ONLINE SPORTS betting firm Betfair has announced plans to create up to 100 jobs at a new office in Dublin.

Betfair, which last month listed on the London Stock Exchange, said yesterday it intends to open a new data centre and relocate some of its customer operations teams to Ireland early next year.

The company has already commenced a recruitment process to fill the posts.

It said existing staff in the UK would also have the option to relocate to Dublin, but it was not yet clear exactly how many people would be interested in taking up this option.

Betfair offers person-to-person betting, which allows customers to place bets as a punter or take bets in the role traditionally played by a bookmaker.

It was founded 10 years ago by Andrew Black, a former professional gambler, and former JP Morgan trader Edward Wray, who jointly own 22.5 per cent of the business.

There are over 600 engineers involved in maintaining Betfair’s betting exchanges globally, which process over five million transactions a day from its pool of some three million customers.

Betfair chief executive David Yu said yesterday that the company was delighted to be relocating some of its business to Dublin.

“Ireland has become a primary destination for world-leading online companies, and we are proud to be joining other global technology firms in making a significant investment here,” he said.

Betfair has recently been involved in a dispute with the British Horseracing Authority about a levy which bookmakers pay to support the industry that is based on a percentage of gross wins made by bookmakers.

A spokesman for the company said Betfair was not leaving the UK and “will continue to pay the UK horseracing levy, and all other statutory requirements, as required”.

Minister of State for Science Conor Lenihan welcomed the announcement and said it demonstrated the changing nature of Ireland’s knowledge economy.

“Ireland is fast becoming a location of choice for many of the world’s most advanced internet and digital content companies,” he said.

Information on the vacancies is available at www.betfair.jobs