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.”