Clarion Gaming’s managing director, Stuart Hunter, reveals what’s in store for gaming industry professionals at the expanded ICE 2025 in its new home of Barcelona.
January will be the greatest gathering of gaming professionals in the history of the industry and the Clarion team cannot wait to deliver such a truly historic event.
The 2025 ICE and iGB Affiliate shows will comprise 120,000sq.m compared to the 100,000sq.m at ICE 2024. Whilst we could have filled much more space, our strategy is to expand the physical size of the show but only in parallel with a proportionate uplift in attendance.
The targets that we have set are to grow ICE/iGB Affiliate to 200,000sq.m over the next five years and the attendance to circa 100,000. The attendance target will represent a 45 per cent uplift on the record established in February 2024.
Click here to register for ICE 2025
Our exhibitor line-up is the best in the world and includes the leading innovators from absolutely every gaming vertical. In terms of the statistics, ICE and iGB Affiliate 2025 will feature over 1,000 exhibitors – an emphatic point of difference with competing events on the industry calendar.
ICE Association Assembly
The first ICE Association Assembly has been created to enable trade bodies to promote their values and create new opportunities for the gaming community across every sector and geography.
It has been welcomed by leading bodies including both the Brussels-based European Casino Association (ECA) and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM), the global trade association for gaming equipment suppliers which has its primary headquarters in Las Vegas.
Erwin Van Lambaart, chair of the ECA, has confirmed that members are already planning their week in Barcelona and described having a show floor feature which will enable the ECA to engage directly with all sectors as being ‘a unique opportunity.’
Similarly, Daron Dorsey, CEO of AGEM, said that the ability to explain AGEM’s agenda and engage with a truly international audience of association colleagues on the ICE show floor would be ‘invaluable.’
ICE has always been a focal point for world trade associations and the place where the big policy decisions are made. I’m honoured that ICE is able to provide a show floor feature to assist the global industry in this way.
Keynote speakers
The ICE World Gaming Forum has embraced the importance of Latin America to gaming operators and secured Vicente Fox, the 62nd president of Mexico, as one of its keynote speakers. With a projected annual growth rate of 8.45 per cent by 2029, Mexico is one of the hottest markets in Latin America after Brazil.
The former president will headline the World Regulatory Briefing taking place on Monday, January 20, where he will address the topic of ‘Regulation and Revitalisation’ and the requirements needed to balance economic growth with community protection.
Esports representation
In partnership with Oddin.gg, which is our prestigious headline sponsor for both the ICE Esports Arena and ICE Esports Conference, we will be hosting a four-team Counter-Strike tournament with full on-site production. Oddin.gg will supply the odds and help explain both the content and why esports is such a commercially important vertical for operators.
The Arena will be even more impressive in our new venue, and I’m confident it will remain the most visited feature on the ICE show floor.
Going into our third year, we expect an audience comprising esports professionals, operators and representatives from throughout the esports betting ecosystem.
I’m delighted that Clarion Gaming has played a crucial role in promoting esports, and our aim is to use the high-profile platform that ICE provides to educate all sectors of the industry, and, in the process, cement esports’ position in the mainstream as an evolving entertainment vertical.
