Bookies cash in on Sky GAA

Bookmakers Paddy Power have credited the screening of live hurling and Gaelic football by Sky Sports as the main reason behind a 27% surge in the number of bets being made with them by punters in Britain.

That comes on the back of reports this week that almost half a million people in the UK tuned in at some point to last Sunday’s drawn All-Ireland hurling final between Kilkenny and Tipperary.

“Once a sport is televised, it always increases the amount of money wagered on it,” Paddy Power public relations manager Feilim Mac An Iomaire told website SBC News, “and a quick glance at our figures shows that the British public’s interest in GAA has certainly increased since the Sky deal.”

Until recently, there was only anecdotal evidence of the GAA games making a mark across the Irish Sea, with tweets from the uninitiated — including QPR footballer Joey Barton — almost the sum total of any impact.

Early viewing figures, though difficult to obtain and lacking the entire picture given they do not include those watching on pubs, online or on the SkyGo service, were far from promising in the wake of the controversial broadcast deal.

Viewing numbers dropped into just four digits for at least one game earlier in the summer with audience shares peaking at in and around 3%, though GAA president Liam O’Neill stood over the decision to involve Sky in the Championship package last July.

“We were never that worried about the people in Ireland watching the game on Sky,” he said at a time when the inability of many people here in Ireland to access games on the channel was still a major bone of contention.

“It was for Britain we did the Sky deal and the numbers there are standing up very well. We have seen their Twitter reaction to it and we are getting anecdotal evidence from our clubs in Britain that it’s proving a huge success because they are now able to show, the parents of young people are trying to engage in schools, that this is the game and this is what it looks like.”