This is a guest contribution by Nathan Rothschild co-founder and partner at iSport Genius. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

If the jury remains out on what state the outgoing Paddy Power Betfair chief executive Breon Corcoran leaves the overall business when he steps down later this year, there is one division of the company where the report card comes back studded with gold stars.

This is the Sportsbet operation in Australia that, as the company’s recent half-year results showed, has been firing on all cylinders despite the twin regulatory and trading pressures being faced by the business.

Under the stewardship of the chief executive of the Australian arm, Cormac Barry, in the first six months of this year staking at Sportsbet rose 16% in constant-currency terms to £1.7bn while revenue rose 15% to £173m and underlying EBITDA was up a whacking 52% to £54m. This was off the back of a rise in active users of 13% to nearly 700,000.