Another Acquisition for BWin – September 18th, 2009

Vienna-listed online gambling group Bwin, fresh from its acquisition of Italy’s Gioco Digitale (see previous OCR report) has announced another commercial coup by securing a majority shareholding in UnitedGames, a leading European massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) publisher and developer.

The United Games deal is Bwin’s first venture into the MMOG market, and it gives the Austrian gambling group access to a UG playerbase of over 17 million players in 178 countries.

“UnitedGames brings a lot of interesting technology and know-how to the relationship and we look forward to taking online gaming to the next stage of evolution,” said Bwin co-chief executive Manfred Bodner this week.

United Games was founded in 2007 in the Netherlands, and provides localisation for its games including marketing, translations and community support. “Bwin and UnitedGames are extraordinary partners and this combination will have a huge impact on the online gaming market,” UnitedGames chief executive Marijn Harinck commented.