Such is the lot of Paddy Power chief executive Patrick Kennedy. An accountant by profession, and sportsmad by nature, heading a bookmaking chain amounts to something approaching a calling for the 37 yearold.

"I'd been a punter since I was a teenager. Sport is my thing. I suppose numbers were my thing. It's just a fun place to work, " he says.

It certainly looks fun for the assembled odds-compilers and marketwatchers in Paddy Power's risk room, to which Kennedy graciously offers a tour. He provides introductions to a series of distressingly young-looking number-crunchers who are busy calculating odds on everything from racing at Gowran Park to whether Pete Doherty will marry Kate Moss.

Even the so-called novelty bets have their own dedicated odds-compiler. It wouldn't do for Paddy Power to be overexposed to Enda Kenny's tilt for the Taoiseach's job next year or to lose a stack of money if punters correctly predict which Desperate Housewife is set for the chop in the upcoming series. But, as Kennedy points out, the risk room staff have an onerous task.

"Paddy Power is a great brand and it's growing very fast but, at the same time, the bottom line is that we make 2% to 3% margin on sales. It's very tight and you have to get it right."

In that context it's easy to see why Kennedy says the only drawback to his role is that "you can never look at a sporting event without thinking what the implication for your business is".

That aside, it seems like just about the perfect fit for him. Even the prospect of having to don wigs and costumes for the company's famous photo-calls didn't put the jovial Kennedy off taking the top job at the bookmaker. A photograph which accompanied the announcement of Paddy Power's recent interim results, for instance, cast Kennedy as Italian footballer Marco Materazzi and saw him receiving a chest-butt from finance director Jack Massey who assumed the role of Zinedine Zidane.

It makes a dramatic change from the sober environs of Greencore, where Kennedy was chief financial officer before he assumed his current job in January. He diplomatically sidesteps an enquiry about whether the role at the former Irish Sugar was boring by contrast, saying simply, and with a knowing smile, that it was "very different".

He gives the impression that it wasn't hard to answer the call when Ireland's biggest bookmaker enquired about his availability after its former chief executive, John O'Reilly, announced his resignation. Kennedy says it was too good an opportunity to turn down. Leaving aside the love of sport and a long-standing habit of the occasional flutter, the challenge of steering one of the Iseq's star performers into what it hopes will be a significant period of growth and expansion was irresistible.

At 14.50, the level at which the shares were trading last week, Paddy Power has increased in value six-fold since its flotation in 2000. The brand was born in 1988 when the Richard Power Bookmakers, Kenny O'Reilly and P Corcoran betting chains merged as a defensive measure against the advance of British bookmakers such as Ladbrokes and William Hill in Ireland. These days those chains keep a weather eye on Paddy Power's overseas expansion plans.

It may be a distinctly Irish brand but the company makes more money in the UK than it does in its home market. It has been slowly expanding its retail presence there, concentrating on the greater London area, where it now has 51 shops. Next year, however, the British market will open up considerably when regulations limiting the number of new betting shops permitted to open in any given area are lifted.

Kennedy has reason to feel confident that deregulation will be a boon for Paddy Power. The Irish bookmaker has already punched above its weight in the online space in the UK, overtaking nearest rival Coral to establish itself as the third-largest online bookmaker ranked by turnover.

Coral has 1,300 shops to Power's 51, while William Hill and Ladbrokes, number one and number two on the online chart, operate over 2,000 each.

The growth in web betting has been phenomenal. Paddy Power's online operation only passed break-even point during the end of 2003. Over the first half of 2006 it contributed operating profit of 9.7m, 49% of group profit. Online turnover grew 54% over that six month period, from 161m in the first half of 2005 to 248m.

Kennedy acknowledges the tributes paid to the company's clever marketing campaigns, which have played a large part in establishing the online brand, particularly in Britain where the company has such limited retail presence. Paddy Power has long since mastered the art of generating maximum exposure through minimum spend. Recent coups include a sponsorship deal with non-league English soccer team Burton Albion, concluded just before the team's match with Manchester United in last season's FA Cup. The deal gained the company acres of press coverage and, when Burton Albion unexpectedly drew with Man U, thrust the Paddy Power brand onto prime time television when the replay was shown live on BBC.

Elsewhere Paddy Power organised the world's first strip poker tournament which generated so much exposure for the company (in every sense) that it is to organise a follow-up in 2007. Cheeky, headline-grabbing stunts, novelty bets and money-back specials have made the bookmaker's name both here and in the UK.

Kennedy says, however, that fundamentally the business succeeds or fails on its customer service. In response to an in-depth online survey earlier this year, for example, Paddy Power expanded its website. "A lot of what comes back [from customers] is: we want more markets, " says Kennedy.

In response, during the World Cup, Paddy Power deliberately set out to offer punters more events to bet on than any of its competitors. Paddy Power offered up to 70 different betting markets on each World Cup match, where its nearest rival offered just 46. "What we will try and do is appeal to people who have different risk appetites, " says Kennedy.

It took a similar approach to the Ryder Cup, offering markets to appeal to the serious gambler, the occasional punter and the novelty bettor alike and, again, it claims to have offered more markets than any of its competitors. During the golf tournament Paddy Power punters were offered a betting menu stretching from serious bets such as who would be the top points-scorer to which of the players' wives would be photographed most often over the course of the event.

Kennedy says Paddy Power will take the same thoroughness into other new ventures on the horizon. Over the last year it has launched a German website and plans to roll out into other European countries in the near future.

It will take time, says Kennedy, because each market brings with it distinct challenges. In Germany, for instance, some 80% of betting is on football, compared to less than 40% on Paddy Power's Irish website. It's not easy to find bilingual German football experts with a qualification in finance or actuarial studies and the nous to compile odds. "When we do something like this we like to do it properly, " says Kennedy.

With all the talk of virtual ventures, though, he is keen to reinforce the message that the retail business is still Paddy Power's core business.

"People perceive our Irish retail business as our cash cow. That has connotations of no growth. We've grown our Irish shop business, which some people would perceive is the mature part of the business, by on average 18% a year since 2001."

Although the UK market will be the key focus for Paddy Power because of the growth potential it offers, Kennedy maintains there are still opportunities to expand closer to home. The factors which have underpinned double-digit sales and profit growth since the flotation . . . high consumer spending, high levels of disposable income and a strong underlying economy . . . are still very much present.

There is also a possibility that the Irish government will endorse a bill paving the way for the development of casinos. A recent unexpected reversal in attitude from the Department of Justice has led to a consultation on the issue. Kennedy says Paddy Power will be taking part in that consultation and would like to be a player in that market if the legislation comes to fruition.

"I'd see us looking at the possibility of opening one or more casinos, depending on what the legislation allows. I think we've a lot to bring here, " he says.

THE CV PATRICK

KENNEDY
Age: 37
Family: Married with four children Background: Attended Gonzaga College in south Dublin before studying commerce at UCD. Joined KPMG Corporate Finance, where he worked both in Ireland and abroad before moving to McKinsey as a strategy consultant. Having worked with McKinsey in Dublin and Amsterdam he joined Greencore in 1998.

Kennedy was central to the acquisition of Hazlewood Foods in the UK. He was appointed to the board of Greencore in 2001 and became chief financial officer the following year. He left Greencore for Paddy Power earlier this year, having been a nonexecutive director since 2004.

Hobbies: "Literally all sports".

PADDY POWER Turnover: 1.37 Bn Profit: 26.9m 3-yr annual growth rate: 26.7%