David Power, co-founder of Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, ‘a two-fingered salute to the Brits’ – obituary

David Power, who has died aged 77, was a third-generation Irish bookmaker and a co-founder of Paddy Power which became, as Flutter Entertainment, one of the world’s largest online betting and gambling businesses.

In 1988, Power joined with two local rivals, Stewart Kenny and John Corcoran, to merge their betting-shop chains in order to compete against Ladbrokes and other British firms which were making aggressive inroads into the Irish market following a reduction of betting taxes.

The incomers’ premises tended to be more salubrious, and their marketing glossier, than traditional Irish bookies. But, according to one historian, Paddy Power’s name and its adoption of bright green colouring “appealed to the patriotic side of punters [and] was something of a two-fingered salute to the Brits”.

Building a reputation for novelty bets and cheeky advertising, the group grew to more than 200 outlets and a one-third share of the off-course betting market in Ireland, plus a network across the UK. Its business took on a new dimension with the rapid growth of internet betting, in which it emerged as a bold and innovative player.

Having listed on the Dublin and London stock exchanges in 2000, Paddy Power went on to merge with Betfair and to rebrand itself in 2019 as Flutter Entertainment, which now has its primary stockmarket listing in New York and is valued at £28 billion.

Flutter described David Power as a “great moderniser” who had been particularly influential in Paddy Power’s embrace of the internet. But in Irish racing circles he remained “the king of the ring”, a popular and respected on-course bookie under the banner of his grandfather’s original business, Richard Power Bookmaking.

Dick Power started bookmaking at Tramore, Co Waterford, in 1896, having first been dispatched by his employer, a local draper, to place bets with illegal bookies. According to legend, instead of going back to work one day he stayed at the races and started shouting odds, launching an enterprise whose name became familiar to racegoers at courses such as Punchestown and Leopardstown and across the sea at Cheltenham.

Dick’s son Paddy inherited the business but died suddenly in 1963, leaving it to David Henry Power, who was born on January 16 1947 to Paddy and his wife Dorothy (known as Bunty), née Whiteside.

At 16 David was too young to take up his father’s betting licence, but Bunty held it in his place while he completed his schooling at St Mary’s College, Rathmines, and studied accountancy at University College Dublin before taking up the reins in 1970.

Power retired from the Paddy Power board in 2013 and from on-course bookmaking after the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, having accumulated a fortune estimated at more than £300 million.