Poll results: Consolidation the hot topic at ICE
Respondents to this week's poll pick out M&A as the buzz phrase of this week's exhibition
Mergers and acquisitions was the topic on everyone’s lips at this week’s ICE Totally Gaming exhibition, according to the respondents to this week’s eGaming Review poll.
ICE, which took place at the ExCeL in London, brought the industry together once again for three days of networking, partying, conferences and multi-million pound contract negotiations.
Historically the exhibition has been dominated by one or two key topics or buzz phrases and this year was no different, particularly with operators looking to build scale in a rapidly consolidating market.
And with this in mind, 37% of respondents said ‘M&A’ would be this year’s buzz phrase, no doubt boosted by the completion of mergers between GVC and bwin.party and Betfair and Paddy Power, as well as speculation over the future of OpenBet.
Beyond industry mega-merger deals, the advent of big data and enhanced data analysis techniques is paving the way for greater opportunities to tailor products for individual customers and 29% of respondents felt ‘personalisation’ would be the biggest discussion point of the week.
Next in line was ‘omni-channel’ with 20% of the vote and while ‘eSports’ was said to have dominated the EiG exhibition in October, just 14% of respondents felt it would be the most discussed topic at ICE.