Colm Meaney, Aidan Gillen, Brian Gleeson and Alex Murphy Cast in Paddy Power Feature Film

^{A Paddy Power shop on Parnell Street in Dublin. The bookmaker's rise is the subject of a new Irish feature film. (Photo: Eric Jones / Wikimedia Commons)}

The rise of Paddy Power, from a small Dublin bookmaker to a global betting brand, is being made into a feature film. Irish production company Playhouse Studios announced on 2 November 2026 that Brian Gleeson, Colm Meaney, Alex Murphy and Aidan Gillen will star, with Matt Lipsey attached to direct.

The film, titled Paddy Power, is based on Punters: How Paddy Power Bet Billions and Changed Gambling Forever, by Business Post deputy editor Aaron Rogan. It is the first title from Playhouse's original scripted slate, and the details were first reported by Variety.

Cast, Director and Writers

Lipsey's credits include Ted Lasso and Inside No. 9. The adaptation is being written by Dale Longmore and John Quinn, whose credits include Bump, working with Brian Durnin. The announcement did not include a start date for filming or a release window.

Playhouse chief executive Peggy Cafferty said the story ‘stood out immediately as a story with real scale, authentic dark humour, grit and tenacity’. She called it the extraordinary rise of one company that ‘refused to play by the rules’ and said it would resonate well beyond Ireland.

According to the synopsis, the film tells the ‘crazy true story of how one man bet big on brash advertising and brought online gambling – and addiction – to every corner of the globe’. It describes the project as an Irish origin story about how a few chancers changed the world, and says that change destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives.

‘It was a company that always fascinated me because it was such a big part of sort of cultural and sporting life in Ireland,’ Rogan told The Irish Times, describing the firm as a ‘very bantery, laddish company’ that ‘purposefully caused controversy’.

The Company Behind the Story

Paddy Power was formed in 1988 from the merger of three Irish bookmakers. It was co-founded and run for years by Stewart Kenny, who later became an outspoken critic of the industry, citing weak regulation and a lack of protection for vulnerable gamblers. A former Paddy Power chief has since urged a 40% tax on online casinos in Ireland.

Rogan said the film's timing suits the growth of gambling in the United States. He also said there were ‘serious aspects’ to the story alongside the humour, and that seeing his reporting dramatised was as exciting as anything that can happen to a journalist.

What It Means for the Industry

The brand now sits inside Flutter, which has recently been in Irish headlines for saying fears over an Irish gambling tax rise were overblown and for plans to cut up to 1,400 UK and Ireland jobs, with 240 at risk in Dublin. A film that dwells on the human cost of its early marketing lands while Irish gambling policy is under close scrutiny.

Playhouse says the project is part of a wider push into scripted feature production, backed by a new post-production base in Soho and an office in Belfast. For now there is no confirmed release date, so audiences are likely to wait some time to see how the Paddy Power story plays on screen.