- Paddy Power and BBH London have launched "Nobody Does Football Better Than Us," a World Cup 2026 campaign pitting Danny Dyer as England's football voice against Hollywood actor Rob Lowe as the face of American sporting excess.
- The 60-second hero spot debuted during the Champions League Final on May 30 across the UK and Ireland, running through to the World Cup final on July 19 in New Jersey.
- Football legends Peter Crouch and Mick McCarthy appear in the ad alongside the two leads, adding authentic football credibility to the campaign.
- The campaign spans TV, digital, social, and OOH, including a special build activation in Hackney, London, launching June 11.
Ahead of the World Cup kicking off on US soil, Paddy Power and BBH London have launched “Nobody Does Football Better Than Us,” a campaign built on the cultural rivalry between English football passion and American sporting spectacle.
Rob Lowe makes the case for fireworks, cheerleaders, and 4K Kiss Cams, while Danny Dyer counters with pints in the air, topless fans, and an unapologetic lesson in what a proper football chant sounds like.
Directed by Max Barden through Anonymous Content, the film delivers genuine comic moments, including Dyer burning his mouth on an overly hot pie.
This isn’t Dyer’s first rodeo with the brand. As recently as October 2025, he fronted a Paddy Power Games campaign alongside Coleen Rooney, Gemma Collins, and Peter Crouch. Off-screen, Dyer recently starred in the 2026 drama film One Last Deal and is currently appearing in Rivals Season 2 on Disney+.
Much like Tom Davis teamed up with Betfair for a nostalgia-fuelled World Cup campaign, Paddy Power is leaning hard into distinctly British personalities to anchor its tournament push.
Lowe, meanwhile, already has World Cup 2026 on his commercial radar, having recently been named brand ambassador for premium hospitality provider On Location, serving as the face of the brand at marquee events including the FIFA World Cup 26. He also promoted his new film The Musical at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in January.
Paddy Power’s broader celebrity endorsement history includes campaigns with Roy Hodgson, Rhodri Giggs, and its award-winning 2025 darts partnership with Prostate Cancer UK.
In the same space, Rob Mac’s partnership with Enterprise on the #OneEveryCorner soccer fan campaign shows just how aggressively brands are chasing football-adjacent cultural moments ahead of the tournament.
Takeaways
This campaign is a masterclass in using cultural contrast as creative fuel. Rather than simply betting on football fandom, Paddy Power is betting on national identity, and it’s a smart, emotionally resonant move.
Pairing a quintessentially English voice like Danny Dyer with a polished Hollywood name like Rob Lowe isn’t just funny casting, it’s a deliberate strategy to speak to both the UK home market and generate transatlantic buzz simultaneously.
The fact that the hero spot debuted on the Champions League Final tells you everything about how seriously Paddy Power is treating this as a brand-building moment, not just a seasonal sales push. Notably, the ad doesn’t even mention gambling, it sells culture, community, and football feeling first.
Does casting Rob Lowe, a beloved American actor, actually help Paddy Power connect with UK audiences, or does it risk diluting the very Englishness the brand is championing? With Danny Dyer now firmly established as a repeat Paddy Power face, is he becoming the brand’s long-term cultural mascot?
