The Austrian poker company bwin has become the first to offer real-money poker on the iPhone.
Just a year after launching their mobile sportsbook, bwin is serving up poker to iPhone owners in the UK and Austria, with plans to examine other markets later in 2011.
“At this stage we are just looking at making the best app we are capable of,” Head of Product Management Berthold Kao told eGaming Review. “We went for two legally safe markets [the United Kingdom and Austria] and it went through.”
The bwin Poker app will start out without the capability of multi-talbing. Kao believes this may shy some more serious online players away from the game. “… It might take a while to identify whether the core audience is casual players playing primarily on their smartphones, or full-time players using the mobile platform as a diversion when away from their computers.”
The app was pushed through production after not only the success of the mobile sportsbook, but also due to high download numbers for bwin’s poker clock.
Kao also noted that just because the app is starting out on the iPhone, it doesn’t mean other smartphones, like the popular Android, won’t see the bwin app in the future. Bwin noted the ease of iPhone app updates as a key feature, but also liked that iPhone software was the same no matter what network or handset.
Full Tilt Poker was the first to offer real-money games on a smartphone after releasing Rush Mobile for Android phones late in 2010.
Download bwin Poker at www.bwin.com/pokerapp from your iPhone browser, or from bwin.com and install it into your iTunes.
App features:
Network support – Play either on a Wi-Fi network or on the go via your mobile network. Table selection – Choose the table which suits your requirements best. Select the number of players, your stake and game type. Design – Landscape mode and plate design view help making the table structure clear and easy to navigate. Hand evaluation – Your best hand is displayed automatically to help you evaluate your chances of winning. Hand history – Access hand histories from your current session to get an overview of the last hands played. Account section – Access the account section via the app to make deposits or withdrawals from your account. Sit-in after interruption – One-click sit-in after you have been interrupted by an incoming call or switched app.
Does anyone have good experiences with bwin on iphone?