What does the October ENADA show in Rome tell us about the Italian market? Quite a bit, writes David Snook.
IF it were left to the visitors and exhibitors, there would not be an ENADA in Rome next year. Booths were obviously well spaced and the second hall was only half-filled with stands.
ENADA in the autumn, as opposed to ENADA in the spring, when it is held in Rimini. Same organisers, same event - just different times of the year. And while Rimini is such a pain to get to – you have to fly to Bologna and rent a car for the last sector or get a bus – Rome is the Italian capital with excellent communications.
It should be a no-brainer, but Rimini was two – even three – times the size of the Rome version. Only in Italy… ENADA Roma was held at the Fiera di Roma exhibition centre, a satisfactory-enough venue, from October 16-18. It was dominated by AWP machines with a strong representation of VLTs and a scattering of sports betting equipment companies. The latter was surprising in that some of the big companies, including Lottomatica, Novomatic and Merkur, had opted out this year, contributing much to the emptiness of hall two.
And the Italians were all complaining about the state of the market. How could they when it has 380,000 AWPs and 42,000 VLTs? It is by a mile the largest gaming machine market in Europe; it should therefore be thriving.
Read the full article in the December issue of InterGame.
