Bwin sees a future for Twitter and Facebook in online Casinos

The time when you will be able to use Facebook or Twitter to communicate with fellow gamblers in online casinos is fast approaching. Bwin, one of the best known online gaming companies is currently testing a tool called “Shoutbox” which they intend to use to enable players to communicate with other in much the same way as is possible in actual casinos today commenting on bets placed at poker tables or even placing wagers between themselves. The system will use the existing social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and players will be able to communicate through buddy lists. Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Bwin, Thomas Kiessling has an annual IT budget of around €80 million and claims that his priority is developing new products rather than maintenance of infrastructure and he therefore keeps around 320 of his more than 600 IT staff engaged in meeting customer requirements and focusing on time to market and new products.

His team has as recently as June one live with a new poker platform that took three years and 250 man years to complete at a cost of over €20 million. The platform also has the ability to be plugged into third party websites so that they can have the same functionality but adjusted  to their own appearance requirements. Kiessling believes that by using Shoutbox more and more gamblers will start using online gaming instead of visiting casinos and Bwin seems to be putting its money where its mouth is.