Dublin-based bookmaker Paddy Power, which owns 80 shops in Britain, has reported a 26 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to €34 million for the first half of 2009, owing to a series of unwelcome sporting results.
Sporting results which hit the results of Paddy Power includes Irish rugby's most successful season ever, the supremacy of English football’s “Big Four” clubs along with jockey Ruby Walsh's record seven winners at the Cheltenham festival.