Bwin Reports Bumper Betting Revenues

Betting website Bwin has announced it posted record gross gaming revenues of 420.9 million euros ($541 million), proving that the global financial crisis is not all doom and gloom for the online gambling industry.

The Austrian company, which offers poker, casino and sports betting products, is predicting it will back up the effort in 2009, with forecast revenues of between 430 million to 445 million euros.

Bwin's sports betting service grew by 21.1 percent to total revenue of 235.4 million euros. Poker revenue grew 14.2 percent to 94.2 million euros.

The revenue didn't just come from old-timers: Bwin reported that 1.1 million real money accounts were opened during the year.