Paddy Power

Paddy Power have been one of the most influential brands in the betting industry, especially over the last few decades. The company have become synonymous with clever marketing campaigns that, for good or for bad, always seem to get people talking.

The site is more than substance over style though and, whilst they have been able to create a massive customer base, they are also able to deliver on so many levels. The merger with Betfair now makes the brand one of the biggest out there and whilst it hasn’t changed the way in which Paddy Power operate much, there’s no doubt that it can only be a good thing for both moving forward.

Football

There are two main sports that Paddy Power really focus on; football and horse racing. We will talk about the latter later on in this article, but for now we wanted to concentrate on that of football. The site has been able to see huge improvements over the last few years when it comes to football. For many, Paddy Power have been fairly gimmicky and often made the headlines for early payouts and controversial adverts.

The football side of things definitely feels like it’s been a part of the business that has been moving forward throughout that time. What has been impressive to see is that they have been able to expand this sector, introducing more markets and different types of bets, which in turn, offers up a much better betting experience for their punters.

PADDY POWER’S PRICING

Whilst pricing is the most important feature of all – in our opinion at least – the site has and still does to some extent, struggled when you compare it with the best of the best. For whatever reason, Paddy Power just simply aren’t able to consistently get their pricing structure on point and that’s why we believe that there are better options around that you can take advantage of.

Russia Vs Saudi Arabia: Example

For example, the game below is from a World Cup group game between Russia and Saudi Arabia. As you can see, Paddy Power are some way off the best price from all three results. Whilst we agree that you can’t judge their pricing on one game, we tested dozens and found similar sort of patterns for each.

The flip side of this is that their pricing, as you can see above, isn’t terrible. It’s very middle of the road and there are still plenty that they are equal to or even in front of when it comes to pricing. Whilst we think that there will likely be better options in the industry than Paddy Power when it comes to pricing, we think that they still have a role to play, albeit an understated one.

MATCH BETTING

The depth of the football betting section is something that we can’t knock, however, and they offer up a wide range of leagues and matches from all over the world. The lists within many of the major bookies are pretty staggering on the whole, especially compared to even 5 years ago and offering up matches from as far and wide as Bolivia, Finland, Peru and Romania, certainly signify the global expansion in betting on the sport.

It’s the UK and Europe where the vast majority of games are from though, with the likes of Italy, Spain, Germany and France all having huge markets and several leagues covered.

Market Coverage

Market coverage for these games are pretty strong, although again, we’ve seen better from a number of their main competitors. We liked that everything was ringfenced into categories though, as this makes browsing through a huge array of different bets that little bit easier on site.

On the whole, the markets are pretty straight forward and include the likes of goalscorer bets, handicaps, half time/full time, double chance and team goals. We were expecting a little more flair here from Paddy Power if we were being honest, but nevertheless, not too bad.

The “flair” markets as we mentioned previously are more singular markets that are a bit off the cuff. The introduction of the “Same Game Multi” on site is one we were really pleased to see. It means you can add in markets to form bets that you usually wouldn’t be able to as they are what’s referred to as dependant on each other. It’s actually one of the few bookies that have a function that automatically processes these bets for you and spits you back a price for your bet.

Statistics

The stats section is one you can access from the menu panel and whilst this is fine, we would like to see it linked to each individual game, like many do, which saves so much time. We were impressed with the fact that they have utilised the software from Touch Line, who we think are one of the best for this feature.

They include information such as the date and time of the game, some match facts to allow you to make more informed decisions, league form, league position and winning/losing margins from the last 20 games. It’s a bit different to your run of the mill stats section and one we think functions really well.

Specials Section

Whilst not necessarily a feature, we wanted to state that Paddy Power are the kings of the specials section. They offer more markets here than any that we have come across and some of them can be hilariously obscure, as well.

For example, at the time of writing they had a mix of the next Ballon d’Or winner, “Power Prices” (essentially price boosts), dozens upon dozens of transfer rumour bets and the same for manager bets, as well. If this is your thing, then there is no one better than Paddy Power for this. Also, it’s worth noting they often pay out early.

IN-PLAY BETTING

The in-play betting section has a pretty basic overview, but one that actually functions really well. It’s not much to look at, but we really liked the graphics on screen when odds were changing, with the red signifying that they were shortening and the blue signifying when they were lengthening. There’s not an awful lot else going on here other than seeing the latest price, along with the match, score and time.

It comes alive when you click on the match of choice. At the top of the page is a match centre that highlights what’s happening in any given match. The graphics for it are great and we love that it zooms in when something exciting happens. Alternatively, you can flick between this and the stats section, which show info such as the number of shots, blocked shots, attacks, cornets, freekicks and loads more. It’s also linked up to some basic stats, such as head to head, form and teams.

We all agreed that what was best about this section is how uncluttered it was. You’re in your game and you can see all the info you need for that match. There are no ads flashing in front of you, the betslip is hidden away unless called upon and it’s just generally a really nice bookie to place bets with.

Horse Racing

The horse racing section is really strong point for Paddy Power. As an Irish bookie, the country is mad for the sport, so it makes sense that it sits right up there with that football betting as one of the more popular on the site. What’s been good to see from this section is how much it’s been developed over the years.

As with pretty much all bookies, we revisit them several times in a year and see what if anything has changed. We’ve reviewed the horse racing section previously and found to be a little lacking to be honest, but the changes that seem have been brought in with that of the redesign which means that they are starting to move forward with it, both in looks and format.

HORSE RACING PRICING

As ever, we have to start off with pricing. We were a little let down with the performance of their football betting section, especially given how big the site is overall. But, we are happy to report that the horse racing section is much more impressive and more importantly, competitive.

We were able to test a good range of markets from all over the world and got a general feel that they were consistently within the top 20% or so. They were able to consistently offer best prices for short priced favourites and even as you moved through the fields, some of the longer prices were pretty good value, as well.

There was certainly nothing to suggest that Paddy Power were anything other than one of the best in the business when it came to pricing. In fact, we would actually go as far as saying that there were very few that were better than them, such was the pricings structure that we found for the markets that we tested.

UK & IRISH RACING

The UK and Irish section of the site definitely is where you will find the majority of races. Whilst the UK is always well covered by the major bookies, sometimes they don’t pick up on all of the Irish races. But, not Paddy Power. They have remained strong to their Irish roots and offer a great range of races from across the country, picking up many of the smaller meetings where other bookies might not have bothered.

You’re going to be looking to get the prices for the next day’s racing sometime around the end of the current days racing. So, it’s usually about 18 hours before, which is really good as many bookies still won’t open up these markets until the morning of the race.

As we moved into the race card, we were pleased to see that the layout for these cards were really good. They’re simple, for sure, but easy to use. We actually got a little disappointed as it initially appears that there is no form guides associated with them. But, just as we were giving up hope, there is a tiny “show more” link under the trainer’s name that you can click.

This then brings up a little write up from the Racing Post, along with information on how the horse ran previously and its most recent 6 races, where applicable. We’ve seen other bookies use it previously and it works really well, but we were left scratching our heads as to why it isn’t advertised more than just a tiny link that is easily missable?

We also think it’s worth mentioning that as you scroll down the page you can see a “tips” section. This shows you all the horses that respectable punters from the likes of the Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Record and plenty of other outlets, have recommended.

INTERNATIONAL RACING

Whilst UK & Irish coverage is pretty much all the same for the bigger players, what often sorts the men from the boys is that of the international section. For this, we think that Paddy Power are probably as good as it gets. They include a bucket load of races and meetings from all over the world, including South Africa, France, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, North America and even South America.

They didn’t just include a couple of races either, they had the whole meeting on offer. The racecards did start to vary though in terms of what was on offer and they were as comprehensive across the board as the UK and Irish races. What we did notice though is that for a lot of them they utilise Timeform instead of the Racing Post for their form section. This is actually really impressive, as they obviously not been able to get the data they were after, so looked elsewhere and supplied it for their punters.

ANTEPOST

The Antepost section can be found under “futures” within the horse racing part of the site. The coverage here is once again, massive. They cover a boat load of races from all over the world and with each race have a really strong range of horses to choose from, as well. There’s not an awful lot of info within these racecard’s as you would expect, but we did like the fact that they do highlight any price changes for the horses, which not many bookies do.

Golf

One of the standout sports on site has to be that of golf for Paddy Power. The sport is one that gets a lot of coverage, but rarely do bookies really go the extra mile given that there are just a couple of tournaments each week, compared with hundreds of football matches every day.

The first thing that really grabs you is the range of markets that are on offer. They include a ton within their “power prices” which is essentially an odds boost, including bets like top 5/10 finishes and players to make the cut or not.

Another aspect worth noting is the range of tournaments that are on offer. They book markets for all PGA Tour and European Tour events, as well as all of the ladies’ professional tour events from around the world and even some of the Challenge Tour in Europe.

Usability

We’ve spoken a couple times throughout his review already about the new-look Paddy Power website but wanted to touch on it a little more in this section. The site got a massive redesign that was completed in 2018 and with it has totally revamped what was one of the poorer sites aesthetically if we are being honest.

It has actually been tweaked again since, but not as dramatically, mostly colour changes and shifting a few things around. It’s a shame to see the trademark green gone but the site runs well.

The new design not only looks a lot better, but it functions a lot better, as well. You’re able to jump between different bets and markets so easily and we loved the fact that they used the “show more” buttons on pages, meaning you don’t need to load another page to get to the full market that you are looking for.

This used to be a bookmaker that was so much better on their mobile app rather than on a computer, but these days, we would probably agree that the online betting site has caught right back up, making it a perfect match.

Other Products

CASINO

Paddy Power’s casino has been successfully running since 2004 and in that time has been able to serve as a strong sidekick to that of their sportsbook. The casino is powered by PlayTech as well as other developers, mainly in the form of Gamesys and Evolution Gaming.

The range of games on site has ballooned in recent times, with over 1000 games across the board, so it will be more than enough for most players. The sites aesthetics carry over from the sportsbook and we loved the fact that there are so many ways to sort the games so that you can get exactly the sort of experience you want.

POKER

The poker room dates back even longer than the casino, starting out in 1998 and was for a long time regarded as one of the better UK based poker rooms. This section of the site has changed a lot since those days though and their link to the iPoker network means that they are able to offer a decent range of traffic and games still.

Paddy Power have recently been able to bring the poker room to the small screen, with both a smartphone and tablet app, allowing you to play a wide range of games on both formats.