Irish betting company
Paddy Power is an Irish retail and online bookmaker founded in Dublin in 1988 by the merger of three long-standing Irish bookmaking families, originally trading as Paddy Power plc. The brand is known for its distinctive marketing, mass-market sports betting offer, and a retail footprint of hundreds of shops across Ireland and the United Kingdom, complemented by market-leading online and mobile products.
Paddy Power operated as an independent Irish plc listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange until the 2016 all-share merger with Betfair created Paddy Power Betfair plc, which was renamed Flutter Entertainment plc in 2019.
Today, Paddy Power is a brand and operating unit inside the Flutter Entertainment plc group, run through Irish and UK regulated subsidiaries including Power Leisure Bookmakers Limited, Paddy Power Holdings Limited, and PPB Entertainment Limited.
Paddy Power contributed the Irish and much of the core UK retail heritage that made Flutter Entertainment possible, and its registered office remains at Belfield Office Park in Clonskeagh, Dublin 4, alongside other group companies. The brand continues to be a leading destination for Irish sports betting, gaming, and entertainment.
Paddy Power is an essential case for anyone studying Irish corporate restructuring, because the standalone plc no longer exists as a listed entity yet its identity defines much of the Flutter Entertainment group.
The original Paddy Power plc was incorporated in Ireland and listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, giving it direct access to Irish institutional investors and mass-market domestic retail holders for decades.
In 2016 the board agreed an all-share merger with UK-listed Betfair Group plc, structured as a scheme of arrangement under Irish and English company law, under which Paddy Power shareholders exchanged their shares for shares in a new Irish parent, Paddy Power Betfair plc.
The Irish domicile was retained to preserve 12.5 percent trading tax, EU market access, and Irish gambling regulation, while the combined group could meanwhile capture the scale needed for subsequent acquisitions.
The 2019 rename to Flutter Entertainment plc signalled a further shift toward a holding-company identity, reflecting the growing US and continental European businesses. Today Paddy Power operates inside the group through Power Leisure Bookmakers Limited for Irish retail betting, Paddy Power Holdings Limited for holding structures, and PPB Entertainment Limited for UK regulated online activity.
This brand-preserving, parent-renaming approach is a repeated pattern in Irish deals, used by Flutter, CRH, and others to consolidate without abandoning heritage brands. For founders studying acquisitions, the lesson is that an Irish plc structure is flexible enough to absorb UK and US counterparties through schemes of arrangement while preserving core tax and regulatory characteristics.
No. Paddy Power ceased to be an independent listed company in 2016, when it merged with UK-listed Betfair to form Paddy Power Betfair plc, later renamed Flutter Entertainment plc in 2019. The Paddy Power brand and operations continue as a business unit within Flutter Entertainment plc, run through Irish and UK regulated subsidiaries such as Power Leisure Bookmakers Limited and PPB Entertainment Limited.
Paddy Power is wholly owned by Flutter Entertainment plc, an Irish public limited company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker FLUT and on the London Stock Exchange under ticker FLTR. The brand is managed as part of Flutter's UK and Ireland division, alongside Sky Bet and other regional brands.
Before 2016, Paddy Power plc was independently listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
Paddy Power retail betting shops operate across Ireland and the United Kingdom, with hundreds of locations under the Paddy Power brand. Irish shops are licensed under Irish Revenue Commissioners's Betting Office Licence regime, while UK shops are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
Online wagering in each market uses separate regulatory permissions held by group subsidiaries, including PPB Entertainment Limited in the United Kingdom.
The 2016 merger was structured to preserve an Irish holding company at the top of the combined group, through a scheme of arrangement under Irish law. That preserved Ireland's 12.5 percent trading corporation tax rate, EU regulatory access, Irish gambling licensing heritage for Paddy Power, and double-tax-treaty network.
Subsequent acquisitions, including The Stars Group in 2020, kept the Irish parent in place, now under the Flutter Entertainment plc name.
