Russia Gaming Week took the industry to Moscow

The Russian capital city hosted the show’s twelfth installment, where high-tech in gambling and news in legislative framework were discussed.

Russia.- On June 7th-8th, an international exhibition-forum, Russian Gaming Week 2018, organised by Smile-Expo took place. The event was held for the twelfth time and was the largest specialised exhibition across the CIS and one of the most popular gambling conferences in Russia. Each year, RGW attracts more and more foreign participants from the CIS, Europe and Asia as it was shown by the 1,200 people that attended RGW 2018.

The participants mostly discussed how such cutting-edge technologies as Big Data, blockchain and artificial intelligence influence gambling and betting spheres. Legal aspects also appeared to be one of the hot topics: in 2017-2018, the Russian government announced and adopted several acts that are important for the industry.

Founder and President at Intelligencia Limited Andrew Pearson, who currently lives and works in Macau, was the conference key speaker. He revealed how artificial intelligence can be used to analyse a client base of a betting shop or a casino starting with general operating principles of machine learning and explained how the technology changes while working with clients (shopping personalisation, chatbots configuration and client services).

Valery Petrov, Vice President at Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain (RACIB), and Mikhail Krasnoselskiy, COO at cryptofootball.world, were talking about the application of a much-talked-of technology – blockchain. “It allows us to make all the market transparent, store data in a distributed ledger, which significantly reduces a chance of substitution, especially in free-to-play games,” noted Valery Petrov.

Robert Brassai, Principal Consultant at Sense 4 Gaming, explored the application of Big Data in gambling. He presented case studies of user data collection and analysis by casinos as well as explained how to apply this information in business.

Kamo Basentsian, Business Development Manager of Brand Protection at Group-IB, delivered a presentation titled ‘How to prevent fraudsters from making money on your business online’ analyzing the main principles of cyber security nowadays.

Mariya Lepshikova, a legal counsel and owner at Pravovaya Liniya, LLC, expert in legal backing of gambling and lottery business, dwelled in detail on legislative changes in terms of gambling. Her presentation was focused on state control over bookmaking.
Several speakers dedicated their presentations to practical aspects of the gambling business. Vladislav Khvetskovich, Co-Founder and CIO at Softgamings, told how to establish a successful casino from scratch while Gregory Shelest, Business Director at Boss Gaming Group N.V., revealed the secrets of avoiding mistakes in the casino management.

Open lectures were part of Russian Gaming Week XII and took place at the conference working hours on June 7th-8th. Attendees found out about mistakes to avoid when launching your online casino, how to elaborate an email marketing strategy and what gambling projects are best to park money in. The open lectures were moderated by Peter Barinov, Director at Jet Velvet (junket club). The company organizes individual tours to the world’s largest casinos.

Twenty exhibitors participated in the event: developers of payment systems and software for bookmaker operators and online casino; legal firms working in gambling sphere.