Last updated July 31st, 2019
Bwin, formerly known as BetAndWin, is one of the largest bookmakers in Europe. They are listed on the Austrian Stock Exchange and a measure of their size can be indicated from their 2012 published accounts where Bwin published gross revenues of €800m. Bwin sponsors the football teams AC Milan and Real Madrid. Bwin covers over 90 sports betting markets. Bwin Sportsbook covers all sports but there is a particular emphasis on mainland Europe. Their site is available in any of 22 languages. Bwin is licensed in Gibraltar. In addition there is a good online casino and poker room.
OPINION: Bwin, formerly known as BetAndWin, is a huge online betting firm that has a fairly good name with punters. However it is not so good among their business peers in the betting affiliate community. Their client base and turnover is enormous. Bwin are fine if you want a sports bet, but you do get better service and a bigger free bet offer with our No.1 rated betting destination, Bet365 Online Bookmaker.
Bwin Bookmaker & Sportsbook Review
Bwin Bookmaker is universally recognised as one of the biggest sportsbooks in the online arena. It offers a formidable sports betting product as well as top class poker, casino and games. When you register with Bwin and make a deposit you can receive up to £20 worth of free bets. Poker players will have their initial deposit doubled up to a value of $500.
In the Spring of 2011, bwin merged with PartyGaming. bwin.party (listed as BPTY) is a FTSE250 Index company. Its shares are publicly traded and are quoted daily on London’s Stock Exchange. The group has millions of customers across the globe and in 2010, achieved a revenue of well over €800 million. There are over 3,000 employees based in offices worldwide. In short, they are big, reliable and financially robust, so no problems paying out punters’ winnings!
Bwin Sportsbook history
Originally known as Betandwin and starting life with just a dozen employees back in 1997, the first interactive betting site actually went live in 1998, so that is the date that counts. It focused on the sports betting market which has remained at the heart of the company ever since. Nowadays the betting in play accounts for a huge amount of the turnover generated. Bwin were one of the first to capitalise on this fast-moving element of sports betting.
The name of Bwin was adopted in 2006, hardly an interesting choice but with the very unoriginal and infantile ‘betandwin’ moniker to beat any different name had to be an improvement. ‘Betandwin’ must surely have been chosen by someone whose first language was not English. The brevity of the new name is no bad thing and no even fleeting football fan could have missed it on various high-profile sponsored football teams’ shirts. In 2007 they began to provide live streaming of high profile sports events, a novel idea at the time. They made it their business to look after their customers well from day one and have continued with the philosophy that ‘the customer is king’.
Today, Bwin have a massive online presence throughout Europe and the website is available in twenty two different languages. As one of the pioneers of live, in play betting, the choice of live bets on offer at Bwin is extremely impressive.
Bwin sportsbook events
On a midweek evening you may find football, tennis, darts and even basketball and the range of different types of bet is extensive. There is usually so much more than the outright result. You do not have to be registered with Bwin to see just how numerous the options are for live betting, but it is worth registering to see this well-constructed website at its best.
The Bwin sportsbook includes over 85 sports, in the early autumn you might find tennis, cricket, golf, rugby union, snooker, boxing, baseball, Formula 1 and rugby league in the top ten list but they are particularly impressive on the football betting front.
Bwin Bookmaker football betting
At 10.30pm on a typical midweek evening in the football season there are almost 800 bets available on the Premier League and well over 50 on the Champions League.
There is no shortage of choice, everything from the major world football matches (where you will definitely be able to bet live) to domestic league action. La Liga and Serie A will also be covered at Bwin. The Bwin commitment to soccer has been demonstrated by a number of substantial sponsorship deals. In October 2010 Bwin signed a three season contract with the Portuguese soccer league to become the main sponsor of the Portuguese Liga Cup. They are the main sponsors of Real Madrid and have also been involved with other high profile teams such as Bayern Munich and AC Milan.
If betting on football is your thing you would certainly find it interesting to register with Bwin, registration is free, and see exactly what is on offer.
Horse racing betting at Bwin
Bwin cover horse racing from Great Britain, South Africa, Canada and the United States and that includes harness racing in the US and Canada. As well as conventional odds, Bwin offer ‘Expert opinion’ on runners to help punters make their selection.
Racing in Ireland is not part of the daily line up and that is a particularly bad omission as UK punters expect to have the option of Irish racing. Irish racing is covered in full by the UK satellite TV stations and by every UK betting shop alongside the UK races. British punters see it as an extension of the UK racing and the overlap is huge. However, it is no surprise that French horse racing does not feature. Two directors of Bwin were arrested briefly in France in September 2006 as that country has a very protectionist view in relation to online gambling.
If their racecards look a little over simplified on first viewing, just click on the details tab to find out which stall your selection is starting from, the colours the jockey will be wearing and the weight the horse will be carrying. You will soon get used to metric weights with Bwin Bookmaker. All weights are given in kilograms rather than the more traditional stones and pounds, betraying their mainland Europe attitude to all things sports betting. There is also a helpful ‘last race form’ column to let you know when horses last hit the track and the result of their latest efforts. On every race Bwin let you know exactly how long you have to make your selection and place your bet. Once you have clicked on to a particular race, you will see a countdown showing exactly how much time is left.
Payment methods at Bwin Bookmaker
Bwin make it easy for you to deposit money with them and, more importantly, facile to make those crucial withdrawals. Minimum and maximum deposit and withdrawal limits vary depending upon the method that you choose. Bwin recommend Kalixa and you can deposit just £5 if you choose that route. The minimum withdrawal is £10 and there is no upper limit on the amount that can be withdrawn. Credit and debit cards are also accepted. There is a minimum deposit of £10 with that method. Bank transfers and ewallets such as Neteller, Moneybookers, PayPal and Click & Buy are also welcomed. The Bwin Finance Department handle all withdrawal requests as efficiently and quickly as they possibly can. They contact customers by email as soon as their bank or other payment providers have processed transactions.
Bwin overview
Bwin are unparalleled in both the scale and quality of their operations. They are widely praised for the level of customer service and we are keen to recommend them. If we have two words of advice it would be: 1. To make the website faster to load, the high quality graphics may look pretty but the internet is all about speed. 2. Add Irish horse racing.
The standard of their sportsbook, which is a real specialist in soccer betting, is exceptional while the poker and casino offering is also worthy of praise. Bwin Bookmaker & Sportsbook is a massive online operation with its roots still firmly in Europe, rather than the UK, but they know how to look after their customers and British players will be glad they joined up.
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If you’re considering betting with Bwin, don’t bother. I placed a bet with them and when I saw the match had won I revisited the site to check my winnings. However I wasn’t paid by them, they had just marked my bet “cancelled” I went on live chat to ask about this, and after a long wait to get through to someone, I spoke to IZA who said they had cancelled my bet as they decided they should have offered me worse odds than they let me accept so they weren’t going to pay me after all.
They wouldn't even pay me out at the worse odds. They hadn’t notified me about this, not via email or phone even though they had the means to. I could have placed my bet at a different bookmakers had they told me they didn’t want my bet. IZA on live chat copy and pasted me a huge passage from the terms and conditions then said thanks for using live chat and she left the conversation. All this for winnings of £27.23. Ridiculous, they shouldn’t take the bet in the first place if they don’t want it.
On top of all of this I personally find the site difficult to use compared to other sites which are much better, for example Paddy Power, Bet365 or Betfair. Withdrawals are also very slow. I feel they like to keep hold of your money as much as possible. Stakes are also very limited.
Disgusting site. Dont bother betting with them. They offered a £5 free bet if I placed a £5 bet on Wimbledon and then did not give me the free bet. I sent seven emails and still not received the free bet. All I have had is seven automated responses stating WE WILL ENDEAVOUR TO RESPOND ASAP. I do not think they know the meaning of the word as all I had after 4 days was an email apologising for the late reply and waffle about they would pass on to their customer services to deal and I would receive a response. This is now day 7 and still no response. I am just glad I did not bet any more money with this site as they clearly do not uphold their offers and are a waste of space.
There are better set ups than Bwin - for UK players anyway. I guess this site may suit other countries better.