ICE Totally Gaming Conference

If you want to see what the top software providers in the industry are up to then you need to get yourself to the annual ICE Totally Gaming event. Each year almost 30,000 people from 150 countries visit to view all things casino, betting, lottery, mobile, online, bingo, social and more represented at the biggest gaming exhibition in the world.

About ICE Totally Gaming

The ICE Totally Gaming event was established over 23 years ago but it didn’t take its residence at ExCeL in London until 2013 – moving the event from January to February. The annual event combines the likes of land-based gaming with the digital age allowing for two worlds to be explored all under the one roof.

The event takes place every year and is organised by one of the world’s leading events coordinators, Clarion. The company has been around since 1947 with multiple sectors including gaming offered. Clarion’s business model has allowed for ICE Totally Gaming to be the launch pad for operators and providers to network, build relationships and showcase their latest innovations over the course of three days.

Every year since the event first took place, ICE Totally Gaming has grown – in terms of both the number of visitors and the size of the show floor, which at the time of writing is set to be 40,925 square metres at the 2017 event, compared to the 38,980 square metres in 2016. The floor is home to huge product launches, both official and unofficial meetings between real players, as well as operators and providers, trend spotting, market predictions, tours by politicians, government regulation discussions, and even celebrity appearances.

In summary, ICE Totally Gaming is the biggest B2B gaming event in the world.

Ice Totally Gaming exhibitions and seminars

The main attraction to the ICE Totally Gaming event each year is the exhibitors. Each year more and more exhibitors sign up to showcase a display with over 1000 exhibitors recorded for 2017, with the biggest sector being the Casino sector, while Online and Mobile are not far behind. Lottery and Bingo feature less, while Social is the smallest sector.

The event features exhibitions from companies who offer casino software, game development, betting services, payment solutions, IT & infrastructure, business services, gaming equipment, betting hardware, land-based casino operations, machine gaming, regulation and even monitors and screens.

ICE Totally Gaming also provides a range of free-to-attend seminars which run across the three days and cover hot topics in the industry. These seminars look at the positives of the industry, as well as contentious issues which threaten growth including restricted and non-regulated jurisdictions. The industry is explored as an entire unit, with country-specific issues occasionally discussed too.

Biggest product launches at ICE Totally Gaming

ICE Totally Gaming has become the event to release the biggest products of the year for several top software developers. Some of the best products were first announced and/or showcased at ICE totally Gaming event including new pokies and online casino games releases. Our favourite reveals are detailed below.

Microgaming VR

Microgaming launched one of the most exciting and innovative products at ICE Totally Gaming 2016 – the VR Roulette.
Microgaming showcased the game in a CYRO lab which had screens on the outside for viewers to watch on. The game saw a roulette table in outer space and a player could enter the world once they put on the Oculus Rift DK 2 headset which was combined with the Leap Motion 3D Controller to track the player’s hand movements, projecting them into the 3D world.

Run by a dealer robot, the software provider showed just how big of an impact VR will have on the gaming industry and while the VR roulette game hasn’t been made available 12 months on from the reveal, it’s clear where the provider is headed.

Microgaming also won the Global Gaming award for Digital Gaming Innovation Of The Year for this product in 2016 – we detail the awards below.

NetEnt’s Rock trilogy

In January 2016, the hugely anticipated pokie Guns N’ Roses, with the rights to use the iconic rock band’s soundtrack on the title, was released by NetEnt. This title was announced at the ICE Totally Gaming 2015 event and it took a year to be rolled out.

Although we thought this title would take the cake for the biggest release of the year, NetEnt surprised everyone at the ICE Totally Gaming 2016 announcing two other pokies would join Guns N’ Roses to create a Rock trilogy.

These two pokies were the Jimi Hendrix title, released in April 2016, and the Motorhead pokie, rolled out at casinos in September 2016. Both titles feature the incredible sounds from the iconic music legend and the huge rock band, respectively.

Totally Gaming Awards

In 2012 the addition of the Totally Gaming Awards, also known as the Global Gaming Awards, was added to the event to recognise the operators and providers in the industry.

The Global Gaming Awards generally take place prior to the three-day event, to avoid overshadowing the exhibitions. Each year the categories grow and there’s now a total of 12 categories including Digital Operator of the Year, Digital Gaming Innovation of the Year, Customer Loyalty Program of the Year, Digital Acquisition Program of the Year, Responsible Business of the Year, Digital Product of the Year, Digital Industry Supplier of the Year, as well as awards for land-based operators and venues too.

Many of the categories are also sponsored by the best providers and operators in the industry.

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