Betting Big on Rugby's Future: A Conversation with Paddy Power

This book focuses on my conversation with
Paddy Power, who is a veteran of the gaming industry. As a fourth generation 'bookie' he has helped create, develop, and personify one of the wagering world's most famous brands, 'Paddy Power.' Paddy Power (the brand!) is a cornerstone of the Flutter Group, which has grown to become the world's leading gaming and wagering company, with brands including FanDuel, under its umbrella. Paddy's expertise throughout his career has been focused on the fearless pursuit of creating an iconic, relevant, and relatable brand.
Paddy Power has consistently been the most famous betting brand in the U.K. & Ireland and has won countless awards for various campaigns over the past two decades, both within and outside its sector. Paddy's successful campaigns are as varied as setting up a 'bookie stall' in St. Peter's Square to shout odds on the next Pope during the 2005 Papal Election (the Vatican Guard were none too pleased!), to launching a 'Rainbow Laces' campaign, persuading Premier League footballers to wear Rainbow Laces to raise awareness of homophobia in Football. 'What would nobody else dare to do?' Is a question Paddy and his team often asked, and the answer invariably led to an unexpected and successful campaign. Like persuading Prof. Stephen Hawking to become a Paddy Power brand Ambassador for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014 - his job was to calculate how to take the perfect penalty to help England get over their awful record in penalty shootouts…. England were so bad they did not make it far enough in the tournament to even have a penalty shootout!
In more recent times Paddy has hosted a 26-show series of The Green Room, a weekly sports & entertainment show on Irish national TV and has made various sports and culture documentaries on behalf of Paddy Power (the brand) as they spread their reach away from the traditional core territories. This type of uninhibited, creative thinking and action (along with a vastly superior social following to its peers) has consistently been the difference which has created an unrivaled brand affinity among Paddy Power advocates. As a founder and President of ASX, Paddy's ambition is to facilitate a new era of engagement among sports fans where they can be entertained on their own terms rather than the more traditional terms of those gone before.