European iGaming Congress and Expo 2011 to be held in Milan, Italy

Ewa Bakun said that the most recent event that took place from 19-21 October in Copenhagen, proved that EiG is the world’s largest iGaming event with some 1450 representatives ranging from the industry’s largest to newest companies gathering to network and scout for new market opportunities.

EiG Event Director added: “EiG re-confirmed its position as a C-level event attended by top executives, senior managers and decision makers, who were present and ready to do business at the event, for example we had over 350 MDs, CxOs and board-level attendees and over 450 director-level delegates, out of approximately 1450 EiG 2010 visitors, which included 35 of the Power50 operators.”  

She continued: “We also had powerful new entrants to the online gaming space in attendance” she continues, “including many land-based casinos and lotteries from Austria, Germany, Sweden Finland, Latvia, Croatia, Lebanon, Belgium, Denmark, Canada and many other countries from Europe and beyond.”

Proof of the high-level attendance and participation were the popular CEO debates. Bakun commented: “As we anticipated the most attended sessions were the two CEO debates on day 2 and 3 where CEOs of the biggest and medium-sized companies discussed strategies to enter the new markets, consolidate, develop new revenue streams and innovate.  France, Italy, social gaming and social media were at the centre of the CEO discussions, with the CEO of 888 Holdings, Gigi Levy, pointing out at the likes of Zynga as presenting a competition, but also offering a huge opportunity, still to be harnessed, by the iGaming industry. “

“The recent EiG also showed again that innovation is at the heart of this industry and entrepreneurs drive it forward, carving out new market niches and appealing to new players,” pointed Ewa Bakun.  Five new companies were selected to present their new business models to a top line-up of investors and industry veterans during the EiG Start-Up LaunchPad. 

The new sports betting outfit, Passoker, won by popular vote.  Passoker believes it has a revolutionary way to offer another new sports betting experience to punters, using bingo and poker game mechanisms, allowing sportbook’s core target audience of males a new way to bet on live games, or even pre-recorded events, such as on Match of the Day.    

When asked about legislation and regulation, she stated that government regulatory developments were closely watched and discussed, with a lot of interest in the current French, Italian and American markets. She affirmed: “The regulatory track of the EiG conference programme was packed with discussions by both regulators and business leaders on market entry strategies and the impact of regulations on their businesses”.

The conference was opened by Senator Raymond Lesniak of New Jersey who addressed the audience via video link and explained the push for legalising online gaming in their state which seems to be the most advanced in its legislative progress.