Paddy Power to create 610 jobs

Bookmaker Paddy Power is to create 610 jobs in Dublin to support the company's international online expansion.

The jobs - which are in e-commerce, technology, social media, quantitative research, risk management and online marketing - will be filled by the end of 2015, the company said this morning.

The announcement will bring total employment by Paddy Power in Ireland to 2,783. The bookmaker, which has hired 189 people as part of its expansion programme since April, is planning to accelerate expansion into the lucrative international betting market.

Speaking at today's announcement, Paddy Power chief executive Patrick Kennedy said: "We've built a position of what we think is global leadership in tomorrow's technology. So, in mobile and social media, we built the business out internationally."

"As the global market moves more and more online and we've invested early in these areas of e-commerce, I think we're very well positioned for that and that's the source of today's announcement," he said.

Four-fifths of the group’s operating profit was generated online last year, and the company recently launched in the Italian online market and has located resources in the United States in preparation for the opening of the online market there.

The group has established partnerships with PMU, the second largest betting organisation in the world, in France and with the British Colombia Lottery Corporation in Canada. It also has an international games technology operation in Bulgaria.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny officially opened the group's new €10 million Power Tower headquarters in Clonskeagh this morning.

The announcement comes just days after food company Kerry Group, which employs more than 24,000 people globally, said it would create 800 jobs by 2015, with a further 100 positions added by 2016.