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BettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 2011 Essential guide to ...
Testimonials from last year’s EIG Good indicator
“EiG Copenhagen really takes the pulse of the industry. It has all the key executives there which meant my time spent there was very productive.” Nigel
Eccles, CEO, Fanduel
“The Launch Pad session at EiG
allowed us
the opportunity to showcase our product in front of key gaming individuals within the industry. The whole of the Passoker team are grateful for the chance to present at this leading European conference.” Stuart Carr, managing director, Passoker
Helping hand Top marks “The EiG Show was
magnificently organised, and the venue well laid out with great exhibition and conference space. Ewa Bakun was omni- present, and took care of everything one could need as a speaker.” Oliver Zugel, founder and CEO, Spring City Finance
The place to be
“EiG has become a focal meeting point for the online industry and I believe Milan will prove to be a great venue.” Warwick Bartlett, CEO, Global Betting and Gaming Consultants
KEYNOTE SPEAKER Going Native for the future
Harvard professor of law John Palfrey is one of the keynote speakers at this year’s EiG event. He will be opening the second day of the conference while speaking on the subject of using future generations’ entertainment habits to shape products and plans.
arvard’s John Palfrey recent authored ‘Born Digi- tal: Understanding the First Generation of Digi- tal Natives’, a book that details the work he con- ducts at one of the US’ premier universities. “Along with my collaborators at the Berkman Center for In- ternet & Society at Harvard University, I continue to study the ways that young people are changing in the way that they use technologies, how they find information, and how they relate to their friends,” he explained.
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“The changes continue to be rapid and profound, in many respects. Of course, older people are adopting these tech- nologies at a very rapid rate as well. The large industry trends - such as explosive growth in mobile technologies and the use of cloud computing - also continue to drive changes in user behaviour, just as user behaviour is driving the industry to offer new services and ways to accomplish traditional goals.”
Palfrey invented the term ‘digital natives’ to describe those born after 1980, who have access to advanced digital technologies and good tools to use them. However, not all young people are digital natives; and many people who are older are just as able with new technologies. He explained: “We see the young people we are talking to right now, in focus groups and interviews, as more aware of privacy issues and more sophisticated in how they are think- ing about it and acting online. We are also looking hard at how young people learn and find new information. These patterns continue to change, and to offer lots of great oppor- tunities for how we might improve learning for kids around the world.”
Palfrey said he is also very interested in the way in which his work relates to the world of business: “I think the ways in which people use new technologies are hugely important to understand for any consumer-oriented company, as well as any company employing young people.”
Just as the governments are getting up to speed with the
last development , Palfrey is of the opinion that the technol- ogy is about to change the regulatory landscape once again: “[Regulating internet activity] is only becoming more in- tense and important to resolve, especially as we move more and more of our applications and data into the cloud. The ad- vent of cloud computing will make us rethink lots of these cross-border, internet-related regulatory issues that we took up first about a decade and a half ago as the first itera- tion of the web started to grow fast.” However, Palfrey has no panacea when it comes to the best approach to regulating online gambling. In fact, he is more familiar with the hoary issue of whether poker is actu- ally gambling or not. “I am certainly aware of the heightened discussions about the question of whether poker is a game of skill or chance,” he explained. “I’ve looked at the recent paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Re- search by Steven D. Levitt and Thomas J. Miles that showed a large gap between the so-called skilled players and those perceived to have less skill. To the extent that internet gam- bling is permitted, I think it would need to be a carefully reg- ulated industry.”
VIEWPOINT Fast
decade might not seem too long a time in most industries, but the fledging igaming industry isn’t like most industries. This month’s EiG Conference & Expo in Milan marks the show’s tenth anniversary and it has seen some tumul- tuous events during that time - not least the announcement of the passing of the UIGEA on the final day of the 2006 confer- ence. However, it is also where the first buds of legislation tend to appear. Many regulators across Europe have used the event to discuss how they plan to handle the igaming industry and it is still the main event, sister show ICEi aside, where companies choose to launch their latest products.
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I’ve been to a fair few EiG shows in the past - Nice, Barcelona, Copenhagen and now Milan - the event’s travelling status over the past 10 years neatly reflects the developing nature of online gaming dur- ing that period. Or at least reflects the dif- ferent attitudes towards the online gam- ing industry of the host countries. The way things are developing, maybe we will see future iterations of the event in Greece, or Germany, or Turkey? Perhaps Russia? If the local government could get its legislation in order it might even turn up in the UK!
Still ten years is not to be sniffed at in such a young industry as igaming, so much so that EiG can be viewed as an in- stitution and will soon be a tradition. Not that the old girl is getting stale - the occa- sion is as innovative as ever and the addi- tion of complementary conferences run- ning alongside the main event, increased methods of interaction within the semi- nars themselves and also outside in the exhibition space. With the LaunchPad for- mat guaranteed to showcase some new ideas as well, EiG is as vibrant as ever. Can you afford not to be in Milan?
becoming a tradition
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