Dublin’s Silicon Docks has become one of the leading lights of Europe’s tech scene over the last decade. The city is now home to offices of companies including Google, Meta and Twitter, among others.
The ASX-listed operator could potentially hire up to 300 employees in the Irish tech hub over the next three to five years, according to PointsBet US CEO Johnny Aitken.
PointsBet already had some Irish heritage following the €43m acquisition of Dublin-based betting software company Banach Technology in 2021. That company’s headcount of around 70 is now based in PointsBet’s new Irish HQ.
Since the acquisition, the PointsBet product has been built on Banach’s proprietary sportsbook technology, which also includes in-house risk management and trading platforms.
This has become a major asset for the group and has seen PointsBet linked to some major M&A activity in the global online gambling space as a potential acquisition target.PointsBet has become increasingly interlinked with Dublin in June. Last week, the company announced it had received a A$94.2m strategic investment from Susquehanna International Group (SIG).
Crucially, SIG also owns Dublin-based Nellie Analytics, which will provide additional sports analytics and quantitative modelling services to PointsBet as part of the agreement.
PointsBet shares have climbed steadily since the SIG deal was announced. After an 18.6% rise in the wake of the initial announcement, PBH shares closed 10.7% higher yesterday and are up 9.8% over the course of the last week.
PointsBet is concentrating on its core markets of the US, Canada and Australia, with tech, software and development support provided from Europe via Ireland.
Aitken told The Irish Times: “The Irish people understand US sports betting back to front, they love baseball, college basketball and NFL. I’ve been so surprised how much they have a passion for US sports.
“While we have teams working on the US sports betting opportunity that are not based in the US itself, that is more than compensated by the fact that they absolutely have a passion for these sports,” he added.
