Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment was an

online gambling Online gambling (also known as iGaming or iGambling) 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 th ...

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 ...

and its

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...

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

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

and quoted on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

. 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 g ...

by the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

, 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" Poker chip, chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In co ...

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. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market, and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for Windows, macOS, Androi ...

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 Evoke plc, formerly 888 Holdings Limited, is an international sports betting and gambling company. It owns brands such as 888casino, 888poker, 888sport, Mr Green, and William Hill. Business operations are led from its headquarters in London, a ...

and

Entain 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 (bookmaker), Coral, Ladbrokes, P ...

, 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 Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. 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 and

motorsports Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and powered aircraft An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the po ...

ranging from

Formula 1 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on Road racing, road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held sin ...

. "Exotic" sports such as

roller hockey Roller hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using wheeled skates. It can be played with traditional roller skates (quad skates) or with inline skates and use either a ball or puck. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 cou ...

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

and

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

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, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...

talent show A talent show or talent contest 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 p ...

s, the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

and "Miss" events.

Poker

The following types of games were offered at bwin

Poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

Texas Hold'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is the most popular variant 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 face up in ...

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, 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 one of the most widely played poker variants in home games across the United ...

, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo and

Five-card draw Five-card draw (also known as Cantredraw) 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 home ...

, 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 A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a " heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tabl ...

, both Sit & Go and scheduled, and cash games (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, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Poker Client, the

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Poker Client, the

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Poker Client or the Poker app for

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

or the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

. 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 Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

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

online bingo Online bingo is the game of bingo (either the US or UK variant) played on the Internet. Sites offering the game launched around 1996, and the global gross gaming yield outside of the United States was estimated at US$500 million in 2006, foreca ...

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 Entain PLC (LSE: ENT), a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. History Foxy Bingo was founded in 2005 wi ...

, 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 Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

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 at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...

. 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, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

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

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

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 monopoly ...

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 (; ; ) 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 Augustus, that Augustus made to celebrate his victory over the Ligur ...

, 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 The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an Australian government statutory authority within the Communications portfolio. ACMA was formed on 1 July 2005 with the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Aus ...

referred the Bwin arm of bwin.party to the

Australian Federal Police The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the principal Federal police, federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government responsible for investigating Crime in Australia, crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth ...

for contraventions of the

Interactive Gambling Act The ''Interactive Gambling Act'' (Cth) (or IGA for short) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, with the purpose of regulating online gambling. The law makes it an offence for online gambling websites to provide their services to customers ...

. 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 Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

A.C. Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

and

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

and more recently

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; , ), also known simply as Marseille, or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional Association football, football club based in Marseille which competes in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top f ...

. 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 (; ) 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 Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

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

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as 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 b ...

, 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 Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

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 Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

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. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

. 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 ...

(FIBA) and has sponsored the European and World Basketball Championships since 2006. A second basketball sponsorship is

Euroleague Basketball Euroleague Basketball, run by Euroleague Commercial Assets (ECA), is a private company that runs and operates men's professional basketball club competitions in Europe, the first-tier level EuroLeague, and the second-tier level EuroCup. It has ...

. Bwin's marketing and media rights agreement for Euroleague events expired in June 2014. In the area of

motorsport Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

, the company was one of the main sponsors of the

series. In 2012, it was the title sponsor of the races in

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Located in southwestern Iberia, it lies on the Campi� ...

and GP in Brno and official partner of the Misano,

Mugello The Mugello () is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, 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 Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

. 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 ...

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 Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

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 The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The club w ...

and

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, also known colloquially as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlan ...

. 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