Ireland’s largest bookmaker Paddy Power has today announced it is to create 250 jobs in Dublin over the next three years.

The company this morning announced plans to enter into the French online sports betting market though a new outsourcing contract, a move which willl lead to the creation of 50 new jobs at its Tallaght headquarters.

The jobs are in the areas of technology, risk management and quantitative analysis and are expected to be filled by next summer.

The firm, which currently employs 640 staff said it intends to create a further 200 high end jobs over the next three years at its Tallaght facility.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen welcomed today’s announcement, saying that it showed “that the smart economy is not a pipedream, but something that is happening all around us.”

Paddy Power, which generates over 50 per cent of its profits from outside of Ireland, is one of the largest online bookmakers in the UK and the biggest in Australia since its acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Sportsbet in May of this year.

The company said it intends to enter the French online sports betting market through an outsourcing contract with PMU, the largest bookmaker’s organisation in Europe with some 10,000 retail outlets.

As part of the deal, Paddy Power will manage risk and pricing for PMU’s new online sports betting business for the five year period from 2010 as PMU expands into the market.

Our partnership with PMU further confirms our ability to build a leading international business out of Dublin, sustaining and creating Irish jobs,” said Paddy Power chief executive Patrick Kennedy.

Separately, the company said today that turnover has grown strongly during the 19 week period from July1st to November 10th.

In a trading update, Paddy Power said it is confident of meeting the current market consensus for 2009 diluted EPS of approximately 113 cent.

“Turnover has grown strongly in the period, assisted by greater customer winnings in 2009, the high level of race cancellations in August and September 2008 and continued market share growth. Sporting results overall in the period were adverse, although all channels experienced gross win percentages above their expected ranges since the start of October,” it said.

The firm said non-retail and retail sportsbook amounts staked grew by 24 per cent and 11 per cent respectively during the period under review, however the growth rates fell as expected during October as a result in improved gross win percentages.

The group had net cash of €75million at the end of October, excluding its Sportsbet stake. The consolidation of the company’s Australian subsidiaries added further gross cash of €20 million and third party debt primarily related to the acquisition of IAS by Sportsbet of €18 million.

Satellite Broadband Ireland will create 30 new jobs as a result of a contract from mobile group 3 Ireland. Satellite Broadband Ireland is based in Mullingar and was established in 2008. The company currently employs 10 people at its headquarters in Mullingar.

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FACEBOOK announced that it would create 70 new jobs in Ireland next year as it expanded its operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The new roles will be across sales, engineering and finance.

BSB today marked the launch of its Irish subsidiary which will create 20 new jobs. The Financial software firm hope to tap into the lucrative life insurance sector. After Ireland the company hopes to target UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said: “BSB’s decision to base its operations in Ireland will not only create jobs in the short term, but reinforces Ireland’s competitive reputation in the broader market.”

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The new roles will be created across business disciplines and jobs will include multi-lingual finance, sales and marketing, technical support, product release engineers and software industry professionals.

AN investment of €10 million by Keelings Group in north Dublin will create 100 additional jobs at the group’s fruit growing enterprise.

The investment, in a glasshouse at Keelings, St Margaret’s, Co Dublin, facilitates the extension of the Irish strawberry harvesting season right through to December, creating an additional 100 seasonal jobs in the process.

Keelings is the only strawberry grower to have taken such a significant step forward, a group statement said.

The group has been involved in growing berries since the 1940s. Over the last 35 years its primary activities have been growing, sourcing, shipping, marketing and distributing fresh produce from around the world to Irish, British and European markets.

The group is family owned and family run with sales in the region of €350m and employs 1,862.

David Keeling said: “Traditionally, the strawberry season was from the beginning of May to the middle of October. Now, through an investment in this state-of-the-art glasshouse, we have been able to extend the season by another two months and provide fresh strawberries for the Irish market into December”.

It means the group will now produce 6m punnets, more than 100m strawberries each year, giving it 50% of the Irish strawberry market, he said.

The new glasshouses are among the most energy efficient in Europe and are therefore environmentally friendly, he said.

Under the process the carbon dioxide produced from the burning of gas for heating is returned to the glasshouse and used by the crop.

Rain water is also captured from the roof of the glasshouse and stored in reservoirs to water the crop and all the growing medium is from renewable resources.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, November 02, 2009

FEARS are growing for over 600 jobs at Masterchefs after the hospitality giant for the corporate sector signalled plans to appoint a liquidator.

The company has been in operation for more than 20 years and employs about 200 full-time staff and 400 part-time.

The company services some major contracts including the Irish Open, the Curragh and Fairyhouse.

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Google keep on moving up and this is great news for Ireland. Indication is that there will be more investment and more jobs. Google is ahead a huge employer in Ireland but looks set to get even bigger. Read the report on Google below.

Internet giant Google is set to increase investment at its Dublin base and hire more staff on the heels of strong third-quarter results.

Chief executive Eric Schmidt confirmed the news yesterday in Killarney where the company was hosting its European employee conference — Engage 2009.

He said that as global revenues grow, so too would Google’s investment in Ireland where the company employs 1,500 at its Dublin base on Barrow Street.

“The majority of global revenues go through here. We will be looking to hire,” Mr Schmidt said.

Despite the tough economic environment, last week Google reported a 7pc increase in third-quarter revenues of $6bn, prompting Mr Schmidt to say the worst of the recession was behind the company and that he planned to invest heavily in the company’s future.

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Online payment giant PayPal has announced it is to create 100 new jobs at its Dublin facility.

The firm, which currently employs 950 people at its European Centre of Excellence in Blanchardstown, is to expand its customer service operations, recruiting candidates with fluent English and a second European language.

PayPal opened its European operations centre in Dublin in 2003, when it employed just 25 people. This latest recruitment round will bring to 1050 the number of people working for the eBay subsidiary in Ireland. The Dublin centre manages all direct customer contact for PayPal’s businesses across Europe.

Six months ago the Taoiseach Brian Cowen officially opened PayPal’s European Centre of Excellence, at which time the firm announced it would invest USD15 million to support the development of its Irish operations. The Taoiseach has welcomed the new jobs saying they represent “a major vote of confidence in Ireland as a location for investment”.

Just under half (45 percent) of PayPal’s revenue comes from its international business, with the bulk of this revenue coming from PayPal’s European markets. PayPal processed more than USD15 billion in total payments volume (TPV) in Europe in 2008.

The Government is keen to enhance Ireland’s reputation as an ideal investment location for global multinationals. This announcement from such a high profile company as PayPal will serve as positive affirmation of Ireland’s potential and should be seen as a welcome advertisement for Ireland Inc.

Finnish company Tecnotree (formerly Tecnoman) has announced that it will be seeking 80 redundancies from a total of 141 employees in Shannon. Staff cuts are due to the current economic conditions and a reduction in demand for its products and services. The company supplies business and operations support systems for telecom operators.

Aer Lingus cut 676 jobs.

Aer Lingus announced that it will cut 676 jobs in a bid to reduce annual costs by almost €100m before 2011. 489 jobs will be cut from amongst its pilots, cabin crew and ground staff. The other 187 jobs will be office operations by the end of 2011.

GE Money expected to cut 50 jobs

It is expected that 50 jobs will be lost at the GE Money based at Shannon as a result of a company restructuring. The company which employs 178 staff in Shannon is involved in the sale of financial products including insurance, mortgages, car and personal loans, financial brokerage and equipment finance leasing.

Microsoft has opened a new “mega datacentre” in west Dublin to support growing demand for online services, the first such centre opened outside the US.

The centre is part of the company’s strategy to build its cloud computing capacity and network infrastructure to meet the demand generated from its Online, Live, and Cloud services, such as Bing, Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, Windows Live, and the Windows Azure platform.

The 303,000 square-foot facility represents an investment of $500 million. Microsoft representatives said up to 35 jobs could be created as a result of the new centre.

The company is not publicising the exact location of the centre, citing security reasons.

Speaking at the centre’s official opening, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said economy needed dynamic, innovative companies to help rebuild the economy.

“We envisage a high-value, export-led economy with companies creating the products and services of tomorrow and providing high quality employment for our people,” he said.

Microsoft International president Jean-Philippe Courtois said the opening of the new centre was a “milestone” in the company’s European investment and would provide critical infrastructure for local delivery of next generation online services for businesses and consumers.

The new services provided in the Irish economy by the centre will help drive efficiency and cost gains fro businesses here, Microsoft Ireland’s managing director Paul Rellis said.

“The opportunity that the cloud represents to cut costs and completely transform how information technology is run within organisations is something that could have a significant impact on the overall economic recovery efforts,” he said.

“A healthy indigenous business community will be at the heart of our future economic success. Already we have some of Ireland’s brightest innovators and entrepreneurs who are working with us through the BizSpark programme – engaged and involved with the cloud. I would encourage all organisations of all sizes to look at the potential that this new platform offers and to consider how they might take advantage of it within their own operations.”