He was born, raised and educated in Ireland but currently lives in the United Kingdom and competes as part of the England quiz team.

"Arlington Million" and C. "Kentucky Derby", he then used his phone-a-friend option, phoning Mark Kerr (a highly ranked British quiz player and winner of TV's "Brainiest Estate Agent" title, as well as winner of £250,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire[6]) who said he was 90% sure the answer was Arlington Million, which was Pat's original instinct.

In 2005 he was crowned champion of Mastermind:[7] his specialist subjects included Father Ted, the books of Iain M. Banks and the films of Quentin Tarantino.

On 25 December 2006 he won the BBC Radio 4 quiz show Brain of Britain,[7] becoming only the fourth person after Roger Pritchard, Kevin Ashman and Chris Hughes to win both that and Mastermind.

He returned for the second series in 2009, and won the final broadcast on 23 November 2009, beating fellow Mastermind and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

He has amassed 25 international medals (7 gold, 11 silver and 7 bronze), the second highest total ever (behind Kevin Ashman with 27) and is ranked the second strongest player in the World/Europe.

In 2010 Gibson won the IQA World Quizzing Championship achieving an all-time high score of 180/210, defeating both Kevin Ashman and Belgian Ronny Swiggers who tied at 169/210.