bwin

bwin Company Information

When it comes to online gaming, there really can only be one site which sits on the throne and which all others aspire to. Despite its claim to be the world number one in online gaming, you will probably find bwin far down on the list, after names such as Internet giants 888 and Paddy Power as well as land based old men in the game Ladbrokes and William Hill. Still, the cheekiness of the claim means the site deserved at least a once over from us at Frixo. Here is what we found.

History

When it comes to longevity, bwin’s age might surprise many. The site has been around since 2000; those nine years make it a octogenarian as far as any Internet site goes, let alone one which focuses on gaming. Next to Bet365, it’s the oldest site out there for the punter.

The bwin company is based out of Austria, which itself is quite unique in an industry almost entirely controlled from the London high streets. The company itself operates in several countries under various licenses.

This all means that bwin is a fairly safe place to make your sports bets, but one should be aware of the failure of the site’s poker room to make a go of it. Customers were encouraged to transfer funds to other bwin operations. It doesn’t mean the book is in for a similar fate, but it does indicate that perhaps the site is not as cock of the walk as it claims to be.

Set up

Unlike a lot of competing books, we found that bwin did not waste a lot of space on advertising unrelated to the book itself. There are a few pushes for its small game Amazon Adventure (which we passed up) and the bonuses, but aside from that it is all business.

The book is very easy to navigate and contains a medium amount of sports information that should be of interest to any handicapper. Typically, the latest and biggest sports event on at the moment will grab the headlines.

Choose the sport you are into from the left hand side, but be warned: there are a LOT of sports to choose from, and types of bets as well. Here, we found that the reality does back up bwin’s claims, as it states that it holds the record for most sports to bet on of all the online books.

Betting

The tabbed navigation continues as you make your way through the options available on your sport. The most popular action will be the first that you see, whether it is the Victorian League play or the International Friendlies. If you are looking for another league or another league in another country, again check over to the left, it’s sure to be there.

To add your pick to your bet slip over on the top right, just click on the team you think will win. It’s that simple; the slip displays the cost, lines, and the possible winnings for you after you enter the bet amount in.

There are a couple of problems we have with bwin, and both have to do with navigation. Customer support is always a big part of our review process, and it’s something that is difficult to find on this sports book site. There is some published information over on the left navigation, but in order to find FAQ sections you have to click on the Sitemap link at the bottom of the page, then scroll down to the “Help” section under “Company”, again at the bottom and all on a page backdropped with a rather awful yellow. Not easy, and although once found quite useful there is still a dearth of information regarding which support lines are available to customers.

We also found it impossible to locate clear promotional offers aside from the advertisements we listed above. Even those did not go into a lot of detail, so for new customers they won't be easy to found.

Despite its relatively long life in the world of Internet sports gambling, we feel that bwin definitely can make some improvements.