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Paddy Power launches Alexa skill

2017-04-11 15:51:54

A virtual personal assistant is a device or application that recognises speech and responds to user requests or questions.

'Alexa, what’s my...?'


Amazon's echo device is a so-called smart speaker with speech recognition integrated. Users simply have to connect their echo device to their wifi, they can then install apps to their device that will subsequently prompt Alexa, the device's virtual personal assistant, to provide an answer.

Alexa Skills


Paddy Power has developed one such app, referred to as a 'skill' in the Amazon context. The Paddy Power feature is activated as soon as users ask “Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing?”. As soon as the user's speech gets recognised, the user will be serviced by Paddy Power's daily news round-up.

To date, this news included information on Snoop Dogg's golfing exploits and that Juan Mata hates fish and chips. It is reasonable to assume that this is part of the Paddy Power long-term plan. Paddy Power tends to create media hype by adopting a humorous approach towards its latest innovations.

'Of course, using your voice to interact with technology is nothing new – Apple’s Siri has been around for more than five years – but people are generally too self-conscious to stroll around in public while barking orders into their smartphone,' commented Paddy Power's researcher for new products, Stephen McMeel.