bwin.party Digital Entertainment was an

online gambling Online gambling is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for the Liechtenstein International Lottery i ...

company, formed by the March 2011 merger of

PartyGaming PartyGaming plc was a network of gambling sites operated by Ruth Parasol in the Caribbean. Founded in 1997, the network eventually operated under an umbrella company called iGlobalMedia, which then changed its name to PartyGaming. PartyGaming's fl ...

plc and bwin Interactive Entertainment AG. Formerly the world's largest publicly traded online gambling firm, it was best known for its

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

room PartyPoker,

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the f ...

and its

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...

brand bwin (officially styled ''bwin''). The company was headquartered in

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

and quoted on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

. PartyGaming Plc was founded in 1997 with the launch of Starluck Casino. Prior to passage of the

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act (found at ) which otherwise regulated port security. The UIGEA prohibits gam ...

by the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

, the firm was the world's largest online poker brand, based on

cash game Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In contrast, a p ...

revenue and number of players. Its market share has fallen since then, but it remains the third largest online poker room in the world, behind

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the l ...

and

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...

. The new company became the world's largest publicly traded online gaming firm in 2010, 48.4% owned by existing PartyGaming shareholders and 51.6% by bwin shareholders. The merged company was listed on the

, with joint CEOs Norbert Teufelberger and Jim Ryan. Following a protracted bidding process between

888 Holdings 888 Holdings PLC, () known commonly as 888, is a public company which owns several popular gambling brands and websites, including 888sport, 888casino and 888poker. 888 is based in Gibraltar. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a con ...

and

GVC Holdings Entain plc, formerly GVC Holdings, is an international sports betting and gambling company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It owns brands such as bwin, Coral, Ladbrokes, PartyPoker, and Sp ...

, Bwin.Party confirmed on 4 September 2015 that it had accepted GVC's bid for £1.1 billion. The transaction was completed on 1 February 2016.

History

Party Gaming and Bwin merged on 31 March 2011. The rumors of a planned Bwin and Party merger began in November 2009, but were not confirmed until a joint statement was issued 26 August 2010. In December 2010 shareholders were sent a 478-page document with details and an outline of planned merger. On 28 Jan 2011 the merger was approved by shareholders and then completed on 31 March 2011. In October 2012, bwin announced the sale of its leading online poker network, Ongame, to

Amaya Gaming Group The Stars Group Inc. (formerly known as Amaya Inc., Amaya Gaming Group Inc. and Rational Group) was a Canadian gaming and online gambling company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its shares were traded on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Ex ...

in a deal worth up to €25 million. In November 2013 it was announced that bwin.party had applied for an online gaming licence for the state of New Jersey in July, and on 8 November had been awarded a transactional waiver by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement allowing it to participate in the online gaming market in the state, prior to a full licence being granted. The group launched both poker and casino games under the land-based casino licence of its New Jersey partner, Borgata Casino, the launch included both Borgata's and its own brands, including partypoker.com. By the end of December, the new partypoker site had acquired 50% of the cash game traffic in New Jersey. Following a protracted bidding process between

and GVC Holdings, Bwin.Party confirmed on 4 September 2015 that it had accepted GVC's bid for £1.1 billion. The transaction was completed on 1 February 2016, as indicated by cancellation of LSE traded shares on 2 February 2016.

Products and services

Sports betting

Sports bets were the core business at bwin, with a sports betting lineup including more than 90 different sports; the principal customer interest is soccer. In order to boost bwin's presence in the UK football betting market, the company launched bwinbetting.com in 2011. Other sports included all popular ball-related sports, US sports as well as all major

winter sports Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice. Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally, such games were only played in cold are ...

and motorsports ranging from Formula 1 to MotoGP. "Exotic" sports such as roller hockey,

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

and

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the bo ...

were also included in the daily lineup. Customers could also find odds on a range of events outside of sports. These included bets on politics and entertainment such as the

Oscars The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

talent show A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather ...

s, the Eurovision Song Contest and "Miss" events.

Poker

The following types of games were offered at bwin Poker:

Texas Hold'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fac ...

, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo,

Seven Card Stud Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River is a variant of stud poker. Before the 2000s surge of popularity of Texas hold 'em, seven-card stud was the most widely played poker variant in home games across the United States, ...

, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo and

Five-card draw Five-card draw (also known as a Cantrell draw) is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in h ...

, plus house variations like Double (three hole cards, choose two, halfway between Hold'em and Omaha). In terms of stakes, users could choose between Fixed Limit, Pot Limit or No Limit tables. A "play money" version of the games was also available for users to try out for free. bwin offered poker tournaments, both Sit & Go and scheduled, and

cash games Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In contrast, a po ...

(ring games). Sit & Go tournaments began as soon as the table was completely occupied. Scheduled tournaments began at a specified time and allowed for higher numbers of participants and the highest prize pools. In cash games the players could join and leave whenever they wanted. bwin Poker could be played using the

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

Poker Client, the

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

Poker Client, the

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

Poker Client or the Poker app for Android or the iPhone. The Mac and Windows version offered an extensive selection of features such as statistics and a mini-table function. The Java client was platform-independent as it was a browser-based solution. In January 2011, bwin launched a dedicated Poker app for the iPhone to allow real money poker. This was followed in July 2011 by a similar application for Android-based devices. The mobile client allowed customers to play cash games on their mobile phones. Both apps were restricted to limited territories as permitted by local laws.

PokerRoom.com

PokerRoom.com was an

cardroom founded in 1999. Licensed by the

Kahnawake Gaming Commission The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is a gaming regulatory body that licenses and regulates a large number of online casinos, online poker rooms and online sportsbook sites, as well as three land-based poker rooms that are situated within the Mohawk Ter ...

, PokerRoom offered both play and real money formats.

Tournaments A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

and ring games were available in both web-browser and download client platforms, with support for both

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

. 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 sponsoring for the selected region. After 10 years of operation, bwin announced the closure of PokerRoom.com on 14 April 2009. It was relaunched in 2012 but shut down again on 19 February 2013.

Bingo

Following the acquisition of

Cashcade Cashcade Ltd is a UK-based online gambling marketing company that was a pioneer in the introduction of the concept of ‘free bingo’, as well as the delivery of online bingo to the mass market. It was founded in 2001 by Simon Collins and Patri ...

in 2009, bwin.party took control of a B2C portfolio of

online bingo Online bingo is the game of bingo ( US, UK) played on the Internet and its estimated launch was in 1996. It is estimated that the global gross gaming yield of bingo (excluding the United States) was US$500 million in 2006, and it is forecasted t ...

brands including

Foxy Bingo Foxy Bingo is an English online bingo site that launched in 2005. The brand is owned by Cashcade which is one of the gambling brands owned by GVC Holdings PLC (LSE: GVC), a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. History * Foxy Bingo was founded in 2 ...

, PartyBingo and Cheeky Bingo. Cashcade was the first company to promote online bingo to a mass market via television advertising and was first to develop the "free bingo" concept to attract new customers. Bwin began offering bingo at the end of December 2009 when its Italian subsidiary, Gioco Digitale, launched bingo as the first authorised Italian private online gaming operator.

Casino games

bwin offered more than 100 games, ranging from classics such as roulette or blackjack to

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s and casino tournaments. The casino has a longstanding tradition at bwin: In 2001, it was introduced as a second product, after sports betting. The biggest ever casino jackpot win happened in 2014 when an individual won a little over 6 million Euros.

Soft games

bwin offered more than 60 games divided into the categories of Fortune Games, Skill Games, Mini Games and "ParaDice", as well as

Backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

. This was the product group with the biggest potential for innovation and expansion on the market.

Legal Status

As the global legal framework for internet gambling is a complicated mix of laws and regulations, bwin's situation varied depending on the country concerned. Recently,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

extended its online licences to include poker tournaments, and countries such as

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

announced their intention to permit private operators access to their markets under stringent conditions and controls. On the other hand, other countries maintain a

state monopoly In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopo ...

on internet gaming, or ban it completely. On 15 September 2006, Norbert Teufelberger and Manfred Bodner were arrested at a press conference in

La Turbie La Turbie (; oc, A Torbia; in Italian "Turbia" from ''tropea'', Latin for trophy) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. History La Turbie was famous in Roman times for the large monument, the Trophy of Augus ...

, France, for allegedly breaking French gambling laws. After an investigation, a judge released them three days later. When France opened their market for private online gaming in June 2010, bwin became the first operator there. In February 2013, the Australian Communications and Media Authority referred the Bwin arm of bwin.party to the Australian Federal Police for contraventions of the

Interactive Gambling Act The Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) was passed in June 2001 by the Australian Government with the purpose of protecting the Australian public from the detrimental effects of online gambling. Act The Interactive Gambling Act (2001) was passed by ...

. The Act prohibits gambling companies from providing 'interactive' gambling services to those in Australia. Penalties for each breach, which can be for each day, are $220,000 for individuals and $1.1 million for corporations.

Sponsorship

Bwin recently sponsored football giants Real Madrid,

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

and Bayern Munich and more recently Olympique de Marseille. In October 2010, Bwin announced a sponsorship for the upcoming three football seasons in which it would be the title sponsor of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

, named the "Bwin Cup". Italy's second tier,

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

, has already been re-branded "Serie bwin" after a two-year sponsorship deal was signed in July 2010. On 16 August 2012, bwin announced it was entering into a digital partnership with Manchester United to become the club's official online gaming and betting partner. In the past, many other top events in the international and local sports world were supported by the corporation. Bwin also sponsored the Portuguese first football league (bwinLIGA) and has been partner to clubs such as Juventus and

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

. Bwin cooperated with the

International Basketball Association The International Basketball Association (IBA) was founded in 1995 by a group of businessmen led by Tom Anderson. The original owners of franchises in the league were George Daniel (Black Hills Posse-Rapid City, SD), John Korsmo, Al Gardner, and A ...

(FIBA) and has sponsored the European and World Basketball Championships since 2006. A second basketball sponsorship is Euroleague Basketball. Bwin's marketing and media rights agreement for Euroleague events expired in June 2014. In the area of motorsport, the company was one of the main sponsors of the MotoGP series. In 2012, it was the title sponsor of the races in

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the c ...

and GP in Brno and official partner of the Misano,

Mugello The Mugello is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, in Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Fl ...

and Silverstone. In December 2011, bwin announced it would be extending its Moto GP sponsorships through 2013. In addition, Bwin organised numerous poker events both online and offline. One of the biggest regular online tournaments was the ChampionChip. Special poker tournaments like the Weekly Country Showdown or the Bwin Dailies offered a range of tournaments adjusted to country specifics and buy-in levels. Periodically, there were launched new types and variations of Sit & Go's. Also, several online qualifiers the Bwin user could qualify for offline events like the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the

Aussie Millions The Australian Poker Championship, commonly known as Aussie Millions, is a series of poker tournaments held at the Crown Casino, in Melbourne, Australia. The Main Event of the series is the Southern Hemisphere's richest poker tournament with a ...

and events on the

. For "poker newbies", Bwin offered the Rookie Challenge where a new poker player had the chance to climb up several stages for free to earn real money tickets. The company faced some opposition in Europe over sponsorship of sports, especially football. In 2006, the German city of Bremen banned its top football club, Werder Bremen, from carrying the Bwin logo on its shirts. In January 2014, the company announced major sponsorship deals with the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia 76ers. The combined deals included major advertising to the fans of both teams and the creation of the Dream Seat Series, which was a series of online poker tournaments offering ticket packages to winners and other prizes to runners-up before every home game.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bwin Entain Gambling companies established in 1997 Companies disestablished in 2016 2016 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange 1997 establishments in Gibraltar