World's largest billboard unveiled in Gloucestershire

London, March 18 : Paddy Power has unveiled the world's biggest free-standing billboard on Cleeve Hill overlooking Cheltenham Racecourse.

The colossal sign is 270ft long eclipsing the previous world record holder, which stood at 160ft long and also dwarfs the iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

As well as being the world''s longest sign, the giant Paddy Power sign stands at 50 feet - making it taller than three double-decker London buses stacked on top of each other.

The record breaker took three years to design and took a 60-man crew over 1000 hours to build.

Paddy Power said he wanted to celebrate the excitement of the races Hollywood style.

"There''s more drama in Cheltenham than the whole of Hollywood combined so it might as well have the sign as well," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

"It''s simply a bloody big sign and I think it looks great - I''m very proud of it.

"Cheltenham is the biggest and the best race meeting in the world so we wanted to build a monument to reflect and celebrate that.

"Everyone knows how much the Irish love Cheltenham, so we are delighted to finally have built them a sign to celebrate what many people call the Irish people''s second home in true Hollywood style," he added.