COVER STORY This year’s UCD Smurfit School Alumnus of the Year
Patrick Kennedy (BComm 90, DipPrAcc 91) has played a leading role in diversifying Paddy Power over the past five years, driving the gaming and
betting company into new international markets and growing its online presence, with 72%of the company’s profits now arising from the internet
In 2010, the company’s turnover hit€3.8bn, up 39% over the previ-
ous year, while operating profit was up 56% to €104m. And Kennedy believes there’s enormous potential for growth over the coming years. “If you want to think about how businesses grow you typically look
for four things: a sector that’s growing and changing; a business that has a great or interesting position in that sector; capital; and great people.” According to Kennedy, Paddy Power ticks the boxes in all four of these areas. “If you look at our industry overall, globally the value of the online
betting and gaming market is about US$335bn and just 7pc of that is online today. In our opinion, internet is still very early as a gener- al trend. And internet in our space is still very early, despite the fact that it lends itself very well to our industry.We have the credentials in a market that’s early and fast growing. “The Paddy Power position, from a brand point of view but also in
terms of what’s behind the brand – the analytical backbone, the risk models, the technology, the ecommerce skills – stands out.” The company continues to have a strong retail business in Ireland
and the UK, with more than 200 outlets in this country and more than 100 in Britain. “But because our internet team is of such quali- ty, and our track record has been as strong as it has, we’ve been able to expand our internet business globally at a much faster pace than we can expand retail. From a standing start, we’re theNo 3 in theUK and we’re the No 1 in Australia.”
the company for 18 months prior to taking up his current job, more than 80pc of Paddy Power’s profits came from the Irish market in 2004; today, two-thirds of the profits come from its international markets, which include the UK, France and Australia. “And we were principally a retail business back then, now 72% of our profits come from the internet,” he says.
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INCE taking over as chief executive of Paddy Power plc five years ago, Patrick Kennedy (BComm 90, DipPrAcc 91) has led the gaming and betting compa- ny through a period of significant growth in terms of revenues, as well as substantial change that has seen the business expand internationally and shift its focus increasingly towards online markets.
According to Kennedy, who had been a non-executive director of
Business background While he didn’t do any business-type subjects in school, Kennedy believed from a young age that he would be involved in business. “I just was interested in it,” he says. “I was interested in numbers and people, and my father was in business. I thought it was an area I’d find interesting.” Doing his BComm in UCD, he specialised in banking and finance,
which he says he enjoyed immensely and got a lot out of.He followed it up with a one-year diploma in accountancy, which he describes as “intensive”. After graduating in 1991, he spent just over three years at Stokes Kennedy Crowley (now KPMG), where he qualified as an accountant in the corporate finance area. He then moved to strategy consultancy McKinsey and spent the next couple of years working at its London, Amsterdam, Brussels and Dublin offices. “I spent a bit of time trav- elling around, which is what I wanted to do,” he says. “McKinsey was just the most intriguing place to work. They say the classic profile of people who join McKinsey are under-secure
ASUREBET 10 UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
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