Online gambling

Bwin, the world's leading publicly listed online gaming provider, signed a sponsorship agreement with the Italian soccer league known as Serie B. The agreement is valid until the 30th of June 2012. As part of this agreement, the Italian Serie B will no longer carry that name; it will be called Serie bwin instead.

“We are delighted to be working alongside the new Lega Serie B in this exciting new adventure. bwin is continually active in high-end sports sponsorship and this will continue at the international level. Today, with the advent of Serie bwin, we are facing a very exciting new challenge, giving us real contact with local situations,” commented bwin CEO, Paolo die Feo.

Moving on, bwin announced that the Fifa 2010 World Cup was a huge success, in terms of sports betting of course. As the world’s leading online gaming provider explained, the World Cup generated record revenues – more that any other major soccer event managed to generate. Here are some figures to put things in perspective:

• About 900,000 customers placed bets during the World Cup
• About 213,000 customers placed bets for the first time
• About 90,000 older customers, who hadn’t placed bets for 6 months, became active during the World Cup
• Bwin reported sports betting gross gaming revenues of more than €1.1 million per day during the World Cup. That’s a 40% increase compared to the EURO 2008, and almost twice as much compared to the 2006 World Cup.

It must be mentioned that during the Fifa 2010 World Cup, bwin entered the French market with a sports betting and poker license. Bwin co-CEO, Norbert Teufelberger comments: “The first month of our market launch in France was promising despite taxation rates that are still currently high. Even now it is becoming apparent that past investment in our brand, technology and organization is beginning to pay off. Only a small group of providers is – and will be – in a position to meet the exacting demands of a regulated market.”