Bookmaker set on becoming a big hitter as it unveils 800 jobs in UK

The fast-growing group revealed that it will hire another 1,440 staff in total, with 500 in Ireland and 130 in Australia.

The jobs news came alongside strong trading in the first half of this year which has continued and would help Ireland's battered economy.

It will create 810 posts in the UK as the gaming firm steps up the growth of its British retail estate to take on Ladbrokes, William Hill and Coral.

Paddy Power is also creating an additional 500 jobs in Ireland in a move taking its workforce across the Irish Sea to 2,200. The majority of the new jobs in Ireland will be located at the company's Tallaght head office in west Dublin in areas such as e-commerce, technology, online marketing and risk management.

The whole employment expansion programme is set to be in place by December 2013, the company said alongside yesterday's upbeat trading update.

Patrick Kennedy, Paddy Power's group chief executive, said the company expected growth of up to 40 per cent in underlying earnings per share this year after its strong performance in the first six months of 2010 - helped by the football World Cup - had continued.

Kennedy said there was "a particularly strong performance in our international online businesses and UK retail activities".

He added that the stepped-up job creation programme was in the context of the group "continuing to invest in our scale and capabilities to position the group well for 2011 and beyond in its existing and potential future markets".

Paddy Power's growth internationally was also hailed as good news for the embattled Irish economy as it would generate additional tax revenues for the exchequer.

Ireland, brought low by rash banking lending and the collapse of its property bubble, faces years of austerity as it is being urged by its eurozone partners to accept a bail-out by the European Union or International Monetary Fund.

Kennedy said: "The benefit to the economy of our international expansion extends beyond job creation. Paddy Power pays corporation tax in Ireland on all our internet and telephone profits from the 162 countries where we do business."

In its trading update, Paddy Power said its UK retail activities continued to grow strongly after it opened 28 new shops in the financial year to date and the "gross win'" - the amount left by losing punters - rose by 17 per cent on a like-for-like basis in the period from 1 July to 15 November.Gross wins rose 9 per cent at the group's Irish retail business, and soared 70 per cent at the Australian online arm

However, the company said trading conditions in Ireland remained "challenging". Paddy Power said that as of end-October it had net cash of €137m (116.5m) or €94m excluding customer balances.