Paddy gives Power to the People!

The move came ahead of the final weekend of the premier league which worked as somewhat a trial of fire for the idea. If the scheme ends up working for Paddy Power then they’ll surely keep it alive for future sporting events.

How Does It Work?

The core concept behind the promotion is simple, so simple in fact that it is surprising that no other bookmakers have come up with it before. The main idea is that the more people that place bets on the given event the more they will increase the odds! That’s right, the more backers the bigger the pay-out. The example used by the company is the massively important wins for Arsenal, Leicester and Tottenham Hotspurs on Sunday, the odds for all of them to win starts at 7/2 and can be raised as high as 8/1 if more people get behind the bid!

The quirkiness of this idea is not lost on Paddy Power of course. The betting agency is no stranger to eccentric promotions and marketing or ‘madvertising’ to coin a phrase and their blog entry has this down to a science. In the Paddy Power Blog on Friday the company talked about their new stunt with their tongue firmly planted in their cheek as per usual. The entry has the evocative title ‘Paddy Power’s Crowd Powered Price – just WT actual F is it?’ and the rest of the article doesn’t stray from this tone. They call the idea ‘lunacy’ and claim that ‘Paddy’ has ‘In true Donald Trump style, ignored the best advice – and just plain common sense’ with this promotional ploy. The article continues to blame ‘Paddy’ claiming that ‘The big man’s taken control from the bean counters and given it to you, the customers. And somewhere in HR, a finger hovers over his P45…’

The piece is not just humour and does provide us with some helpful information. Not only does it give us an idea of what the scheme entails but it also shows us a handy breakdown of what marks have to be hit with an odds increase.

The breakdown goes like this;
Customers Price
1,000 7/2
10,000 4/1
25,000 9/2
50,000 5/1
75,000 6/1
100,000 8/1

Thankfully this promotion also extends to all bet placing methods, in stores, online and on the mobile app so it’s really easy to get involved.

The article is also accompanied by a humorous video advertisement that came in the form of a tweet. The video shows an exasperated Paddy explaining the promotion to a room of clueless clones of himself and is well worth a watch to anyone that is intrigued by the idea.

Of course there is no way of knowing for sure whether the Crowd Powered Price initiative will make a re-appearance anytime soon or whether is simply a one-off promotion however it does seem likely enough that we will see it again as in their own words ‘when there’s money spent on a promo video- you know we’re serious.’