Moscow hosted the main event for gambling business – Russian Gaming Week 2015

Russian gambling business is witnessing a new era after the ban that lasted for 6 years, especially in relation to new gaming zones in Crimea and Sochi, as well as construction of new casinos in the acting gaming zones. 

9^th International gambling and entertainment exhibition-forum Russian Gaming Week has been a huge success, taking place on 3-4 of June, in Moscow, proving its status of a vital event for Russian and foreign gambling industry.

The show has set its new records in the number of visitors, becoming a valid indicator of the modern state of industry. This time, Russian Gaming Week has been visited by twice as many people as the last year, being a unified floor for gambling business representatives from Russia, CIS states and Europe.

Russian Gaming Week participants included:

• new equipment manufacturers;
• gaming machines manufacturers;
• bookmakers;
• security systems manufacturers;
• casino furniture and accessories manufacturers;
• gaming zones representatives;
• online casino developers;
• and many more.

Event has been visited by gambling business representatives from Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Belgium, UK, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Armenia, USA and the Baltic states.

Lively exhibitors, basketball player look-alikes, Russian sports stars (Fonbet stand has welcomed an Olympic champion, Honored Master of Sports in Russia, professional boxer Alexandr Povetkin) – all these turned Russian Gaming Week 2015 into a unique industrial event in gambling industry of Russia and foreign countries.

RGW-2015 exhibition included stands of online payment operators, online casinos, and Bitcoin casino operators. These segments are one of the most promising in the modern gambling business, so they were widely popular among event gusts and participants.

Apart from the exhibition, Russian Gaming Week Moscow 2015 traditionally hosted a specialized conference with the announced participants - representatives of gaming zones, investors, junket tourists and lots of many more people, interested in the progress of gambling in Russia and in the world.

The conference included 2 days with the first one (June 3^rd) completely devoted to bookmakers. Speakers were discussing the latest changes to legislation, new possibilities/tools for betting shops operation etc. On this day, there were a lot of presentations from constant speakers of Russian Gaming Week, and key figures for Russian gambling business: Konstantin Makarov, Leonid Oboznyi, Yuriy Fedorov, Maksim Baev, and Mariya Lepshikova’s presentation about the legislative changes and legal practice has driven the largest interest.

Speakers list also included some new figures – Denis Konotop, Vadim Sarantsev, Pol Davison. After each presentation, lively interesting discussions captured the interest of attendees, who were also given professional answers to all of their questions.

For the first time, the conference presented Francesco Baranka from Federbet, who used his recent presentation in the European Parliament, analyzing the European fixed matches.

At the end of the first day of the conference, there was a specialized seminar from UB|GAMING, where Elena Rasskazova made a presentation “Fraud in betting shops. How to recognize a cheater and prevent deception”, as well as “Methods for improving betting shop efficiency”, and Irina Kolkova told about “SPOT stock indexes betting. Operation within the legal framework”.

On the second conference day (June 4^th), two sections -- «Land based» и «Оnline» -- were open. The first one has started with Nicholas A. Middletone’s presentation about the Primorye gaming zone development. Apart from him, Russian Gaming Week has also been attended by the whole delegation form The First Gambling Company of the East: Craig Ballantyne (executive director); Thomas Gibbons VP of guest management; Piotr Grzejszczyk VP of video surveillance and security, Petr Sindyukov (one of Tigre De Cristal investors).

As part of “Land based” section, there was organized a panel called “Gambling business in CIS”. Conference guests have been most interested in Michael Nuttall’s presentations about improving the casino license efficiency based on the example of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia; Irina Sergienko told about the prospects of legalizing gambling in Ukraine, Lavrentiy Gubin informed guests on the peculiarities of gambling business in Georgia, and Igor Rechka – in Belarus. Peter Hoetzinger’s speech on the prospects of Sochi gaming zone development has been the most informative.

This panel has been one of the most popular and interesting at the conference due to its moderator – Elena Botvinnikova, an experienced expert of gambling business. Her comments and additions made speakers’ presentations even more interesting.

“Оnline” section program has been busy as well, with moderator Vyacheslav Fedorov. Most interesting reports were presented by Pavel Titov, Denis Zheltovskiy, Sergey Zhirkin, Mikhail Kharkovskiy, Yuliya Nemtsova and Endorphina’s Ruslan Lyulko, who presented the eagerly awaited Satoshi Secret, inspired by the amazingly successful cryptocurrency. That was really innovative product with improved functionality, graphics and sounds.

Speakers’ presentations demonstrated a rapid progress of online gambling, where something new appears every day.

As part of Russian Gaming Week, speakers and conference guests appreciated Smile-Expo for the highest possible level of event organization, relevance and importance of such exhibition-forum.

In addition, the first day of Russian Gaming Week also hosted an awards ceremony - Betting Awards-2015, where 11 nominations found winners. Prizes distinguished best betting networks, online bookmakers, payment solutions and services providers, industrial media and other Russian market players.

Betting Awards-2015 winners:

 
- Best betting product of the year – Winline.
- Best betting network of the year – Fonbet.
- Best online bookmaker of the year – Vbet.
- Bookmaking innovator of the year – UB|Gaming.
- Best betting mobile app of the year – Fonbet.
- Best affiliate program (franchise) of the year – Parimatch.
- Best betting media of the year – “Рейтинг Букмекеров”.
- Best advertising campaign of the year – Maxbet.
- Best payment system of the year – Wirecapital.
- Best affiliate program of the year – Parimatch.
- Breakthrough of the year – OneBett.

The intrigue has been present till the last moment, so each of the nominees has been surprised and excited. After the official part of the ceremony, guests could speak with their colleagues in the relaxed atmosphere, discuss the prospects for industry development, establish many business contacts and even play foosball.

Exhibition-forum RGW-2015 has yet again proven its status of the liveliest event in gambling segment, becoming a perfect floor for networking of all market players, with participants finding lots of new business contacts, which in the future will help companies to enter new markets, and Russian gambling industry – to progress rapidly.

Exhibition-forum participants have been sending only positive feedback, and all exhibitors and attendees were happy with the results of Russian Gaming Week and are looking forward to next events.

Russian Gaming Week organizer -- Smile-Expo -- thanks all partners and sponsors for the professional competence and support during this important and massive event. Special tanks to Bet Constract, Superomatic Casino, Vekselnaya Sistema, Gaminator, 1XBet, Lottotech, Tradologic and Pari Match.

The following events scheduled for this year: Kazakhstan Gaming Congress, which will take place on August 20 and Belarus Gaming Congress (14-15 of October).

 

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