Clarion announce launch of Gaming Africa

With so much to grow, Africa is seen by Clarion as an interesting market for the near future. And it has already made some moves. But ICE managing director, Kate Chambers, is keen to emphasise that ICE Africa, set for Johannesburg in October, 2018, will take years to build into a larger trade show.

Immediately, and to fill the void between now and October next year, Clarion is planning to run Gaming Africa on October 24-25 this year in Johannesburg, a conference free to operators and regulators, that will set the stage for the ICE Africa event a year later.

"There is so much growth in Africa,” said Chambers, "that we want to service it with the London ICE qualities - quality content, quality attendees - a place where the industry can come together and network, do business and learn. It is not about scale. London’s ICE Totally Gaming is 42,000sq.m of trade show. That is not going to happen in Africa probably for many years.”

"But the market in Africa does want a quality event, an event up to ICE standards, and we will begin to show that at Gaming Africa this year to presage what will come in ICE Africa next year,” Chambers added.

Within hours of the announcement, Clarion’s offices were subjected to dozens of calls from operators with African interests, keen to be involved from the outset. "Gaming Africa will be a free-to-attend event,” said Chambers. "It will enable us to meet people, build the contacts and show just a little of what we can do.”

The Clarion organising team has experience working with the market having staged a highly successful World Regulatory Briefing ( WrB) in Kenya earlier this year, which was preceded by WrB Nigeria in 2015.