This year's EiG, held in Milan, Italy, for the first time, had a quieter feel to it compared to previous years.
Having spent two years in Copenhagen, Milan was a significant choice of venue for the show, given that Italy became a major player in the industry earlier this year. However, according to exhibitors, the show felt quieter this time round with the phrase "quality rather than quantity" being used widely. According to the organiser, footfall was up by a small number on the first day.
There was also a lot of talk about mobile gaming and how an increasing number of operators are looking to incorporate it into their offering. Nicc Lewis, VP egaming services at Spiral Solutions, said in the next two or three years he expects most operators in the industry to offer mobile gaming and said that people are choosing to use their mobile phones for gaming or betting at home rather than their PCs now. In partnership with Neomobile, Spin3 announced a new mobile gaming experience for the regulated Italian market this week.
OpenBet celebrated its 15th anniversary at the show. The company was showcasing its branded games, having just announced a number of deals, including one with exclusive rights partnership to develop a slot game based on the UK’s ITV game show The Cube, which the company hopes will follow the success of the Deal or No Deal branded game. Susanna Underwood, vice president of communications at OpenBet, told iNTERGAMINGi: "Things have been positive so far for the first day of the show and we’ve had some interesting new business meetings." She added: "We have a big announcement coming up next month."
The end of the first day saw the Totally Gaming Wii tennis tournament finale take place, organised by Predictalive and betting, social media and i-gaming solutions and consultancy Zukido.
Four finalists from Seven Sport Media, Everymatrix, Boylesports and Unibet - who eventually won overall to take home an iPad 2 - took place in the tournament at the show after winning a Facebook prediction competition run by Predictalive for Clarion over the French Open and Wimbledon, with more than 200 industry players taking part.
David Sargeant from Zukido commented: "The tournament was a way to get people in the industry to engage and it’s a way to provide extra engaging content on a daily basis. It also gives the show organiser Clarion something to talk about in the run-up to the show." Sargeant went on to talk about recently signing Globet for live betting games, the details of which will follow next week.
To see pictures from EiG, click here.
