EiG 2014, held over three days at Arena Berlin in the German capital this week, closed yesterday with many visitors and exhibitors hailing the event a success.
The line up of exhibitors was a mix of established big names, such as Betradar and Net Entertainment, alongside new entrants including Bet It Best, VVV Solutions and Element Wave, and jurisdictions Alderney, Isle of Man and Malta.
The 2013 event in Barcelona was characterised by a rush of visitors on the first morning of the show that soon dispersed, mostly into the screened conference rooms at the back of the hall. In Berlin, organiser Clarion Events had tackled this issue head on by locating the two main conference areas in the centre of the hall.
There was some noise overspill but there was clear benefit in bringing the conference delegates into the heart of the exhibition space with attendees happy to visit surrounding stands between sessions during the three days of EiG. The breakout areas, sponsored by Greentube and Microgaming among others, were a bustling success. The Microgaming Bar – with the company’s resident T2 Terminator statue standing guard – was packed throughout the event.
Last year, a number of large organisations took meeting rooms off site instead of being present in the hall itself – a move countered in Berlin with a series of discreet meeting rooms dotted around the venue perimeter. The net result was a number of big names represented on the floor but without an exhibition stand, including senior figures from Sky Bet, William Hill, Amaya and Income Access.
Elsewhere, digital advertising company Fresh 8 scooped top spot in the Start-Up LaunchPad after what the judges called the “strongest set of presentations” in the history of the competition.
Fresh 8 secured 36 per cent of the audience vote, ahead of contenders Discount IF, Lucky VR, Asylum Labs and Betify. Andrew Sharland, managing director and co-founder of Fresh 8, said: “We are a digital advertising company that specialises in advertising technology and sports betting. We are an ad serving platform that connects content, CRM and live bet data to create personalised displays.”
Something that did not change from 2013 was the official party, expertly hosted by SafeCharge in Barcelona and again in Berlin, this time joined as sponsors by Playtech.
