The question facing most of the international coin machine industry – certainly in the amusement and limited gaming (AWP) sectors – is where it goes in January 2010.
For more years than anyone cares to remember, the ATEI has been not just the focal point for the UK sector, but for the European, and arguably the global markets too. For the first time, that is being challenged.
The European Amusement and Gaming Expo is set for the same January 2010 dates as ATEI at Earls Court. EAG Expo is located at the state-of-the-art ExCel exhibition centre, close to the O2 Arena and right on the River Thames.
While it is perfectly possible to get to both shows during the three days, it is inescapable that they are some distance apart in terms of travelling time, almost opposite directions if you are in a West End hotel. There are those who will go to both, whatever anyone says; but which should have the accent, in terms of the three days?
The habit of years may make some go to the hotel close to Earls Court that they have always used. Indeed, there will be some, especially in the international sector, who will be blissfully unaware that anything has changed and will go to Earls Court and wonder where some of the big names have gone.
They will find the casino sector – or ‘gaming’ industry, now that the International Casino Exhibition (ICE) has been re-named International Gaming Exhibition (IGE). This was to widen its scope to take in the limited gaming machine market, or AWPs as they are generally known internationally, and which the British now confusingly call ‘Category C’.
So where have the exhibitors gone? Which show have they opted for, the ATEI at Earls Court, now back on the ground floor alongside the IGE, or out to ExCel to join the EAG Expo?
Looking at the two floor plans for ATEI and EAG Expo, the feeling that the new show ticks all the boxes is inescapable, just by virtue of the names signed up for the show. Sega, Namco, Electrocoin, MDM, UDC, Crown, Harry Levy, RLMS, are all big players, many of them major distributors of both amusement and AWP machines. ATEI, by contrast, appears to be a small add-on to the very large casino event, with hardly anyone of international repute.
It has to be said immediately, in fairness, that the ATEI floor plan is downloaded from the organiser’s website and may not be up to date, while the EAG Expo plan is correct as of last week. We are also told by Clarion Gaming, the owners of ATEI and IGE, that they are talking to ‘a number of major players in the international market’.
Again, in fairness, it should be remembered that IGE also has some big names in the AWP business on its floor plan, notably Astra (on the stand of its owners Novomatic) and Barcrest (strangely renamed IGT UK), Apex, Merkur and JPM.
The EAG Expo has named Project Coin, a major UK manufacturer, as an exhibitor, in addition to those companies like Electrocoin who make their own machines and distribute for others, MDM and Wessex Coin, all notable names.
Interestingly, the biggest UK name, Bell-Fruit, has yet to be listed anywhere, which suggests it may still be ‘sitting on the fence’ or otherwise remains determined not to show at all, as it did in 2009.
On a straight line through amusements and AWPs, it is difficult to argue with the suggestion that EAG Expo is winning hands down over ATEI at this moment, even if you drag across the AWP producers who are in IGE.
The ATEI owners are not unsurprisingly slow to offer the suggestions that EAG Expo is ‘a British show’ or that it is ‘a distributor show’. All’s fair in love, war and exhibition organising, of course! Some of the big names from outside of the UK have yet to decide where they are going – that is obvious from looking at both floor plans, so it is perhaps a little early to describe EAG Expo as ‘a British show’.
It is also worth remembering that as the EAG Expo is owned by the UK trade association, BACTA, it offers space to its own members at a substantial discount to exhibitors.
It is very hard to imagine that anyone from the European or global market who is interested in amusements or AWPs is not going to go to ExCel; curiosity, if nothing else, will take them there. The line-up of major names is inescapable. It also has to be said that those with interests in the harder forms of gambling, will have to go to Earls Court. The question is: can the AWP side of IGE also be seen at ExCel? If they can, then none but the casino operators should be going to Earls Court.
At InterGame (the Official International Publication of EAG Expo), we have made no secret of our platform that there is a closer affinity between the AWP machine and the amusement machine than there is between the AWP machine and the casino slot. AWPs and amusements constitute the wider ‘street market’; indeed, in many countries the casino business actively works against the street market politically.
We feel, therefore, that AWPs belong at ExCel, but acknowledge that it is up to the exhibitors to decide that issue and some may feel insecure about a change of venue, at least in the first year.
The proof of the pudding, as the saying goes, is in the eating. If the international industry divides as we believe it should do, then the street market will go to ExCel and the casino market will go to Earls Court.
Time will tell.
