BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2012
ICE 2012 Shifting
VIEWPOINT
sands within the show
Andrew McCarron T
here were signs of the return to prominence of betting at this year’s event. While bookmakers have been getting to grips with the Betting Show’s incorporation into ICE, there are signs that it is starting to reassert itself. The Racing Post Café was a busy hub where many of the traditional suppliers found themselves chatting with customers old and new.
Interestingly, the international nature of the show attracted an influx of betting software suppliers, both for land-based and online bookmakers. Companies of- fering expertise in the Asian and Eastern European betting markets suddenly be- came quite prominent and long may it continue. For a long time, the UK betting market has set the benchmark for the in- dustry, but if other jurisdictions are catching up then there may be an inter- esting evolution occurring for operators. Scandinavia has long provided the in- dustry with some of the more advanced online gaming software developers. Per- haps it’s time to take a look at how other countries approach the business. What else seemed noticeable was a sizable shift from the land-based casino industry to the online one. It was not dif- ficult to ascertain where the excitement and general atmospheric buzz was when walking around the show. Earls Court 2, where the majority of the land-based op- erators were based, had a staid almost sterile atmosphere compared to the con- tinual hubbub around the online gaming area and the Microgaming-sponsored bar in particular. Perhaps this was be- cause the online industry still seems ripe for consolidation, given the sheer num- ber of suppliers the sector still has re- gardless of the acquisitive efforts of Playtech, GTech G2 and OpenBet. In comparison the traditional casino industry is dominated by a relatively small number of suppliers whose stands feel like mini-exhibitions in their own right where visitors to them should be is- sued with their own maps.
This has happened before with this ex- hibition. When I first attended, way back in 1999, the casino side had a small foot- print and was located upstairs, with the far bigger coin-op and theme park shows on the ground floor. Slowly but surely the International Casino Exhibition, as it used to be known, usurped the theme park rides and then the fruit machines to become the main player. Now the online side of the business is following the same route - it wasn’t that long ago that ‘ICEi’ consisted of just two strips of the casino show. Before long it will be the main event and the move to ExCel could well hasten that transition.
ISLE OF MAN
The Isle of Man is trading on its well deserved reputation while trying to attract operators and suppliers to base themselves on the island. Ray Davies, development manager e- gaming, discusses the jurisdiction’s style.
I
t’s an interesting time for the re- mote jurisdictions - what are your aims for this year?
The Isle of Man has had a very in-
teresting and successful year so far, the in- troduction of the new network licence has proved to be of interest to industry and we have a number of applications being processed currently. OneWorks was the first Network Licence to be issued and there are a number to follow. We are keen to con- tinue to market the Island as a jurisdiction of choice when it comes to the establish- ment and administration of e-gaming com- panies. The Island is home to some of the most influential operators in the industry and we hope for a steady increase to the number of well known operators basing their operations here.
What did the show tell you about the key issue for operators - technological, reputa- tional or political? Without doubt the Isle of Man’s reputation was one of the key talking points. A good number of people approached me to ask about the Island and commented that they wanted to speak to me because they had heard that the Island was amongst the best in terms of reputation, especially player protection and customer service. Technolo-
AWARDS
Awarding approach to industry O
ver 300 of the international gaming in- dustry’s leading lights gathered at cen-
tral London’s prestigious 8 Northumberland Avenue, for the inaugural Totally Gaming Awards ceremony. Held on the evening prior to ICE Totally Gaming, a packed audience of international dignitaries saw Ron Goudsmit and Wes Himes receive outstanding service awards, and Jan Jones receiving a Lifetime Achievement award. Sponsored by Novomatic and compered
by broadcaster Katie Derham, the Awards attracted an influential audience of gaming industry professionals from both the online and land-based sectors. Designed to recog- nise innovation, the 12 category winners were:
• Best Online Casino of the Year;
888.com (presented by the Remote Gambling As- sociation)
• Best Street Supplier of the Year; JCM Global (presented by GamBet News)
WES HIMES RECEIVED AN AWARD FOR
OUTSTANDING
SERVICE TO THE REMOTE INDUSTRY
• Best Lottery Product of the Year;
raff.me by Raff Ltd. (presented by European Lot- teries)
• Best Betting Product of the Year; Inspired Gaming Group (presented by Play 'N' Go)
• Best Landbased Casino of the Year; Casi- no Cosmopol (presented by Caesars En- tertainment)
• Best Manufacturer of the Year; Austrian Gaming Industries (presented by In- tergame)
• The Media Award; Novomatic - The World of Gaming (presented by The Great Foun- dation)
• Best Casino Operator of the Year; The Lido Club by Holland Casino Amsterdam (presented by GB Media Corporation)
• Best Mobile Gaming Product of the Year; Betfair for iPhone (presented by Remote Gaming Association)
• Best Bingo Product of the Year; Jack- potjoy - Gamesys (presented by Bingo Life Magazine)
• Best Marketing Campaign of the Year; Casinos Austria (presented by Scott & Jones)
• Best Online Gaming Product of the Year;
888poker.com (presented by Wirecard)
• Outstanding Service to the Landbased Industry; Ron Goudsmit
• Outstanding Service to the Remote In- dustry; Wes Himes
• Lifetime Achievement Award; Jan Jones
B2B 21
Collaborative approach ensures depth of knowledge
gy was also high on the priority list, the Isle of Man provides a resilient and reliable envi- ronment in which to host gaming sites and our data centres provide world-class DDOS mitigation. If the worst happens, operators can switch over to servers based on the Is- land quickly and have the knowledge that they are operating in a robust and secure en- vironment. There are no licence require- ments or costs to base disaster recovery in- frastructure on the Island and legislation is in place that allows temporary operation without delay.
The Isle of Man stand contains many of the island’s providers - what does this approach achieve?
The Isle of Man’s collaborative approach en- sures that we have a depth of knowledge on the stand to answer almost any enquiry there and then. The stand is so busy that we need that amount of people just to cope with the amount of interest in the Island. What we have been successful in achieving is to in- spire the companies with us to sell the Island first and this means that anyone coming to the stand meets an Isle of Man representa- tive who can talk in detail about the Island and its offering to gaming clients. It is a great sign that our companies are willing to stand side-by-side and sell the Isle of Man rather
than view each other as competitors.
What have you found to be the emerging trends after three days at ICE?
Reputation: The Isle of Man is recognised as a well respected jurisdiction and that being licensed on the Island is a benchmark of quality which is good for business. We have received a lot of interest from companies wanting to be associated with us. Regulation: The Island’s simple yet effec- tive regulation has been of great interest also. Our simple yet flexible three licence structure can accommodate most models of business and our costs remain competi- tive. Visitors to the stand have been im- pressed with the knowledge and business- friendly support that the e-Gaming team provide.
Reliability: The Island’s excellent infrastructure provides a reliable, low cost, high speed service. We have received con- siderable interest in our world-class data centres and their inherent resilience and re- liability. Our Disaster Recovery capability has proved popular.
ICE 2012 has again been a very good
show, and whilst we will be saying goodbye to Earls Court this year, we are already look- ing forward to next year and to excel at ExCel.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48