The day is Monday. Date – February 7. Location – London. Temperature – 0℃ (32℉). That can only mean one thing. It’s ICE week.
Ahead of the annual congregation in the UK’s capital (for the foreseeable future), CasinoBeats, in the first of a two-part ICE London special, took to its 100 Club members ahead of the ExCel’s doors opening tomorrow morning to get a flavour of what excites them most about the event, which has returned to its pre-pandemic slot in February.
We asked: What are you most excited for at ICE 2023?
Claudia Heiling, Golden Whale: The Golden Whale Productions team can’t wait to make a splash at ICE London and showcase the power and prowess of our technologies.
As a next-generation infrastructure supplier, we bring data science and machine learning applications into practical use for online gaming operators and suppliers. Our software systems allow for the integration, modelling and orchestration of large data sets for industrial machine-learning tasks.
While the industry has started to experiment with both data science and ML, our solutions take this to the next level – the advances we have made are so significant that there is already a tangible gap between companies using systems such as ours to accelerate product development with a focus on user experience and lifetime optimisation and those that are not.
Helen Walton, G.Games: A new bout of COVID? Seeing what new ways all my plans for the stand can go wrong? Forgetting the enormously expensive gifts I have bought? Failing to remember an important customer’s name? Wondering if my body can take another five day combo of alcohol, sleep deprivation and work? Realising two competitors are launching a similar game theme to our hero product in the same month? The enormous relief on Thursday lunchtime when I start to believe I will survive for another year?
Oh go on then! The wonderful thing about ICE, for me, is that I can chart our progress as a company as I think about how far we’ve come. From the first year when we turned up to win Pitch ICE to having mini piglets on our stand and a competitor grumpily telling us that five different customers had said we were the ‘ones to watch’.
So… however hard it is (and I genuinely fear it will kill me!), all the past ICEs make up a unique photo album of our journey and success.
Philip Parry, Iforium: I am most excited about seeing everyone in person! We returned to event travel last year but ICE is the big one where all our valued partners will be in attendance.
It’s sounding like ICE 2023 is going to be the busiest one yet, our diary is already full weeks out from the event!
In-between the meetings, this year I would also like to attend the Pitch ICE presentations and see what’s new.
Michael Pedersen, Livespins: ICE is absolutely the biggest event on the conference calendar, attracting delegates from across the world, and this year’s event will undoubtedly set a record for attendance.
I’m really looking forward to connecting with attendees and chatting about the role of streaming within the online gambling space. Since Twitch took the decision to ban a handful of casinos from its platform, operators have been nervous about casino and slot streaming and exploring the incredible opportunities it presents in terms of acquisition and retention.
Livespins has been designed to allow operators to do just that, but in a way that is responsible and compliant. Because the Livespins experience sits within the casino lobby, players are afforded the exact same responsible gambling protections as when playing standard casino games.
Most delegates will yet to have enjoyed the Livespins experience for themselves, so ICE is a great opportunity to showcase our platform and the entirely new way to play online casino that it offers. I’m also looking forward to offering a sneak peek of our new ambassador product which really is a game-changer when it comes to player acquisition.
Shane Cotter, Real Dealer Studios: Since our focus is on breaking ground with non-traditional casino content, we’re particularly interested in seeing what other innovation is happening in the non-traditional content space and how far the boundaries are being pushed.
We’ve been hearing whispers about some new game types, new features and crossover games that are giving the familiar slots and traditional table games a run for their money, so naturally this is something we’re watching with interest.
So far, we’re still the only studio making Cinematic RNG games, that is, games made from recorded video created by film-industry pros. We unveiled the concept at ICE 2020, just before the pandemic hit. In the three years between, has anyone started to emulate us? This year’s ICE will be the place to find out, and frankly, we’re dead curious.
Christophe Casanova, Honore Gaming: Most people in our industry will be heading to ICE this year which is a really exciting proposition. It will undoubtedly be very well attended, with the event back in ‘full mode’.
I’m personally, really interested to find out how betting companies are using AI. Indeed, everybody is talking about ChatGPT and similar applications, but I am yet to see any concrete, direct usage in the gaming industry outside of the obvious marketing applications such as SEO and virtual assistants (chat bots).
I’m sure that in coming months/years, AI will be widely used to help bookmakers with odds compiling, and helping operators detect suspicious patterns on sports betting, poker and casino, however, I’m not sure if this is something that is necessarily pertinent right now.
Fraser Linkleter, Slots Temple: Being able to meet up with our partners and contacts is always so important to us as a business. Relationships are critical to being able to work well together and we are excited about being able to meet people face to face again. ICE always gives us a good opportunity to reconnect with existing partners as well as keep up to date with the most recent developments in the industry.
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