International Casino Exhibition ( ICE ) 2017
So I made my annual trek to the Excel London during the second week of February, for the International Casino Exhibition ( ICE ) 2017, which in my view is an event not to be missed in the iGaming Calendar.
As well as the ICE Totally Gaming Show at Excel London, I also caught up with friends, acquaintances, casino operators and casino webmasters at the annual Casinomeister Meet.
Yes, the iGaming Conference season was well and truly upon us. In addition to ICE and the Meister Meet there was also the small matter of the London Affiliate Conference. With LAC as it is more fondly known, piggy backing off the ICE. With both events now ultimately owned and operated by Clarion Events.
Alas two nights in London is enough for me, so I decided against staying the entire week, so I made a judgement call to miss the LAC this time around. That said, if you are wanting to enter the fray in the iGaming Industry as an affiliate, LAC really is an event you should be attending. Well, at least the once in your ‘webmastering’ career.
Apart from meeting up with old friends and visiting the ICE Show at London Excel, I had hoped to interview on camera several people involved in the iGaming Industry. Alas, this unfortunately did not happen but all was not lost as you will see below. As I managed to get some footage of my visit to the ICE Show.
Casinomeister Meet – Waxy O’Connors
One of the highlights of the week, where forum members of the Casinomeister Portal and Forum converge on Waxy O’ Connors just off Leicester Square for several hours.
The Casinomeister meeting has been held by Bryan for a number of years now and as well as forum members, operators and other high profile individuals from the iGaming industry attend.
Previously sponsored by the guys at Club World, this time, Bryan was actually covering the bar bill. So firstly big thanks for putting on this event and secondly thanks for getting your wallet out Bryan.
Obviously I took full advantage of the free bar whilst catching up with some old friends. I managed to also have a good chat with Alex Pratt the Managing Director of iGaming Business. Several years ago Alex and I took a ferry from Dunkirk to escape the infamous ‘Ash Cloud’ affected Casino Affiliate Convention conference in Amsterdam.
Very recently I had conversed with Alex concerning the fact that the COO of AffPower was a judge for the iGaming Affiliate Awards. Alex quite rightly removed her as a judge. If you don’t already know, AffPower are a rogue and blacklisted casino group, caught with their pants down ripping off NetEnt games. You can read and view my thoughts about this particular topic here.
All in all a great evening of which I ended up in the Hippodrome Casino with the likes of Mark from KasinoKing.co.uk and Daryl from FastPayingCasinos.com. Fortunately no casino footage was taken, but below you can view a short video overview of the Casinomeister Meet.
If you didn’t attend this year, make sure you do in 2024 as it is great fun with like minded individuals.
Casinomeister Meet 2017 Video Overview
ICE Totally Gaming
I have been attending the ICE Totally Gaming ( International Casino Exhibition ) since way back, with the first ICE I frequented being back in 2006, when it was held at Earls Court.
Back in the day, only a small area of floor space was afforded to iGaming, whereas now, iGaming takes up as much space as it’s land based cousin.
The event in short is huge and fitting in the whole show in one day was some task. The footage below is filmed mainly on my iPhone, so apologies for some of the quality of the footage in advance, as filming was prohibited. ( Phone held at chest height trying to be inconspicuous! ).
However fellow YouTuber Dunover Slots and myself managed to get around this. Dunover’s idea was ingenious, although he did look a bit of a wally!
The footage of the ICE ( International Casino Exhibition ) provides you with an overview of the exhibitors and companies who had stands. If you have never attended the ICE it is a must attend event. Whether you are a player, webmaster, operator or work within the land based and iGaming Industry.
All the big land based and online software developers were there, with the likes of Microgaming and Playtech, vying for floor space with Novomatic, IGT and Scientific Gaming ( WMS ).
I even came across Daenerys Targaryen ( Khalesi ) hanging out by the Game of Thrones Slot Machine.
Alas I believe it was a lookalike and she did not have her dragons with her. However, there was a Walker from the Walking Dead nearby as the Walking Dead Slot Machine was located just around the corner.
It is such a shame though that I could not do the show justice due to the undercover technique of filming.
Hopefully, next year I can get a media pass, so I can film without having to hold my mobile at chest height!
All in all the ICE was as per usual a great show. Although by the end of it, I was done in, having walked what seemed like miles.
The evening was spent in a great little pub in Convent Garden, called Chandos. Where several stouts were enjoyed with Bryan and Max from Casinomeister and also forum member Dunover ( Who appears in the video below ).
Before checking out the walk through video of this year’s ICE below, you can also check out my review of the 2016 ICE here.
