After inking multi-year partnership deals with local firms Digital Betting Limited and Rambler and Company in June, online gambling operator GVC Holdings has reportedly launched a new Bwin-branded online sportsbetting domain for punters in Russia.

According to a report from iGaming Business, the service at Bwin.ru went live earlier this week and is offering all new sign-ups the chance to share in a portion of approximately $1.7 million in bonuses.

iGaming Business moreover reported that Bwin.ru is the first online sportsbetting site to debut in Russia since the nation began regulating the activity around two years ago. Although the domain’s license is officially held by Digital Betting Limited with support from domestic media conglomerate Rambler and Company, both of which are controlled by local businessman Alexander Mamut, GVC Holdings is purportedly providing the technology platform along with support services and the actual sportsbetting product.

Shay Segev, Chief Operating Officer for London-listed GVC Holdings, declared in June that he was ‘delighted to be partnering with one of Russia’s leading online media organizations’ in Digital Betting Limited and believed that the combination of the Bwin brand, his firm’s cutting-edge technology and the local marketing expertise of Rambler and Company would create ‘an extremely compelling offering for Russian punters’.

For his part, Dmitry Sergeev, Chief Executive Officer for Digital Betting Limited, subsequently stated that Russia-based sportsbetting aficionados had been waiting ‘for quite a long period of time’ for the chance to access a service such as Bwin.ru.

“We are extremely pleased to be offering the internationally-admired Bwin sportsbetting brand and product in Russia,” read a June statement from Sergeev. “We believe this partnership has great potential to capture significant market share in Russia when it launches later this year.”