The development of the market

During the year under review, the Company successfully continued the development of entertainment products for responsible online gaming to an unrivalled technical standard and content, as well as positioning bwin as a “house of games”. At a time when other industries are facing a sharp decline in demand, bwin has established the basis to exploit its considerable market potential.

In 2008, the world-wide online gaming market recorded growth of 27.5% to EUR 15.5 billion, accounting for no less than 5.8% of the total offline and online gaming market. Whereas the offline gaming market anticipates a compound annual growth rate of 2.9% between 2008 and 2012, over the same period of time the online gaming market is forecast to grow by 11.3% p.a. The consulting firm H2 Gambling Capital predicts online gaming revenues in the amount of EUR 23.7 billion for 2012, equivalent to about 7.8% of the total gaming market forecast for 2012 (offline and online).

Based on the estimates of H2 Gambling Capital, Europe will be the most important market, accounting for nearly 50% of the world-wide online gaming market in 2009, with a volume of EUR 6.4 billion (EUR 8.4 billion including lotteries). Online sports betting dominates the European online gaming market with 38.7% (2009e: EUR 2.5 billion), followed by casino (2009e: EUR 1.6 billion) and poker (2009e: EUR 1.3 billion) with 25.5% and 20.8% respectively. A volume of EUR 1.0 billion in the games sector represents a market share of about 15.2%. Over the period 2008 to 2012, H2 Gambling Capital estimates that the European online gaming market will grow annually by 14.6%.