Paddy Power was founded on the merger, which took place in 1988, of three existing Irish high street bookmakers, Kenny O‘Reilly Bookmakers (in which Stewart Kenny, Chairman, Paddy Power plc was a partner), P. Corcoran Bookmakers, owned by John Corcoran, a non-executive director of Paddy Power plc and a significant proportion of the betting shops trading as Richard Power, owned by David Power, non-executive director, Paddy Power plc. Since this time, Paddy Power has grown primarily through organic growth to be the largest bookmaker today through 130 outlets in the Republic of Ireland. A further two outlets have been gained in the UK.