Paddy Power Launches Daily Fantasy Sports in UK and Ireland

September 3rd, 2019 11.00am

Paddy Power, a Flutter Entertainment-owned brand, has rolled out its first daily fantasy sports product that will be available to players in the UK and Ireland. It will enable players from these countries to join hundreds of contests during the opening weekend of the NFL season. At the same time, Paddy Power is the first bookmaker to suspend betting on a UK 2019 General Election to be called.

£1m Prize for the Winner

The new product has been rolled out ahead of the new NFL season that starts on 5 September. Paddy Power joined forces with the US Flutter Entertainment brand FanDuel to develop the product which is similar to the DFS offering available to US players.

The two teams worked closely to develop the product, which will allow players to select multiple teams for one game and to choose a specific game they would enter instead of relying on the outcome of matches across the whole season.

In their statement, Paddy Power said that a new, exciting product for customers in the UK and Ireland had been a result of a truly collaborative effort from their teams in the UK and the US.

“We believe there is a real appetite for a fantasy-based product that offers rewards each week while reducing the burden of regularly updating a team. While the NFL market will be the most popular, to begin with, we think this will shift toward other sports, including football, through a mixture of cross-selling and product marketing,” it is said in the statement published by the operator.

During the NFL opening weekend, Daily Fantasy Sports customers will be able to join hundreds of contests including two headline contests. The larger one will pay out £3.5 million. The most successful player will win a £1 million prize, while cash prizes are secured for the next 100,000 players on the leaderboard. The prizes will be paid from the pool shared between two brands with both Paddy Power customers in the UK and Ireland and FanDuel customers in the US contributing to it.

No More Bets on General Election to Be Called

Paddy Power has officially announced that that they have been forced to suspend betting on a general election to be called on Monday. It is the first bookmaker that has withdrawn from the UK political market.

“Boris Johnson’s cabinet meeting announcement has sent the betting on a general election to take place this year into overdrive. And, as a result, we’ve been forced to stop taking any further bets on it,” said Paddy Power spokesman.

According to the press release, the odds of the election to be announced fell from 2/5 in Monday morning, into 1/5 and finally 1/10 in the last hour before they stopped taking any further bets on it.

“The Tories are currently the odds-on 3/10 favourites to win the election, with Labour rated 7/2 and the Liberal Democrats 16/1”, it is said.

The operator says that a no-deal Brexit is now more likely to happen with the odds falling from 11/8 this morning to 11/10 now.

“The news also makes the chances of Britain leaving without a deal more likely than ever,” concludes Paddy Power spokesman adding that the odds of leaving the EU with the deal are 4/6.

According to the latest news, the pound sterling has continued to fall on currency markets. It is speculated that reports of a possible general election have also contributed to its fall. Brexit is scheduled to happen on 31 October and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been insisting that the UK is ready to leave the EU without a deal.

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