I got an e-mail yesterday from my old buddy Pete, who I have known for over 15 years. Pete moved to Europe nearly 2 years ago now. Turns out that Pete has got himself a job working for a betting company, Paddy Power. Yes in Europe they are allowed to bet online and in bookmaker shops, his job is part of the online branch of the company, some technical stuff with the computer systems there, that I have to confess I don’t understand fully. But never mind.

So I looked into the company just out of interest to see who they were, and it turns out they are a pretty big name in sports betting over there. They also have shops in the UK and do business online with people from all over the world. He also mentioned they had done a load of crazy, surreal and sometimes controversial TV ads, so I looked them up on Youtube as well and yeah they are pretty surreal. Take this one for example:

OK I guess it might be quite funny to the right person but you have to wonder whether it makes them want to bet on sports! The guy is called Carlton Palmer and as far as I can make out he is a former soccer player in the English league. Guess maybe he did not invest his money too wisely if he is now making these commercials?

But what does get the customers is the promotions they offer, which is part of the work Pete is doing. He says the do an offer called the paddy power free bet which is like an introductory promo thing, and everyone who joins them gets something like $50 or maybe 50 euros, for free. So this sounds like a pretty crazy offer, maybe they can just take the money and never spend any of their own? Or perhaps there are some Ts and Cs that safeguard against that.

Anyway you can probably tell that this is not my area of expertise but in any case I did tell Pete I would write up a blog post with a shout out to him and also a few words about his new job which he seems pretty pleased with, so here you go Pete. Best (or should that be bets) of luck with your career at Paddy Power, and hope those punters keep signing up for the free bets. But maybe you should have a word to your bosses about some of those TV ads, because I really am not sure that two men in the bath together is going to sell many sports bets.

Take care for now, I will blog again soon. M.