Obama's Got the Luck of the Irish

They called it
It may have been a long shot, but Paddy Power Plc predicted it: Barack Obama would lead the Democrats into the US Presidential elections. This flew in the face of old-school folks who believed that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would lead the party in the race for the White House. The perspicacious Irish bookmaker is now going a step further: Obama is going to win the US Presidency.

What are the odds?
Illinois Senator Barack Obama gets 4-to-9 odds and Arizona Senator John McCain gets 13-to-8 odds for winning the presidency. Previously Paddy Power predicted an Obama nomination for the Democrats and they're shelling out 50,000 euros in January for it.

Positioning
Paddy Power Plc has been toted to record rapid growth in coming years. They already have 60 shops in the UK and they're looking to expand 100% within three years. If all goes according to expectations this could see their PSE (per share earnings) increase by 15 euro-cents by 2010. This is according to top analyst from Morgan Stanley, Vaughan Lewis. He expects the stock price to rise 74% within 12 months, to a staggering 28 euros. The share price is currently hovering around 16 euros in Dublin trading. By 2010 earnings are expected to hit an ambitious 7.2 million euros.

Online trading
In order for Paddy Power Plc to cut intoWilliam Hill and Ladbrokes casino's market share, online trading has to be aggressively exploited. In fact 50% of their operating profits come from online operations, significantly more than the mere fifth equivalent of the log leaders - William Hill and Ladbrokes. To be fair they do own in excess of 2000 stores each. Slow economic growth has meant that the Irish company has had to expand into the online sector and foreign markets to gain advantage. Of all the UK bookies, Paddy Power Plc seems to be the safer bet.