VIENNA, Austria, July 13, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In the wake ofthe 2010 World Cup, bwin, the world's leading publicly listed online gamingprovider, has reported record turnover for sports betting compared toprevious major soccer events. Up to 260,000 bwin customers a day tookadvantage of a considerably extended range of betting services during the2010 Soccer World Cup. A total of around 900,000 customers placed bets duringthe World Cup, about 213,000 of them active for the first time. The Companywas also able to successfully reactivate existing customers: some 90,000customers took advantage of the bwin product portfolio again after over sixmonths.

Compared to the EURO 2008, bwin increased sports betting gross gamingrevenues (GGR, betting stakes less customer winnings) by nearly 40 per centto an average of over 1.1 million euros a day. This figure was almost doubledby comparison with the 2006 World Cup. A sports betting margin of around 9.1per cent was an improvement on both the EURO 2008 (8.3 per cent) and the 2006World Cup (6.7 per cent).

The most popular World Cup games with bwin customers with the largestnumber of bets placed included the semi-final with Germany against Spain,followed by the final with Netherlands against Spain and the semi-final withUruguay against the Netherlands. The most popular bet was the three-way bet(1-X-2) in the Round of 16 with Netherlands against Slovakia.

Successful launch in France

On 8 June 2010, in good time for the World Cup, bwin was the onlyinternational online gaming provider to enter the French market with a sportsbetting and poker licence. Norbert Teufelberger, bwin Co-CEO, commented: "Thefirst month of our market launch in France was promising despite taxationrates that are still currently high. Even now it is becoming apparent thatpast investment in our brand, technology and organization is beginning to payoff. Only a small group of providers is - and will be - in a position to meetthe exacting demands of a regulated market." As was the case in Italy, inFrance, too, it was extremely important to be present in the market rightfrom the word go, and to invest heavily in customer acquisition: it is eithervery difficult or very expensive to make up lost ground at a later date. "Dueto the successful regulation of the market in Italy and France for customers,authorities and providers alike, we anticipate that other countries will soonfollow this," concludes Teufelberger.

About bwin

The bwin Group has over 20 million registered customers in more than 25core markets. On a number of different platforms, the Group offers sportsbetting, poker, casino games, soft and skill games, as well as audio andvideo streams of top sporting events such as the German Soccer League. Theholding company bwin Interactive Entertainment AG is listed in the ATX on theVienna Stock Exchange (ID code BWIN, Reuters ID code BWIN.VI), and as theparent company provides various services such as software development,marketing, communications, human resources and finance for its subsidiariesand associated companies. The operational business of the bwin Group iscarried out by subsidiaries and associated companies on the basis of licences(e.g. Germany, Italy and Gibraltar). Full details about the Company can befound on its investor relations website at http://www.bwin.org.

    Picture-Download: http://www.bwin.org/Press.aspx    Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bwinpress    Contact information:    Press    Katharina Riedl    Head of Corporate Communications    P: +43(0)50-858-20069    E: press@bwin.org    Investors    Konrad Sveceny, Investor Relations    P: +43(0)50-858-20017    E: investorrelations@bwin.org    bwin Interactive Entertainment AG    Borsegasse 11 / Elevator 3 / Top floor    1010 Vienna, Austria    http://www.bwin.org

SOURCE bwin Interactive Entertainment AG