ICE Totally Gaming is one of the most popular annual iGaming events which took place this year between the 7th of February and the 9th of February at ExCel, London. The expo gathered thousands of industry professionals from around the globe to check out the latest innovations, releases and new business opportunities.
Last year’s ICE Totally Gaming gathered a record-breaking number of attendees which reached almost 29,000. The 2017 edition was opened by InterGame’s David Snook, managing director of organiser Clario’s gaming division Kate Chambers, and NetEnt’s Åsa Bredin who is a proud advocate of recruiting more women to senior positions within the gaming industry.
The first day’s celebrity appearance was Frank Bruno, a British heavyweight champion, who graced eMerchantPay’s booth and attracted a healthy crowd from the floor.
The first day saw Playtech’s CEO Mor Weizer announce that Playtech is to expand its partnership with Warner Bros Consumer Products for an exclusive DC-branded movie and content deal. Under the deal, Playtech has the rights to deliver branded content for bingo, slot and casino games from such blockbuster movies as Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Dark Knight Trilogy and Suicide Squad. After the announcement, visitors were invited to take photographs with original costumes featured in Suicide Squad that flown straight from LA to London.
One of the biggest surprises of the second day of ICE Totally Gaming 2017 was the appearance of Roberto Carlos at PlanetWin365.com booth where football fans lined to have an autographed photo with the legend. Another celebrity appearance that day included the Britain’s Strongest Man for four consecutive years Eddie Hall at the BettingJobs.com booth.
During the second day at ICE Totally Gaming 2017, NetEnt has announced its emoji-branded social game to be released in August this year. NetEnt’s booth featured also a demo of its day-one-reveal which was a release of the Planet of the Apes branded video slot.
On the third day, the Ganapati CEO Mitsuya Fujimoto announced that the company signed an agreement to launch a game based on the popular YouTube video-sensation “Pen Pineapple Apple Pen” song.
On the final day of the expo, Microgaming announced its soon-to-be-released Castle Builder II. Sequel to the popular Castle Builder, Castle Builder II is bigger and better delivering an entirely new world.
“We’ve been very excited about the launch of Castle Builder II, a game that is designed with gamification at the forefront and that successfully sends players on an adventure to build the finest of castles. With more characters, kingdoms and castles than its very popular predecessor, we anticipate this game to be a massive success. The focus has been to extend the game life cycle and keep players engaged as they embark on an epic adventure,” said David Reynolds, Games Publisher at Microgaming.
ICE Totally Gaming 2017 was a fantastic three-day experience for thousands of attendees and, just like every year, the iGaming community showed that the online gaming industry is rapidly developing and gains in popularity among players all over the world. See you next year!
