Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, formerly betandwin, is an Austrian online gaming brand acquired by Entain PLC. The group operates under international and regional licenses in countries such as Gibraltar, the American Indian Reserve of Kahnawake (Canada) and Belize; also in Europe in Germany, Italy, Mexico, Croatia, Austria, France [2] and the United Kingdom. bwin offers sports betting, poker, casino games, soft games and games of skill, with most of its revenue coming from poker and sports betting. bwin has more than 20 million registered customers in more than 25 core markets. Competence centers are located in Vienna, Stockholm and Gibraltar.

 

The company provides marketing, financial and administrative, corporate communications, control and IT services to its subsidiaries. All operations are managed by licensed subsidiaries. It was listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange in March 2000 until the company merged with PartyGaming plc in March 2011 to form Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. The company was acquired by GVC Holdings in February 2016; GVC continues to use the bwin brand.

 

bwin (known as betandwin from its inception until 2006) started in 1997 with just 12 employees. Just one year after its founding, the company launched its first online betting site, focusing on the growing sports betting market. One of the most significant developments in the company's history was the launch of an in-house developed live betting product, allowing players to place bets on sporting events as they actually occur. The company had its initial public offering on the Austrian Stock Exchange in March 2000. In June 2001, bwin acquired Simon Bold (Gibraltar), now known as bwin International Ltd., essentially moving its operations to Gibraltar. The move follows some of the company's biggest rivals to the British Overseas Territories. By December 2001, bwin was ready to enter the online casino gaming market and launched its first casino platform. Two years later, in July 2003, bwin launched and launched a soft gaming platform called Balls of Fire. In November 2004, bwin launched multiplayer poker. The group expanded its presence in the Greek market by acquiring betoto.com in June 2005, which offers fixed-odds betting to punters around the world. December of the same year marked another major acquisition - the takeover of Ongame e-Solutions AB. The acquisition is in line with the Group's strategy to enter the poker market following the acquisition of Ongame e-Solutions and the rebranding to bwin Games. Also in 2005, betandwin acquired the worldwide media rights outside Germany to broadcast the German Football League. In August 2006, betandwin launched a new bwin brand. This was done after discovering that the betandwin brand, described as "descriptive, premium and functional," was no longer applicable to the various entertainment products the company covers, including sports betting, poker, soft games, and casino games. In 2007, bwin began to provide live broadcast of major sports events.

 

In September 2009, bwin announced the acquisition of Italian poker operator Gioco Digitale, marking the company's formal entry into the Italian online gaming market.

 

Bwin is often confused with BetWinner, but they are different bookmakers with their own characteristics and advantages.

 

On April 1, 2011, bwin and the British game company PartyGaming announced their merger. The new company, bwin.party, becomes the world's largest publicly traded online gaming company, with existing PartyGaming shareholders owning 48.4 percent and bwin shareholders 51.6 percent. The combined company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is co-chief executives Norbert Teufelberger and Jim Ryan. Following the acquisition of bwin.party by the UK-based GVC Group, the bwin brand continues to exist as a client brand in the brand portfolio.

 

The Company's subsidiaries and affiliates offer sports betting, poker, casino games and soft games, as well as audio and video streaming of sporting events such as the Bundesliga. These are all available over the internet, and many are also available through other digital distribution channels, such as mobile phones.

 

Sports betting is bwin's core business. Today, the sportsbook lineup includes more than 90 different sports; the core area of ​​customer interest is football. Other sports include all popular ball games, American sports and all major winter sports and motorsports from Formula 1 to MotoGP. "Exotic" sports such as roller hockey, futsal and darts are also included in the daily programme. Not only sports events are offered in the betting lineup. Clients will find odds on a range of events beyond the realm of sports. These include bets on politics and entertainment such as the Oscars, talent shows, Eurovision Song Contest and "Miss" events.

 

bwin Poker offers the following game types: 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 "virtual currency" version of the game is also available for users to try for free. bwin offers poker tournaments, including Sit & Go and scheduled cash games (ring games). Sit & Go tournaments start as soon as the tables are fully occupied. Scheduled tournaments start at a specified time, allowing for more participants and the highest prize pool. In cash games, players can join and leave at any time. bwin poker can be played using the Mac OS X Poker Client, Windows Poker Client, Java Poker Client or Mobile Poker Client. Mac and Windows versions offer a wide selection of features, such as statistics and mini-table functions. The Java client is platform independent as it is browser based. Mobile clients allow customers to play cash games on their mobile phones.

 

bwin offers its customers more than 1000 games, from classics such as roulette or blackjack to slot machines and casino tournaments. The casino has a long tradition at bwin: in 2001 it was launched as a second product besides sports betting.

 

bwin offers more than 60 games, divided into games of fortune, games of skill, mini games and "ParaDice" and backgammon. This is the most innovative and potentially scalable product group on the market.

 

bwin Games AB - founded in 1999 as Ongame e-solutions AB - became part of the bwin Group following its acquisition by bwin Interactive Entertainment AG in March 2006.

 

Within the bwin Group, bwin Games AB acts as a competence center for poker and casino games, developing products for bwin's own brands through digital distribution channels such as PokerRoom.com, HoldemPoker.com, eCardroom.com, PokerGaming.com, Europoker.com and Ongame Network Partners.

 

After 10 years of operation, bwin announced on April 14, 2009 that it was closing PokerRoom.com. Players who still have funds remaining in their account are encouraged to transfer their balance and play at bwin.com. However, PokerRoom.com players with large "play money" accounts had to give up those accounts when transferring to bwin.com.