bwin Poker
Brand Summary
- Name:
- bwin Poker
- Web address:
- www.bwin.com
- Refer friend:
- €15
- Software:
- Ongame Network
- Operator:
- Bwin International Ltd
- Established:
- 1999
- Country:
- Gibraltar
- Support:
- support.en@bwin.com
- Currencies:
- EUR, GBP, USD, CA
- Languages:
- English, Nederlands, Deutsch, Française, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Hungarian, Polish, Norwegian, Slovenia, Portuguese, Swedish, România, Russian, Türkçe, ελληνικά, Hrvatski, Čeština, български
About bwin Poker
Not only is Bwin Poker one of the biggest operations on the Ongame network, it is also one of the industry leaders in problem gambling related issues. Bwin has started a cooperation a while ago with a university research group to observe and to study various compulsive gambling related patterns. The results of the research will be used to limit the access of problem gamblers, even potential ones, to bwin’s casino, sportsbook and poker room. The research may well provide a long-haul solution to one of the biggest problems currently plaguing online poker and gambling. Given the fact that Bwin is absolutely, positively the biggest online sportsbook in Europe, the traffic that their poker room gets is equally impressive. These guys never really cared about the UIGEA, as their mainly European player base never felt any of its effects. The quality of the competition is excellent at Bwin too. They get tons of casino players not to mention sports bettors, so the fish factor is always in the black.
Player traffic
As I said above, Bwin gets excellent traffic, both on its ring game tables and its tournament ones. There are around 5,500 cash game players at their real money tables at European peak hours. Most of this traffic is focused on the Holdem tables of course, but Draw and Omaha are beginning to draw nice traffic lately too.
Bwin hosts a vast number of tournaments at all times and it offers generously prize-pooled GTDs as well. The number of players they get at their tournament tables in peak hours is around 15,000. Freerolls and qualifiers to the Grand Series of poker also act as magnets for tournament players. The fish factor is generally great on Bwin, thanks to the influx of casino gamblers and sports bettors, many of whom begin to play poker at Bwin.
Software
Bwin poker’s software is excellent from several points of view. It is fast, the graphics are great and clean and there’s a general modern feel about the whole room. The software is available in a downloadable version as well as in a no download one for Mac compatibility. Both versions are equally stable and fast, although the graphics are nicer on the downloadable version and the options are more numerous as well.
The statistics offered by bwin are the industry standard ones: flops seen, avg. pot sizes etc. Multi tabling is available at 12 tables, and there’s a mini table view on offer. Tables are not resizable though
Among the unique features offered by bwin are the hotkeys and the all-in statistics offered during hands. The session browser is definitely a winner in my book: it lets you review past sessions of yours, and offers you a wealth of information, including hand histories.
Sign up bonus
bwin Poker Bonus
Get 100% Sign Up Bonus up to $500 for New Players
Bwin Poker’s sign-up bonus is an extremely interesting setup: it doesn’t matter how much money players deposit, they’ll all get a $500 bonus upon sign-up. You can deposit $10 or $500, it’s all the same. You only get the $500 bonus transferred to your bonus account though, and you’ll have to unlock it by generating 8 Poker Point per bonus dollar. You have a generously sized 90-day redemption period. Once you collect all the points needed to redeem your bonus, it is transferred into your real money account automatically, without any further action needed on your part.
Reload bonuses are also offered from time to time, however these are not the kind that you can count on. They come irregularly and the amount that they offer varies wildly too.
Promotions
Promotions-wise, bwin has an excellent package on offer. Play in one of their daily $300 freerolls. Now, these may not provide a generous EV, but what they do give you is the opportunity to literally start a bankroll off zero.
Bwin has a loyalty scheme as well, called b’inside. This program splits player points into Status Points and Market Points. If you play in a real money game, you’ll collect both Status Points and Market Points. Your Status points will determine your position in the b’inside program. The higher your status is, the more advantages you enjoy. Status points are valid for a 30-day period.
Market points are generated through real money play, but unlike Status Points, they can be generated via various promotions as well. These Market points have a longer validity term (12 months) and players can use them to purchase various bwin merchandize items.
You’ll be able to participate in live event qualifiers too at bwin. They currently offer packages to the WPT’s Venice stop. There are a series of freerolls running, at the end of which, players who make it all the way to the finals will get the chance to take down one of 20 WPT Venice packages. The Grand Series of Poker is a series of online events which offer about $3 million in prize-pools. There are several Main Events in the GSOP, so you’ll get several chances to cash in big. The Grand Slam is the peak of the event.
The Big Bounty rewards you for knocking out bwin’s in-house pros and the Champion Chip offers you a guaranteed prize-pool of $300,000 every single week.
Of course, you won’t have to buy into any of these events directly. Bwin runs a series of online qualifiers and sub qualifiers which give you superb value for your buck.
Support
Bwin is built on a close communication between the operation itself and its customers. No wonder then that the support they offer their players is one of the best in the industry. Though only reachable through email and phone, their support staff is knowledgeable and their response times are excellent. They could’ve added a live chat support option as well, but I’m sure we’ll see something like that at bwin in the future.