It will be two years since the last edition of ICE – what undertakings are you making to maximise attendance?


Obviously, our big fear was that having been ‘away’ for what will be two years the industry may have lost some of its passion for the excitement and theatre of in-person. Tis hasn’t been the case and in fact our registrations in the first fortnight of going live have exceeded those for the 2020 show at the same stage.


We haven’t diluted our commitment to and passion for creative marketing and communications which is born out of a recognition that we have to earn every single exhibitor and visitor who makes the journey to London or decides to support ICE London.


We worked extremely hard on the campaign deployed in support of iGB Live! and we are applying the same approach to ICE London.


Te campaign in support of 2022 is the biggest on record reaching out to more industry professionals in more jurisdictions than ever before. I believe that the headline for ICE London 2022 ‘Together never felt so good’ captures what we have all been missing. We’ve spent a lot of time talking with our customers and listening to their hopes and aspirations, and the sense of solidarity and coming together as a community at ICE London has featured highly.


Tis is our biggest campaign investment and one which will maximise the number of touch- points the brand has with the international industry, attempt to answer any misgivings about in-person and work alongside our exhibitors to amplify the ‘Together never felt so good’ core campaign message.


What are you doing to deliver a strong and compelling customer experience?


Te customer experience is made up of a number of different elements with the foundations comprising the exhibitor proposition found on the show floor, the learning content represented by ICE VOX, the at show features, the networking opportunities and the overall look, feel and ambience which is quite subjective and difficult to quantify.


Te team is working extremely hard on all of these fronts. Te exhibitor line-up is as strong as ever with the right balance of established names, new enterprises and positive disruptors. ICE VOX is now being run in partnership with ICE365.com enabling us to start our content streams in advance of the live event, with the crescendo taking place at VOX – where for the first time ever, delegates will be able to hand- pick the content streams that appeal to them– making the valuable time spent at ICE even more efficient.


I am personally committed to making this edition of ICE London the most visually impactful and memorable on record and I know many of the gaming brands exhibiting at ICE share that goal.


Are you continuing with the esports arena and what can visitors expect?


that it would never operate against the interests of its customers and stakeholders and will always seek to facilitate opportunity.


Stuart Hunter Managing Director, Clarion Gaming


“The reasons given for


wanting to remain in London weren’t based on tradition or history and the majority of respondents were from continental Europe. The


reasons given were a mix of business and logistical including ease of travel,


convenience for international visitors/exhibitors and the ability to attract the right mix of customers and suppliers.” Stuart Hunter


Te straightforward answer is yes, we are. I think the team was way ahead of the game when we launched the esports feature at ICE London 2020. We then had the Covid-enforced absence but returned with an in-depth esports betting and engagement feature at iGB Live! in September. Tis harnessed the expertise of our partners in the esports space, including Escharts, Bayes and payments provider, Skinsback, to help shine a light on the culture surrounding esports and included practical presentations covering topics such as data, the use of esports influencers as well as unravelling key viewership analytics, all with the core objective of helping the industry to deepen their knowledge of esports betting.


At ICE London 2022 we will continue to help operators benefit from a global phenomenon which is generating annual betting revenues that are estimated to be worth $13bn. Te area has been relocated in order to be closer to our Sports Betting exhibitors and it will feature a purpose-built arena on wheels. It’s going to be a fantastic spectacle and I think our approach to esports underlines our desire to be first to market and our philosophy of continuous improvement.


There’s been some discussion about London as host city and ExCeL as the venue – how have you responded and what are the future plans for the show?


Te ICE brand has always undertaken to work with the industry that it serves which means


As part of a process of constantly checking and verifying policy and decisions we commissioned an independent research company to consult with operators in the industry and establish what their opinions were on London as the host city. Te research, which was undertaken by Explori, told us that 75 per cent of respondents, confirmed that in their opinion London was the best host city: 10 per cent said it wasn’t and the remainder were either undecided or didn’t answer the question.


Te reasons given for wanting to remain in London weren’t based on tradition or history and the majority of respondents were from continental Europe. Te reasons given were a mix of business and logistical including ease of travel, convenience for international visitors/exhibitors and the ability to attract the right mix of customers and suppliers.


Among the 10 per cent of respondents who felt that London did not constitute the best host city over half of this group (51 percent) expressed a preference for Amsterdam as a potential alternative host. Te venue in Amsterdam, the RAI, is extremely good and modern: iGB Live! was held there in September and we are huge fans of the venue, the city and the RAI team– however it’s not big enough for a show the size of ICE London and it would severely limit what exhibitors could do with their brands.


Having an exhibition which is the size of ICE does limit and restrict the choice of venue that’s available. One of the issues raised relates to third party costs of being in London, in particular hotel accommodation. To address this, we’ve established an internal team with responsibility for helping stakeholders source quality, competitively priced hotels and we appointed a new accommodation supplier. Te results have been positive – in some cases securing discounts of 40 per cent off the quoted room rate. I would like to stress that we are not adopting a dogmatic position on location and we will be revisiting this issue next year with our exhibitor base post the 2022 event.


Why did you feel it was necessary to produce the ICE Charter earlier this year?


We published our Charter in July but had been working on it for six months prior to that. From the brand’s perspective I felt it was important to underline the continuity of outlook that has served the ICE brand so well and underline our commitment to our stakeholders.


We take a ‘life time customer’ approach and the ICE Charter was a way of confirming that and reminding people that the brand is always there. In terms of specifics, we have committed to freezing the costs of exhibiting next year and the year after, secured a £500,000 investment in a Hosted Buyer Programme, removed the historical charges for ‘double-decker’ space, provided all exhibitors with a 10 per cent discount for all IT orders covering hard-wired LAN internet and Wi-Fi hotspots and introduced a 121 Match Programme to organise pre-vetted


WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P49


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