Paddy Power refunds punters following Thierry Henry cheating Ireland out of World Cup

Following the dramatic ending to the Republic of Irelands World Cup campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa where they lost the games due to a blatant handball by Thierry Henry, the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power have today refunded over £110,000 to punters who had backed Ireland to qualify for next years finals.

A spokesman for Paddy Power said “Luck of the Irish me arse! Not only did FIFA change the rules to protect the big teams, but then we drew France and that dirty little thief Henry cheats us out of a place in the World Cup. After all that we’re only too happy to put our hand in our pocket and hopefully ease some of the pain for our patriotic punters.”

The handball is not the first time that FIFA have courted controversy over the qualifying campaign, as when the draw for the play-offs was imminent FIFA announced that they would be introducing a seeding system for the draw which would make sure that the four teams with best records in recent tournaments would be drawn against the least successful teams for the play offs. This was condemned and accusations were thrown against FIFA that they were more motivated by finance and politics than fair play. It was suggested that FIFA wanted to ensure that the larger teams made it through to ensure higher viewing figures which in turn bring in more revenue from corporate sponsorship.

Horse Racing Ireland release betting figures

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power saw its share value drop sharply yesterday in reaction to figures release by Horse Racing Ireland that showed that there was a decline in the horseracing industry has decreased for the first time in fifteen years.

Paddy Power’s shares fell from 7.8pc to €11.90 and have shrunk further €11.28 by lunchtime today, increasing its decline this year to just over 11 percent.

Horse Racing Ireland said that on course betting had fell by over 18 percent in 2008 due to adverse weather and the current economic decline.  An example of the decrease in punters at racecourses was seen at the recent Christmas meeting at Leopardstown which saw crowds reduced from 59,000 to 57,000 over the four day event but saw a decrease at the Tote by €400,000 to €1.9m.

US elections sees £10 million in bets

As the world gets ready to welcome the next American president, UK based punters have staked a record £10 million worth of bets on the two horse race, almost four times as much that was bet on the 2004 elections. Obama is currently beating John McCain in the opinion polls by seven points, beating McCain in the key battlegrounds of Florida and Missouri.

The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has already paid out on Barack Obama on being named as the next US President, however it is still taking bets on the outcome but with Obama having odds of 1/14 you would need to put on a £500 just to win back £35.00 it does not seem to be worth the gamble, as with any betting event - anything can happen, just ask Al Gore, he was destined to be beat Bush in the 2000 US Presidential elections.

A spokesman from the Racing Post said: “The bookmakers have never seen such a high level of interest in an American Presidential Election, Obama has caught the hearts and minds of British punters and could turn out to be the most popular president on these shores since JFK. ”

The election results are expected to be announced early on Wednesday morning, the results will be shown live on the BBC News 24 and Sky News.