They say the bookies are among the few lucky souls to do well out of a recession, and Paddy Power seems to be doing its best to live up to the theory.

In a week where the rest of the business world took a step further towards self-implosion, the Irish gaming company managed to pull a dazzling set of half-year results out of the bag, reporting a year-on-year jump in operating profit of no less than 127 per cent.

Gross profits, at €38.8 million, rose by 40 per cent and earnings per share shot up by 120 per cent to 16.3 cents. At a time like this, the shock of such defiantly positive news could be enough to provoke a bit of a swoon. But before getting carried away, it should be recalled that there is a context at work here. Paddy Power's finance chief was more than ready to admit that foot-and-mouth, the curse of the farming and the sporting world alike, had left its mark.

If it hadn't been for last year's downturn, this year's return to form would not have been so dramatic.

Still, it would have been easy to use the cancellation of event after event last summer as a reason to panic.

Instead, Paddy Power took the time to plug away at its plans to become a name in the British market by introducing telephone betting for British gamblers, thus building on a growing fondness for the company's online service, paddypower.com.

The real test of the market across the sea remains in the future, however, with Paddy Power proudly announcing this week that it was going to open a dozen new shops there from next year on.

In a country where high-street betting is worth a cool €17 billion, 12, 24 or 36 shops will still make Paddy Power a minnow by British standards but, significantly, could be enough to transform the face of a company that has until now been exclusively reliant on the Irish market.

Mr Ross Ivers, the group finance director, said last week that he would be "delighted" if profits made in the UK could surpass those coming from the Irish market within five years.

He could have said "surprised".