thus proving the most inspirational piece of ambush marketing at the tournament.
Uefa promptly banned the Arsenal striker for one 2014 qualifying game and dished out a record €100,000 fine.Compare this to the two fines to the Spanish & Russian football associations for racism which totalled €50,000 and it just shows how the antics of the bookmaker riled the authorities with
The record profits of this came down to the vision of Chief executive Patrick Kennedy who regards football tournaments as marketing opportunities. Which is strongly been developed by the companies marketing focus.
This coming in the form of engaging Facebook & Twitter feeds, short punchy TV adverts (see below) and close to the bone marketing which often comes a cropper of the ASA. Paddy Power also have the envious reputation of the most complained advert of 2010 which this humble blog looked at previously which this humble blog looked at previously.
However crucially the companies policy of embracing mobile has been key in the financial profits of the bookmakers. Paddy Power are the only book-maker who has mobile betting apps across all mobile formats, including Nokia & Blackberry.
Last year Paddy Power said that 34% of it’s customer base where accessing the site using their mobile device. This is set to rise significantly over the next year, and with the companies engaging digital content it’s hard not to see a rise in profit for the flamboyant Irish bookmakers.
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