With an increase in pre-registrations up 4 percent from 2011, a 21 percent increase in bookings for the ICE conferences program and a 150 percent increase in website traffic, optimism for the 2012 ICE exhibition ran high. The final exhibition to be shown in the great exhibition halls of Earls Court, West London, was going to be the biggest yet, with exhibitors claiming 22,466 square meters of stand space. Over the three-day period, from Jan. 24 -26, visitors arrived in droves, past the many advertising banners for SPIELO International’s Egyptian Gold™ and into the awaiting halls. The two faces of gaming, land-based and Internet, merged under one umbrella in a seamless corridor of gaming products and solutions to become the most comprehensive B2B gaming expo anywhere in the world. The organizers, Clarion Events, had already confirmed that exhibitors from a total of 52 sovereign states would be exhibiting to an expected audience of 20,000 visitors in the two exhibition halls. Exhibition Hall One was full to the brim and was dedicated to online gaming products and solutions. It gently merged into Exhibition Hall Two, where the land-based companies were exhibiting. On the upper floors, visitors filled the seminar rooms, and around the corner in the West Brompton Conference Centre, the conferences focused on strong topics that included: social media and social gaming; combating cybercrime; integration of on- and offline gaming; and customer relationship management. With a promise of 5,000 products, services and innovations being unveiled and 64 out of 444 exhibitors making their debut, where to start?
While there was a general footfall throughout the two exhibition halls, and into the seminars and conferences, the busiest stands appeared to be WMS and IGT. Slots attracted much interest. As Marcus Prater, executive director of AGEM, said: “It’s been a difficult stretch for suppliers and others in the gaming industry over the last few years, but there’s been enough expansion and other business opportunities that suppliers have done fairly well. The level of innovation among the slot suppliers is currently very high, and many are investing in new technology as our industry continues to evolve.” They certainly are.
WMS showcased three new games and was particularly focused on delivering to market-specific players. Their The Baron von Bacon™ game was especially designed with the younger generation in mind, with its key feature being the inclusion of interactive games such as hangman, making it a much more playful experience.
Interaction was also a key feature at IGT’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s™, with its interactive touch-sensitive screen and MEGAfx Surround Chair with stereo sound, making it a whole sensory experience for the player. But it’s not just good for the players, as Will Foster, product manager, told me, “All these models combine great gaming action with performance,” making them even more attractive for casino owners.
Another key feature at ICE for the slots this year was the community-linked games. IGT successfully launched their Ghostbusters™ and Dark Knight™ community-linked games in 2011 in the U.S., and they are now hoping to conquer the European market, as was Konami Gaming Inc. with their Beat the Field™ community-style linked progressive.
At WMS, they are developing their wide area progressives (WAP) that will be played not only among the local community of players within the casino, but will be linked with several casinos, making the jackpots even bigger. Candace Lucas, WMS executive director marketing operations, said, “It’s these competitive games that give life-changing payouts over $1 million that draw a huge amount of players.”
But it wasn’t just progressives, interaction and community-linked games that were in demand, as there was a huge emphasis on cultural awareness. As Foster said: “When developing games, we are mindful of the different domestic markets. International markets have more growth than the U.S., so we’ve developed different games for different cultural markets.” Being market-attuned was featured heavily in many of the seminars.
The deregulation that has swept Europe has also pushed competing companies into becoming more aware of each country’s cultural differences and regulations. So in many ways, it’s an ever-increasing minefield for the game developers. The different cultural habits and requirements were highlighted in the seminar “Competing in Gaming: Regulated Market; Case Study: Spain.” Michel Pascual Alvarez, CEO, Amstrust Insurance Spain, explained that the Spanish customers are very sociable, so their preferences lean toward either multi-player games or a land-based casino. The same was also said of Asia, in particular Macau, where there is a huge demand for live games. Nicole Grauzer, marketing manager at GPI, said that their company is excited to offer its wide range of table game products to the growing live table game market in Asia.
This is not so different from the feedback I received from Prater, who told me that Macau has approximately 90 percent of its customer base drawn to the live table games, and approximately 75 percent of total gaming revenue there is drawn from the VIP baccarat tables. But are the manufacturers of live table equipment able to meet their needs with new and innovative products?
“This year’s ICE gives us great encouragement toward Interblock’s newly launched products, G4 Organic Pulse™ and G4 Organic Bartop™, from interest shown from our respected clients and other casino operators,” said Joc Pececnik, chairman. G4 Organic Live Pulse™ concept, with its 32 stations encircling two live games of baccarat and roulette, clearly fits any casino’s need for innovative staging for gaming. The entire concept is built as a gladiatorial arena, and although they only showcased one level of seating, more levels might be added in the future, giving a real Coliseum feeling for the players. It is incredibly enticing.
While at Shuffle Master, they have launched their revolutionary i-TableTM, having only shown prototypes in previous years. Wolfgang Scheidl, product director of electronic gaming for Shuffle Master Europe, said that they believe it will be installed in the U.K. this year. 
New innovations have also been made with playing cards. Belgium company, Carta Mundi, was proud to launch the result of two years’ development in RFID plastic cards. Although too expensive for daily use in a casino, being approximately 50 times more expensive than playing cards, they have been developed for the very niche market of televised poker tournaments.
As a leading world supplier of casino RFID technology, GPI showcased several innovations that help to increase operational efficiencies and maximize profitability, such as the CIS version 2.0 and the RFID Poker solution, which automatically calculates the pot total and the casino rake, helping to speed up the game and reduce manual error.
As with all these new systems, where better to store them than on a cloud, especially the IGT Cloud. Having gone live with their program partner, Gala Leo Casino in Liverpool on the first day of ICE, IGT created huge excitement with its launch of the IGT Cloud solution. Stuart Hill, senior data warehouse and business intelligence software engineer/architect at IGT, demonstrated the many functions that IGT Cloud has to offer, from IGT Floor Manager service to its analytical breakdown system sbX® Analytics. However, Hill said that for Gala Casino, IGT installed Ad Manager to promote the casino’s services. It’s easy, it’s innovative and, for SMEs, it looks like a very cost-effective solution for storage and backup.
But the industry is not just about the games and solutions, either online or land-based; it’s the marketing of those games at the exhibition that also counts, and the companies stopped at nothing to draw the crowds.
IGT pulled out all the stops and gave visitors a very Las Vegas feel with Chinese dancers and drummers who paraded a Chinese dragon through Exhibition Hall Two on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, they drew an enormous crowd with their very feisty Latin American Carnaval festival dancers.
Interblock continued their philosophy, “Fight for the Revenue,” which they had started at G2E, by inviting people to meet the Slovenia middleweight champion boxer, Dejan Zavec, who was appearing at their stand. “We want to take every opportunity to show casino operators that we will be the top earners. We don’t mind telling everyone that we’re from a great country with a great culture and that we’re proud of our (Slovenian) roots,” Pececnik said.
TCSJOHNHUXLEY’s Access All Areas event at The Roof Gardens was a fantastic success. Tracy Cohen, marketing manager, explained the company’s reasons for deciding to hold the off-site event. After the success and positive response from customers to the Las Vegas AAA event, TCSJOHNHUXLEY felt the time was right to introduce this unique experience to a wider audience.
By turning one of London’s premier nightclub locations into an upscale casino, visitors were treated in the same way that casinos indulge their VIP gamblers. But, like all good casinos, they still focused on business. New products being showcased included the Infinity Auto Dealer and Supernova table technology. The Infinity Auto Dealer is a continuous, fully automated, real-time card shuffling and dealing machine, which links to terminals to play either baccarat or blackjack. However, many visitors were playing on the roulette table that was linked to the Supernova, a floor-wide progressive for use on live games. The system drives increased revenues by adding higher levels of player excitement and loyalty to all live table games.
Customer feedback is the all-important criteria, and TCSJOHNHUXLEY aims to provide the best environment to showcase their products, but also to entertain and provide exceptional hospitality.
And finally Cohen said, “We always try to provide the wow factor at our events, and one word keeps being used to sum up our Access All Areas London Event—amazing!”
The monarchs of marketing have got to be Casinos Austria, but it wasn’t at their stand, it was at the Totally Gaming Awards where they received the Best Marketing Campaign of the Year award. Karl Stoss, CEO of Casinos Austria, explained the reason they won: “We change the advertising line every 12 months, and we know our customer base.” When asked if he had a large marketing department or a sharp one, with a glint in his eye he replied, “sharp.” While the company’s operations had obviously felt the impact of the current global economic and political problems, for example in Greece or Egypt, Stoss maintains an optimistic outlook. His main problem is with unbalanced regulations and tax systems.
This unfairness in regulations and the red tape in obtaining licenses for games continues to be the biggest problem for nearly everyone I spoke to at the show. This was true for Eduardo Aching, senior director, international sales at Konami Gaming Inc., as the company does not sell to the U.K. Aching said that because of U.K. regulations, “The U.K. players have limited products. The government wants the taxes but they won’t let the casinos buy all the exciting products.”
André Wilsenach, CEO at the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, commented that “The panel discussions formed a useful platform for regulators from around the world to compare and contrast their requirements in respect of a wide range of topics, including licensing, regulatory standards, testing and certification of gaming equipment, and very importantly, cooperation between regulators.”
In the debate of “No success please, we’re British,” Richard Caborn, former Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central, said that after seeing the dissemination of communities in Australia due to lack of control on gaming machines, he felt that the act was reasonable. However, John Greenaway, former Member of Parliament for Ryesdale, arguing against Caborn, said that while casinos are still very regulated, anyone can use a mobile phone to access any unregulated online gaming website. These old arguments continued throughout the seminars and on the floor of the exhibition. But sometimes old can regenerate into something new and exciting.
Old faces launching under new names were also to be found this year as NRI, Money Controls and CashCode merged together under one umbrella to become Crane Payment Solutions, and with this merger came their new coin validator, Colibri. They haven’t been too affected by the recent years of financial turbulence, due to a wide customer base. David John, group applications manager, said that they have noticed that companies are keeping their machines for longer, and instead of upgrading every six to seven years, they are now holding onto them for nearly12 years.
Another old face now operating under a new name is SPIELO International, which is the new company name after the merger of sister companies ATRONIC and SPIELO. While they were showcasing their new AWP, VLT and casino games and their casino management systems, it was their Egyptian Gold that was drawing the crowds. It’s the company’s first progressive link using Episodic Gaming, so as players progress through the game during one session, they can each save and reactivate their achieved status during the next play session. Based on the interest in this game, it looks set to make its mark.
What was the feedback of the expo from the exhibitors? The team at ZUUM, who had been showcasing their TOP37/38, an electronic roulette game that overcomes any roulette wheel bias by using lottery-style air-blown balls, told me “The show for ZUUM was the best ever in the young ZUUM history.”
Tom Doyle, VP product management at Bally Technologies, said that, from the systems perspective, “The ICE show was better this year compared to last year. We saw more traffic in our booth and did far more extensive demos of our products.”
While Andy Reichlin, marketing director at MEI, commented that while G2E is great, ICE is the most important show, as it has become so international. Reflecting on ICE this year, Reichlin said: “This year’s show was extremely positive, and the attendees were optimistic about the state of gaming, no matter where in the world they resided. Our group has never been more enthusiastic about the industry and opportunities that lie ahead for MEI. The new products we are introducing, from SC Advance to GEO Force, were very well received by both existing and prospective customers.”
The show was also a very positive event for Casino Technology, who made their European launch of their brand-new Penthouse Slots™ series. Rossi McKee, vice president global marketing, said, “As a result of the meetings and discussions we had at ICE, we achieved agreements for business developments with leading operators at some European markets that are new to us.”
The whole show was truly amazing. The scope and range of products and solutions that were being exhibited once again made ICE an unmissable exhibition. And it exceeded its attendance forecast with an incredible total of 21,555 gaming industry professionals visiting the expo, reflecting an increase of 6.3 percent from 2011 and a whopping 15.4 percent increase on attendance from 2010. So why leave Earls Court?
Kate Chambers, portfolio director of ICE Totally Gaming, explained: “The two constants that have come back to us have been (a) the overwhelming popularity of London as a venue and (b) the need to overcome the uncertainty surrounding the future of Earls Court. The owners of Earls Court are committed to selling the site, and the constant speculation about when and how was undermining the confidence of our customers. Once the decision was taken to relocate and to remain in London, there is only one venue capable of hosting an event the size of ICE Totally Gaming, and that venue is ExCeL, London’s biggest, most modern purpose-built exhibition venue... .There are big logistical benefits in terms of build up and getting big lorries in and out of the venue. The internal layout will allow stand designers and marketing teams to really develop their presence and give them much more freedom to express themselves. We’d reached a plateau at Earls Court. ExCeL gives us the ability to take ICE Totally Gaming to the next level. Overall it’s the next really exciting stage in the development of what is a vibrant and upbeat exhibition. Our focus now switches to ICE Totally Gaming at the ExCeL Centre in London on Feb. 5-7, 2013.”
After such a brilliant show at Earls Court, the gauntlet to ExCeL has been firmly laid down.
Alison OReilly spent 24 years in the gaming industry in London, during which time she was on the management team of various casinos including the prestigious Clermont Club and the very busy Victoria Casino. Since leaving the gaming industry, she has worked as a writer.
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