What are the expectations and goals for this ICE edition?

Here we are, back in London at Exel, after almost three years. I know there was a show called ICE last year, but it wasn´t the show that we were familiar with. It was almost 100% percent an i-gaming and sports betting event, so most of us here today haven´t been at ICE since 2020, that means, you asked about expectations: I think the common view is that we would expect a show that is as good as 2020. I’m sorry but I don’t agree with that, I don’t want a show that is “as good as”, I want, and I believe that we are going to get a show that is “better than” that, and from what I can see that as we are talking here on the first day of the show, my expectation is going to be met and we will get a show that is better than 2020.

What is your opinion regarding the change of location of ICE Expo for 2025 and in which of the four cities, Madrid, Paris, Barcelona or London, would you like the show to be held?

In all, that’s not an easy question, because it’s not a simple question of “What would you like”? I think, and I speak only personally here, that the hope and the wish of Clarion, the organizers of ICE, would be, in a perfect world, to come back here to London after 2024. And I have to admit that I was a little bit surprised when I read the four countries nominated and saw that London was on the list. I thought the plan was definitely to try to arrange to move the show into mainland Europe in 2025. But, if we assume that Clarion is going to do an opinion survey, and given the rise in importance on the gaming landscape of i-gaming and sports betting, as we saw in ICE 2022, I would not be surprised if that survey came back and said that a majority of those surveyed would like to stay in London. Will it happen? I don’t know. Let’s wait and see.

In which expos are you going to participate?

The show calendar for Merkur is being finalized right now, and will be completed once we come back from London. All I can tell you as definite is that our Latin American team will take part in GAT Expo in Cartagena and will share the booth with edict Egaming. We will absolutely take part in Peru Gaming Show, which is currently the most significant and important show in the Latin American region. For sure we will return to the Eastern European Shows in Romania, in Serbia and in Bulgaria, and we are absolutely certain that we will be back in Las Vegas for G2E. I’m sure there will be other events, but those are the planned highlights for the moment.

What novelties are you showing at ICE?

Well, for many different reasons, ICE 2023 is really a big important deal for Merkur. We regard ICE as being our ‘home show’: the most important event of the year. As you can see from the booth we made a lot of effort to present ourselves in the manner that Merkur tries to do all the time. But having a major booth at ICE, or any other show, is not very effective if you don’t also have great products to back it up. But I’m pleased to say that, here at ICE, we most certainly do. In broad highlight terms, we have a new linked progressive jackpot system, those are the key products of the moment. We have new versions of familiar games and new games altogether, from multi-games we have new graphics, new software and we also have a product called Zonic. That is a brand new cabinet for international markets. Even without playing, if you just stand and look at it, you would say: “This is the Rolls Royce of gaming cabinets”, it’s fantastic. It is also unique in that the cabinet appearance can be customized and can be changed on-site and with different side panels give it a different look. As I said, it will look great on a gaming floor today, and then it can look completely different and even greater on the same gaming floor tomorrow. So we indeed brought great new products to ICE and these are the products we believe our customers will want to see.