Ongame Opens to Mobile Market - Bwin Launches Android Client

Bwin has been offering an iPhone client to their Austrian and British customers, but now they opened up to an even bigger market: they released their client for Android smarthphones as well, which is available to all Bwin customers all around the world. The Ongame Network felt the time has come to venture into the mobile market. They now allow their poker rooms to develop their poker clients to smartphones. The biggest ongame room, Bwin reacted first, after the January release of their iPhone app, they rolled out the their app for Android phones as well. In January, Berthold Kao, head of product management RNG & mobile commented:

"At this stage we are just looking at making the best app we are capable of. We went for two legally safe markets [the United Kingdom and Austria] and it went through. Other operators have seen their apps dismissed in other markets but we do not know why. (...) This does not mean we’re not focusing on Android, but there are a couple of reasons why iPhone seemed to be a more mature solution."

Of course, Android caught up with Apple's devices rather fast, according to a recent report published by the International Data Corporation, Android increased its market share from 4% to 36% during 2010, and is expected to grow at approximately 37% per annum between 2010 and 2015.

Therefore, Bwin's Android client is out since yesterday, and is downloadable for all, without any limitations concerning location or residency.

There have been numerous efforts already to develop real money poker clients to mobile phones, but as Kao commented, they were dismissed. Apple's App store only let play money poker applications through by now, like Zynga Poker, WSOP Poker and WPT Hold'em Showdown.

It seems Bwin will be the one that breaks the ice with their app aimed at beginners or weekend warriors, offering No Limit and Pot Limit Hold'em games up to $5/10. I think this will draw many new players to the game, as the mobile market is a huge unexploited field yet, and real money poker is unique on a mobile phone to date.

Fredrik Kjell, Ongame’s head of poker told eGaming Review that other members of the network plan to roll out new products for the Android or iPhone platform (or both) as early as August, however, their names cannot be revealed yet.

"Mobile is a no longer a nice-to-have feature, it is what the digital consumer expects", added David Pittel, Managing Director of Ongame Network. "Poker players are an ideal target audience for a mobile app, they are tech-savvy and keen to enjoy games using multiple platforms. The question now is not whether or not they own a smartphone; the question is whether they prefer iOS or Android. We are seeing a huge interest from all the major operators within our poker networks."