ICE Totally Gaming 2015 has officially kicked off at the ExCeL conference center in London. This is the biggest event of the year in Europe for the global gaming industry with thousands of delegates, hundreds of booths and representing over sixty countries from around the world.
The popularity of this conference continues to grow every year and you could see this fact for yourself, if you arrived between the hours of 10am and 12pm this morning. The line to get inside of the expo was wrapped around the front entrance, everyone anxious to get inside into the warmth and excitement of ICE.
Taking a walk through the expo hall on the first day is always a trip, especially for the first time attendees. Novomatic has secured a gigantic booth space as always, Microgaming has created a green screen set where delegates can get their picture taken and receive a print out of themselves sitting on the Game of Thrones “iron throne”, there are topless, body painted women, all sorts of models in cute little outfits, slot machines, slot machines and more slot machines and just about anything else to tickle the gambling senses.
Back by popular demand this year was the Bitcoin and Crypto Currencies Seminar, a day of sessions dedicated to crypto currencies and opportunities in gaming. The value of Bitcoin has plummeted over the past few months, leaving some gaming operators hesitant to get involved at this stage. Sonny Singh of BitPay told CalvinAyre.com the dip in Bitcoin value has been both good and bad for the industry. Bad because its scaring people and potential businesses away and good because people are now buying and trading more Bitcoin than ever.
Regardless of Bitcoin’s “value”, events educating more and more gaming professionals on the technology behind and opportunities within Bitcoin and other crypto currencies will help push the marriage of these two industries forward.
One of the booths that stood out from the rest was OpenBet’s, likely because they were showing footage from the Super Bowl on one of their massive flat screen TVs. Well that and the booth was set up as an American bar with flat screens all over the walls and an actual bar in the center, a visual representation of OpenBet’s new optimised omni-channel gaming solutions. OpenBet’s Olivia Gillibrand hired a rickshaw to compliment the booth and help send delegates the message that OpenBet customers can access their accounts anytime, anywhere…even from one London’s famous rickshaws.
The Tribal Gaming Seminar took place today as well, a series of sessions organized by Pechanga.net’s Victor Rocha. The “How to do business in Indian Country” session featured high profile panelists David Baazov of Amaya/Rational Group, James Maida of GLI, Mario Galea and Rocha as the moderator.