Paddy Power Loses Cheltenham Battle

24th March, 2010

A leading online bookmaker has been ordered to take down an advertisement that caught the imagination of the nations' press at the recent Cheltenham Festival.

Paddy Power, the often cheeky and sometime controversial Irish bookmaker and online casinos operator recently erected a 50ft high in a farmer's field that overlooked Prestbury Park - home to Cheltenham racecourse.

The Hollywood sign has delighted race fans but has been slammed by other sponsors of the racecourse, as well as the local borough council whom have condemed the sign's lack of planning permission.

As a result, a battle between Tewkesbury Council and Paddy Power has assued as the Irish company has said that the sign will remain in the field indefinately.

The sign wa reported to have been two years in the making, with over sixty people involved in putting up the structure, which measures at over eighty metres long, fifteen metres high and over one hundred tonnes in weight.