ICE REVIEW – MERKUR GAMING Merkur Gaming – “Many Happy Returns”
Traditionally used as part of a birthday celebration, those three simple words aptly summed up the overwhelming opinions of all exhibitors, guests and visitors attending the 2023 ‘comeback’ edition of ICE.
A Athanasios ‘Sakis’ Isaakidis
fter a hybrid, almost totally dominated by iGaming and Sports Betting exhibits, ICE in April 2022, the show’s 2023 event concluded an almost
three years hiatus and its return was a hugely significant highlight of the post- Covid gaming landscape. Merkur regards ICE as absolutely its ‘home event’ and so went all out to present its brand in its traditional spectacular style. On what was the largest exhibitor booth in London ExCel’s north halls the laughing Merkur Sun shone proudly on top of a huge display that had been subtly redesigned in order to give improved access to visitors while also presenting the many subsidiary teams and the range of gaming omni solutions that they represented. The run up to ICE had seen many
exhibitors wishing that 2023 would prove to be ‘as good as ICE 2020’ but, in reality, from the first moment that ICE opened its doors on Day 1 it was immediately clear that this would prove to be a show that did not just ‘equal’ 2020 but which would go
on to be bigger, better, brighter and statistically far in excess of its predecessor. The post event statistics told the story.
The 40,000 visitors at ExCel broke all previous records by a substantial margin and taking into account those visitors that attended the show on more than one day added up to a total of 79,000 unique visitations. 2023’s exhibitor numbers were also record-breaking, 560 in all, representing more than 80 countries and filling all 41 halls of Excel to capacity. Merkur’s omni channel presentation
(covering everything from land-based casinos to street games, iGaming, cash handling, specific national teams and more) Merkur brought great expectations to its return to ICE and had gone to enormous lengths in having all of the brand’s newest innovations, in cabinets, game titles, multigames, Mystery and Linked Progressive Jackpots plus the theatre configuration Merkur Roulette and was proud to note a hugely successful ICE on all levels. Athanasios “Sakis” Isaakidis, Merkur Gaming Chief Executive, International
48 MARCH 2023
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