ICE 2016 made a big push to cater to start-ups and innovation in the online gambling industry, a theme that has been going strong for a few years now at Clarion’s events. Features of ICE dedicated to start-ups included Pitch ICE, Start-up Academy, GamCrowd Studio for start-ups and the “games to watch” competition.

Feedback from start-ups about their time at ICE was overwhelmingly positive, at least according to the start-ups I spoke with.  My good friend David Sargeant, Founder of iGaming Ideas, works many start-ups but two in particular, BetUp and SnapBet, found great value in attending ICE 2016.

BetUp is an in-play fan engagement tool that uses a pools model to both entertain and educate sports fans.  At ICE, BetUp announced Unibet as their launch partner.

“What we’ve done with BetUP is not only create an intuitive live betting experience but also build a narrative around that experience. We are putting in-play into a wider context so it will appeal to the type of sports fans who might otherwise be intimidated by standard fixed-odds betting”, said Tamir Berler, CEO and Founder of BetUP.