Paddy Power Betfair is seeking to get even with punters at next week’s Cheltenham Festival after the UK betting industry incurred record losses at last year’s edition of the storied horse-racing event.

Shares in Paddy Power-Betfair jumped more than 4% to breach the €100 mark, yesterday, after the betting services group reported on a strong third quarter and upped its earnings estimates for the full year.

Paddy Power-Betfair chairman Gary McGann yesterday defended the betting services group’s remuneration policy as “fair, transparent, and balanced” despite nearly a third of investors voting against it at the group’s first AGM as a merged entity.

Newly merged betting services giant Paddy Power-Betfair is expected to increase revenues by 16% this year, with growth of 10% and 8% anticipated in each of the following two years.

As many as 300 Paddy Power staff working in skilled roles across a range of departments are to lose their jobs as part the bookmaker’s €10bn merger with former rival Betfair.

Paddy Power-Betfair has no immediate plans to replace outgoing chief operating officer Andy McCue — whose departure was announced yesterday — with his role set to be subsumed by chief executive Breon Corcoran for the foreseeable future.

Paddy Power’s management has said it will not decide on the level of redundancies stemming from its near €7bn merger with UK rival Betfair until completion of the deal in the first quarter of 2016.

Online gambling company Betfair has continued its impressive growth in its latest financial update released ahead of its proposed merger with Paddy Power.

Online gambling firm Betfair, which is merging with rival Paddy Power, said its earnings lifted 9% to £80.5m in the six months to the end of October compared to a year ago.

Paddy Power and Betfair hope to complete their planned merger during the first quarter of 2016, with shareholders likely to vote on the matter in December.

The growing sense of reality surrounding a merger between Paddy Power and Betfair will mean different things to different people.

Paddy Power and Betfair have agreed on a £5bn merger to create one of the world’s largest online gambling businesses, with more than 7,000 staff and £1.2bn in sales.

Irish betting and gaming giant Paddy Power still intends to keep growing its retail network, despite its intention to enter a mega-merger with UK online rival Betfair in a bid to hold a sizeable chunk of the ever-increasing digital gaming market.

One of the world’s biggest gambling businesses is set to be created after Paddy Power and Betfair agreed a possible merger.