Austrian online betting brand
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, formerly known as Betandwin, is an Austrian online betting brand acquired by Entain 🗝 PLC. The group operated under international and regional licences in countries like Gibraltar, the Amerindian reserve of Kahnawake (Canada), and 🗝 Belize; and Germany, Italy, Mexico, Croatia, Austria, France,[2] and the United Kingdom in Europe. Bwin offered sports betting, poker, casino 🗝 games, and soft and skill games, with most revenue coming from poker and sports betting. bwin had over 20 million 🗝 registered customers in more than 25 core markets. Competence centres were located in Vienna, Stockholm, and Gibraltar.[3]
The company provided services 🗝 for its subsidiaries such as marketing, finance, and administration, corporate communications, controlling, and IT services. All operational activities were managed 🗝 by licensed subsidiaries. It was listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange from March 2000 until the company's merger with PartyGaming 🗝 plc in March 2011, forming Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. That company was purchased by GVC Holdings in February 2024; GVC continues 🗝 to use bwin as a brand.
History [ edit ]
Beginning with 12 employees in its founding in 1997, bwin was formerly 🗝 known as "betandwin" until 2006. The company launched its first online gambling site in 1998, focusing on the growing sports 🗝 betting market. One of the most important developments in the company's history was the launch of its live betting product, 🗝 developed in-house, allowing players to place bets on sporting events while the actual event was taking place. The firm's initial 🗝 public offering at the Austrian Stock Exchange took place in March 2000.
Betandwin acquired Simon Bold (Gibraltar) in June 2001 and 🗝 changed its name to bwin International Ltd. This relocation to Gibraltar was done to keep up with the company's main 🗝 competitors, who had already moved to the British Overseas Territory.
By December 2001, betandwin was ready to step into the online 🗝 casino gaming market and did so by launching its first casino platform. Two years later, in July 2003, betandwin introduced 🗝 and launched a soft games platform known as "Balls of Fire".
In November 2004, betandwin launched multiplayer poker. In June 2005, 🗝 the group acquired betoto, a company which offers a fixed-odds betting service to punters around the globe, in an effort 🗝 to expand its presence in the Greek market.
In December 2005, betandwin acquired Ongame e-Solutions AB, a move consistent with the 🗝 group's strategy to expand into the poker market. After the takeover, Ongame e-Solutions changed its name to bwin Games. In 🗝 2005, betandwin acquired global media rights outside of Germany to the Germany Football League.
In August 2006, betandwin launched the new 🗝 bwin brand. This was done after it was found that the betandwin brand, which was described as "descriptive, high-grade and 🗝 functional", was not suited anymore for the wide assortment of entertainment offerings covered by the company, including sports betting, poker, 🗝 soft games, and casino games.
In 2007, bwin began to offer live streaming of major sports events.
In September 2009, bwin announced 🗝 the acquisition of Italian poker operator Gioco Digitale, marking the company's entry into the Italian online gambling market.[4][5]
Bwin is often 🗝 confused with BetWinner, but they are different bookmakers, with individual features and advantages.[6]
PartyGaming merger [ edit ]
On April 1, 2011, 🗝 bwin and British gaming firm PartyGaming announced their merger. The new company bwin.party became the world's largest publicly traded online 🗝 gaming firm, 48.4% of which was owned by existing PartyGaming shareholders and 51.6% by bwin shareholders. The merged company was 🗝 listed on the London Stock Exchange, with joint CEO's Norbert Teufelberger and Jim Ryan.[7] After a takeover of bwin.party by 🗝 British GVC Group, the brand bwin continues to exist as customer brand in its portfolio.
Products [ edit ]
The company's subsidiaries 🗝 and affiliated companies offer sports betting, poker, casino games, and soft games, as well as audio and video streams on 🗝 sporting events, such as the German Bundesliga. These are all provided via the Internet, and many are also available via 🗝 other digital distribution channels, such as mobile phone.
Sports Betting [ edit ]
Sports bets are the core business at bwin. Today, 🗝 the sports betting line-up includes more than 90 different sports; the core area of customer interest is soccer. Other sports 🗝 include all popular ball-related sports, US sports, as well as all major winter sports and motorsports ranging from Formula 1 🗝 to MotoGP. "Exotic" sports such as Roller Hockey, Futsal, and Darts are also included in the daily line-up. Customers can 🗝 also find odds on a range of events outside the area of sports. These include bets on politics and entertainment, 🗝 such as the Oscars, Talent Shows, the Eurovision Song Contest, and "Miss" events.[8]
Poker [ edit ]
The following types of games 🗝 are offered at bwin Poker: Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, and Five-card draw. 🗝 In terms of stakes, users can choose between Fixed Limit, Pot Limit, or No Limit tables. A "play money" version 🗝 of the games is also available for users to try for free. bwin offers poker tournaments, including Sit & Go, 🗝 scheduled, and cash games (ring games). Sit & Go tournaments begin as soon as the table is completely occupied. Scheduled 🗝 tournaments begin at a specified time and allow for a higher numbers of participants and the highest prize pools. In 🗝 cash games the players can join and leave at-will. bwin Poker can be played using the Mac OS X Poker 🗝 Client, the Windows Poker Client, the Java Poker Client, or the Mobile Poker Client. The Mac and Windows versions offer 🗝 an extensive selection of features such as statistics and a mini-table function. The Java client is platform-agnostic and browser-based. The 🗝 mobile client allows customers to play cash games on their mobile phones.[9]
Casino Games [ edit ]
bwin offers more than 1000+ 🗝 games, ranging from classics such as roulette or blackjack to slot machines and casino tournaments. The casino has a longstanding 🗝 tradition at bwin, but in 2001, it was introduced as a second product, in addition to sports betting.[10]
Soft Games [ 🗝 edit ]
bwin offers more than 60 games divided into the categories of Fortune Games, Skill Games, Mini Games and "ParaDice", 🗝 as well as Backgammon. This is the product group with the biggest potential for innovation and expansion in the market.[11]
bwin 🗝 Games AB [ edit ]
bwin Games AB – founded in 1999 and formerly known as Ongame e-solutions AB – became 🗝 part of the bwin Group following its acquisition, in March 2006, by bwin Interactive Entertainment AG.
Within the bwin Group, bwin 🗝 Games AB acts as the competence centre for poker and casino games, developing products via digital distribution channels for bwin 🗝 proprietarily owned brands, such as PokerRoom, HoldemPoker, eCardroom, PokerGaming, Europoker, and the Ongame Network partners.
PokerRoom was an online poker cardroom 🗝 founded in 1999. Licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, PokerRoom offered both play and real money formats. Tournaments and ring 🗝 games were available in both web-browser and download client platforms, with support for both Macintosh and Linux. PokerRoom was one 🗝 of the first online poker sites to provide multi-language support, and catered to Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and 🗝 Swedish speakers. These languages were accessed via "regional sites", many of them showing local sponsorships for the selected region.
Legal Issues 🗝 [ edit ]
PokerRoom also maintains a play money only site, PokerRoom.tv, that is advertised in Canada on the boards of 🗝 National Hockey League rinks, as well as on U.S. television networks like ABC.
Awards [ edit ]
PokerRoom has won industry awards, 🗝 such as "Poker Site of the Year" from the UK Gambling Awards in 2006 and "Top Poker Software" from the 🗝 Online Gambling Magazine Awards in 2005.
Shutdown [ edit ]
After 10 years of operation, bwin announced the closure of PokerRoom on 🗝 April 14, 2009. Players with money still left in their accounts were encouraged to transfer their balance and play at 🗝 bwin.[12] However, PokerRoom players with large "play money" accounts had to abandon those accounts when transferring to bwin.
Legal Status [ 🗝 edit ]
As the global legal framework for Internet gambling is a complicated mix of laws and regulations, bwin's situation varies 🗝 depending on the country concerned. For several years now, the United Kingdom and Italy have been examples of countries that 🗝 have regulated their online gaming markets to the advantage of all stakeholders. Just recently, Italy extended its online licenses to 🗝 include poker tournaments, and countries like France, Spain, and Denmark announced their intention to permit private operators access to their 🗝 markets under stringent conditions and controls. Other countries, on the other hand, are still pursuing a policy of maintaining a 🗝 state monopoly of internet gaming, or even a complete ban.
On 15 September 2006, Norbert Teufelberger and Manfred Bodner were arrested[13] 🗝 at a press conference in La Turbie, France, due to offenses against the French gambling laws. After an investigation the 🗝 judge released them on the evening of September 18, 2006.
Due to the enactment of the Safe Port Act, bwin stopped 🗝 taking bets from United States-based players in October 2006.[14] The offerings became available again upon regulation of the markets. In 🗝 the States where regulation is in place, the same product line offered through bwin is available through BetMGM, the joint 🗝 venture of bwin's parent company Entain PLC's with MGM Resorts International.
On 6 March 2007, the European Court of Justice struck 🗝 down Italian national gambling restrictions in the Placanica case.[15]
The EFTA Court held hearings in January 2007 to decide on the 🗝 admissibility of a state monopoly for betting and gaming according to European Law. The decision of the EFTA Court will 🗝 be made on 14 March 2007.[citation needed]
In February 2024, bwin ended its operations in Russia. An agreement was made with 🗝 Parimatch enabling customers to transfer platforms along with their funds.[16]
bwin sponsored football giant Real Madrid from 2007 to 2013 and 🗝 they were also a premium partner of FC Bayern Munich. In October 2010, bwin announced a sponsorship for the upcoming 🗝 three football seasons in which they would be the title sponsor of the Portuguese League Cup (renamed the "bwin Cup").[17] 🗝 In July 2010, bwin signed a two-year sponsorship deal with Italy's second tier, Serie B. Additionally, bwin cooperates with the 🗝 International Basketball Association (FIBA) and has been sponsoring the European and World Basketball Championships since 2006. In the area of 🗝 motorsport, the company is one of the main sponsors of the MotoGP series. In 2010, bwin became the title sponsor 🗝 of the races in Jerez and Estoril and official partner of the GP in Brno, Misano, Mugello. In the past, 🗝 many other popular events across international and local sports were supported by bwin. bwin also lent its name to the 🗝 Primeira Liga (bwinLIGA), sponsored Italian football club Milan from 2006 to 2010, and has also been a partner to popular 🗝 football clubs, such as Real Madrid, Juventus and Werder Bremen.[18]
In addition, bwin organised numerous online and offline poker events. One 🗝 of the biggest regular online poker tournaments was the ChampionChip. Special poker tournaments, like the Weekly Country Showdown or the 🗝 bwin Dailies, offered a huge range of tournaments adjusted to specific country regulations and buy-in levels. Periodically new types and 🗝 variations of Sit & Go tournaments were launched. Through several online qualifying events, a bwin user could qualify for offline 🗝 events like the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the Aussie Millions, and events on the World Poker Tour. For "poker 🗝 newbies", bwin offered a special route - the Rookie Challenge, where a new poker player had the chance to climb 🗝 up several stages for free to earn real money tickets.
In 2008, bwin provided the luxury villa on bwin PokerIsland[19] as 🗝 filming location for the music video of Lady Gaga's hit Poker Face. The video featured bwin branded poker equipment through 🗝 a product placement campaign.[20]
The company faced some opposition in Europe over its sponsorship of sports, especially football. In 2006, Bremen 🗝 banned its top football team, Sportverein Werder Bremen, from carrying the bwin logo on its shirts.[21] In November 2009, the 🗝 city acted further by moving against sport stores which sold shirts from other teams, such as Milan and Real Madrid.[citation 🗝 needed]
In 2024, bwin signed a three-year partnership with Italian football club Inter Milan becoming its first official betting partner.[22]
In 2024, 🗝 bwin became Valencia CF's main global sponsor. The three-year agreement was made official in July 2024.[23] As of 2024 the 🗝 agreement is in jeopardy with the Spanish government informing all La Liga clubs that betting sponsors will be banned from 🗝 the start of the 2024-22 season.[24]
In 2024, bwin announced a three-year partnership with the Belgian Pro League becoming the official 🗝 sports betting partner of Belgium's top tier football division.[25] The deal will also cover the Belgian First Division B and 🗝 Belgian Super Cup. bwin is able to broadcast live coverage of football matches to customers using both online and mobile 🗝 platforms as part of the agreement.
In April 2024, bwin signed a five-year partnership with Liga Portugal. As part of the 🗝 deal, the Primeira Liga, Portugal's top football division, will be called Liga Portugal Bwin from July 2024 onward.[26]
In August 2024, 🗝 bwin signed extended deals with German Bundesliga football clubs Borussia Dortmund, Union Berlin, and FC Köln, as well as 2. 🗝 Bundesliga clubs FC St. Pauli and Dynamo Dresden.[27] As part of the deal, bwin will serve as the exclusive sports 🗝 betting provider for each team. Each of the agreements will run from the 2024-22 season until the end of the 🗝 2024-24 season.
In September 2024, bwin signed a partnership with UEFA to become an Official Partner of the UEFA Europa League 🗝 and the UEFA Europa Conference League for the 2024–24 seasons.[28]
Responsible Gaming [ edit ]
A dedicated Corporate Social Responsibility department of 🗝 the company was in charge of social responsibility. Protection of minors, protection against manipulation of bets, and the prevention of 🗝 gaming addiction were key aspects of the bwin CSRphilosophy. bwin supported research in this field in a joint project with 🗝 Harvard Medical School. bwin is a co-founder of the EGBA (European Gaming and Betting Association), where it lobbied for fair 🗝 competition within a regulated online gaming market. As founder and member of the ESSA (European Sports Security Association), bwin campaigned 🗝 against manipulation and fraud in the fields of sports and betting.[29]
Awards [ edit ]
At the annual EGR Awards organised by 🗝 eGaming Review magazine, bwin won the "Operator of the Year 2009" award.[30]
