CEEGC2017 reports considerable growth

The Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference (CEEGC) celebrated its second edition last September 19-20 and brought the industry to Budapest.

Hungary.- The second edition of the Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference (CEEGC) took place last week in Budapest at Kempinski Corvinus Budapest. Delegates took full advantage of the extended agenda which this year has been rolled out between September 19-20 (2 days).

The conference kicked off with a short networking session among the delegates who have bumped into each other while registering for the event at the luxurious Kempinski Corvinus.

As the first business card batch was exhausted CEEGC has introduced the first panel discussion of the day, which focused on bringing a wealth of information about the current state of the gambling market in Serbia and Croatia. The panel was moderated by officials from Rombet and featured keynote speakers from Jakta and Euromat; and Casino Adriatic. Speakers have brought a large volume of updates about the activity in the region, including the growth of the land-based gambling market in Croatia.

The 2nd program on the Agenda was the CEEG Awards Contest, where the assigned delegates of the shortlisted companies took advantage of the chance to give a short speech about their activity and of course asked for the votes. The winners of each cathegory were announced at the end of the conference.

CEEGC continued with the Eastern European focused panel titled “The growth of regulated markets in the Eastern European region,“ which was specially designed to bring the key information about the current state of the gambling market in Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Ukraine and featured speakers from the Romanian National Gambling Office ONJN; WH Partners, PS Legal and the Ukrainian Gaming Industry Association.

This was a top rated panel and focused on the highly debated changes of the Czech Republic’s regulatory system and the awaited changes is the law, Slovakia’s possible market regulation, the key points on which the Romanian gambling sector wants to improve and of course the state of the Ukrainian gambling market.

The Innovation Talks series titled “Innovation Talks – The Cryptocurrency Effect” followed and was moderated by Joseph F. Borg (Senior Advisor to WH Partners and VICE-PRESIDENT of BitMalta). This was also a top rated panel and received a full scope around what Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies mean for the industry and that this is only the start of the blockchain revolution.

The program continued with the panel titled “Where is the Central European gambling industry heading?,” which focused on the Central European gambling market, particularly on Austria, Germany, Hungary and Slovenia. It highlighted the concerns of the market which are located in the region. As the discussion unfolded and came to an end, delegates understood that there is a huge market which is waiting to be regulated accordingly and there is need for a better lobby.

The panel was followed by the final networking break of the day and the second Innovation Talks panel. The panel was titled as “Innovation Talks – World Cup, Technology Innovation, Affiliates Turning Operators – what are the challenges ahead?” and it focused on the latest innovation suppliers and affiliates are bringing to the table. All attending keynote speakers of the IMGL Masterclass agreed that technology is way ahead of the regulatory frameworks and it usually takes about 5 year for the regulator and legislator to catch up with them. Thus, all regulators should attend technology conference to learn about the new methods that are implemented by operators and suppliers to keep up with the demand.

The first day concluded with a Networking Party sponsored by iGamingRadio which was held at 4Bro Downtown. The second day’s program started with the 3rd Innovation Panel, which was rated among the top 3 panels of the event. We can certainly say that the Innovation Talks series has become a great platform where suppliers and operators can exchange information and even start collaborations to enhance the offer of the industry.

The final panel of the event was titled as “Innovation Talks – Latest innovations in the field of gambling and hot topics that shape the industry in 2017 and 2018” and was moderated by Konrad Gill(Founder at ViARsys) who expressed that these series of panels are an important part of the innovation which we witness in the industry.

Contrary to other conferences, the speaker have discussed the hot topics of the industry and did not dive into sales pitches for the audience. Subjects such as Omnichannel, DFS, eSports and the options to customize your casino brand were discussed in a conversation that could have lasted for hours. We would like to add at least 1 Innovation Talks panel to all our events to continue this initiative.