IAG has just attended ICE which has now firmly staked its claim as the world’s premier gaming show.
By Steven Ribet, Managing Editor,
London’s ICE Totally Gaming, which IAG has just attended, is now clearly the largest trade fair in the global gaming industry. But for ICE’s Chris Jones its impressive numbers alone are not enough. “Being the biggest show isn’t necessarily the same as being the best. You have to look at quality; not just measured in terms of how many hours each visitor spends here and whether or not they come back, but in terms of what they’re actually doing,” he says.
“When you’re here you can feel the energy; a palpable sense that things are happening. Everywhere you look people are making connections and doing deals. I like to think of it as a cross between a hypermarket and a souk, with the zest and energy that only gaming has.”
Floorspace this year was a vast 39,000 square meters, or about the same as six World Cup football pitches. A total of 527 companies came to exhibit, with the largest display alone (belonging to Austrian slot maker Novomatic) occupying 5,000 square meters. While audited visitor numbers have not yet been released, organizers Clarion expected 25,000 professionals to attend. Last year they came from 133 different countries.
A favorite story of Jones’ relates to Cabo Verde; a tropical island nation in the eastern Atlantic that, like Macau, is a former Portuguese colony. “As a tourism destination it’s a bit like a poor man’s Caribbean. Last April I took my family there on holiday. I remember remarking to friends that in terms of its economy and overall development, the place would benefit hugely from a really good casino resort,” Jones says.
It came as no surprise to Jones, then, when three months later casino operator Macau Legend announced it had concluded talks with the government of Cabo Verde and agreed to invest US$275 million to build a resort in the nation’s capital Praia. When he looked over the list of visitors registered to attend last year’s ICE, there was indeed a small delegation from Cabo Verde. “I like to think the germ of the idea that will transform the whole country was hatched right here in London,” he says.
The International Casino Expo (which ICE is the acronym for) started life in 1936 as the Amusement Trades Exhibition. It was a small event organized by makers of the penny machines that fill amusement arcades in English seaside towns. In the 1980s visitors to the show started arriving from Las Vegas, in search of equipment that could be used to transform the American gambling capital into a more family-oriented destination. That prompted the fair’s British exhibitors to look at how they might in return do what the Americans were doing and expand their business into high stakes gambling. In 1991, 16 UK companies making casino machines were allowed to exhibit and the show’s name was changed to ICE.
Five years ago the show relocated from west London’s Earls Court to ExCel; a huge new convention center in the area of East London rejuvenated by the 2012 Olympics, that had in fact hosted several Olympic events. The move turned out to have been a wise one, because there has been enough demand for the show to have doubled in size since then.
ICE’s main rival, the Las Vegas’ Global Gaming Expo (G2E) can still compare by some measures. In 2014 (the last year for which G2E has released figures), the American event quoted 16,579 attendees, compared to ICE’s 17,905 independently audited attendance. ICE is also only slightly ahead in terms of its total number of exhibitors. But if current trends continue, the London expo will soon be leaving all competitors far behind. Next year’s show will add 8,000 square meters of space, for a total of 47,000 square meters (about 7 football pitches) versus 28,000 in Las Vegas. In an interview published on ICE’s last day on February 4, organizer Clarion said that by 2020 it expected the show to take up all of ExCel’s 44 halls, giving it a total area of 87,000 square meters.
Some joke that ICE is so-named because it is held in the depths of London’s winter, but we here at IAG predict in the years to come the show will just get hotter and hotter.
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