2. Paddy Power Betfair (2017)

If 2016 was a year of grand plans, mega-deals and stock exchange ceremonies for Paddy Power Betfair (PPB), 2017 was something of a return to the day-to-day grind of running a corporation. The overarching theme of the firm’s most recent quarterly earnings calls and analyst presentations was patience.

PPB has spent much of the year with the majority of its 1,000-strong tech team building a new group platform, and like many egaming tech projects, it has been a thankless task so far. “If we’d known how difficult this was going to be, we’d have put it off for even longer,” joked CEO Breon Corcoran after the firm’s H1 results.

The project means both Paddy Power and Betfair have seen product development grind to a halt for the year, and their numbers have suffered as a result. Online revenues fell to £439m in H1, with gaming also declining in real terms. But the firm’s management was confident the setback would be temporary and the new platform, when it arrived, would put the group on track for long-term success.

Corcoran hailed the firm’s “substantial investments to position Paddy Power Betfair as a structural winner”, adding: “The integration of our technology platforms is on track for completion by the end of the year and will bring significant benefits including increased quantity and pace of new product development in 2018 and beyond.”

One area with potential material upside for the firm is its recently acquired DFS operator Draft, already making gains in the US. It is also building a very handy database of highly-engaged sports customers, should the long-awaited promise of US sports betting finally appear in 2018.

Of course there will be a new man in charge for those brighter days ahead, with the unanimously-respected Corcoran set to leave the operator in H2. No specific reason was given for his departure other than wanting to take on a different challenge. He will leave very large shoes to fill for replacement Peter Jackson.