DAN SIMON: With his rocky image and bizarre behavior, Dennis Rodman might be the last
person most advertisers want representing their brands.
RODMAN: This is ground breaking things and Paddy Power is the main source of doing this.
SIMON: But the former NBA player has a big backer in a company called Paddy Power,
an Irish online betting company that has doing some betting of its own by sponsoring
Rodman's trips to North Korea and an exhibition basketball game there next month.
PADDY POWER: For Paddy Power, this is hugely exciting. This is, you know, this is
going to be a great event. It is potentially an historic occasion.
SIMON: Also, an occasion for the company to face sharp criticism from human rights
activists. They and others question why any company would want to be associate with
North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Un who just had his uncle executed and has refused to
release American Kenneth Bae. But we are talking about a gambling site, not a company
like Coca-Cola or IBM. So, in this case there may be little pr risk.
BOB CUSACK: I think it makes a lot of sense. It is good publicity for them. It is obviously
a controversial trip. It is a headache for the United States government. But they want to
get some attention to their gambling site. And every time he goes to North Korea, it gets
a lot of publicity. So in many ways it is a good fit for the company to do it.
SIMON: The company refused to say how much it is spending on Rodman but Paddy Power
seem to court controversy.
BARACK OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear --
SIMON: In 2008, it offered odds on whether President Obama would finish his first term which
many interpreted the odds of an assassination. The bet eventually got pulled from the site.
Paddy Powers also offered adds on the first to species to be driven to extinction by the BP oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And it is already taking bets on who will be the next Pope after Francis.
By its own admission, Paddy Power has had a difficult year financially. Whether Dennis Rodman
can help its bottom line isn't known.
RODMAN: I'm just going over to do a basketball game.
SIMON: But combining a controversial athlete with a controversial company, they make perfect
business sense. No matter what you think of Dennis Rodman's trip or annex.
For OUTFRONT, Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.