BOOKMAKERS PADDY POWER published their annual report today, outlining the highs and lows (it was mostly highs) for the company in 2012.
Here are nine things we learned:
1. They’re still getting good mileage out of the horsemeat scandal.
This is the front cover of the report.
2. Almost €5.7 billion was staked by customers on sporting and other events in 2012, up 25% from 2011.
Paddy Power’s net gain on these bets was €654 million (up 31%).
3. Their decision to offer a money-back special on Chelsea winning last year’s Champions League left them with “a refund that looked like Tiger Woods’ divorce bill.”
Ouch.
4. They paid out £400,000 early on Barack Obama winning a second term in the US Presidential election.
And got some lovely international publicity into the bargain.
5. In total they took in €78m in bets on Euro 2012.
They won €7.6m.
6. Their Nicklas Bendtner “Paddy Pants” stunt was a massive success on social media.
More than 5,000 tweets contained both Paddy Power and Bendtner in the week after and reached nearly five million unique users.
(Michael Probst/AP/Press Association Images)
7. Their Ryder Cup skywriting campaign broke a world record.
“GOOD LUCK TIGER! LOVE RACHEL, MINDY, JAMIE, CORI, KALIKA, HOLLY, JOSLYN, JAMIE, LOREDANA, JULIE, THERESA AND RAYCHEL X #GOEUROPE” is now the longest message ever to be written in the sky.
8.At the end of 2012 they had over 1.6 million active online customers (an increase of 44%).
They have 422 shops as well.
9. They employed nearly 3800 staff at the year’s end.
Over 2000 of those are based in Ireland.