iGaming Asia Congress 2012 touches down at the Grand Hyatt, City of Dreams, Macau from 6-8 March in what promises to be its most impressive year yet.

The first two months may have been the European iGaming industry’s time to shine. Now Asia steps up to the plate to hit them outta the park. This year’s conference can boast it’s the only forum for online gambling, sports betting, and lotteries to flourish in what is the global gaming industry’s largest location. How does it help those that decide a trip to the Chinese enclave is in order though?

Conference organizers, Beacon Events, have it covered by laying on a heavyweight list of speakers in addition to a number of new features for attendees from all parts of the world. For firms not currently operating in the Asian market they focus on the challenges faced by companies looking to enter the sector and how it’s best to embark on this. Asian companies will get a crash course on how Western providers can help them expand their operations into the EU. In addition, there are panels on a number of different subjects and updates on markets from the relevant regulators.

The round tables are a fixture at this year’s conference and will cover a number of territories in the region. China, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South East Asia, USA, Macau and India will all get coverage. iGaming Asia Congress is like every other in that it has networking drinks on the opening nights before the iGA Party brings the curtain down on proceedings at the Hard Rock Café on the final night.

To register for the event simply visit this link and put yourself down for either a one or two day pass.

Check out the Pictures here and LAC 2012 Day 1 Summary here.

Friday night’s party was mainly about drinking and networking, with the endless supply of beverages lubricating the conversations all night. As with any Bodog social, hot girls are never in short supply and this was no different. We counted at least 25 Bodog girls in attendance that tipped the usual gaming industry party count in favor of the ladies. Just what we like to see!

There was no shortage of entertainment with a sexy Asian beauty that dripped hot wax all over her body, a fire dancer and a traditional Chinese New Year lion dance ceremony, a sword demonstration and a contortionist. Imagine the tag team they’d make!

This gave way to Bodog Europe CEO Patrik Selin taking part in the traditional painting of the lion’s eye. Then came a video by Bodog on what they think of the gaming industry’s largest location, Asia, and how the firm’s revolutionary poker software works.

If the free booze and entertainment wasn’t enough then the cage dancing girls really sealed it! All in all this party was so Bodog that it hurt – in a good way! Checkout the PICTURES here.

Check out the Pictures here, and LAC 2012 Day 2 Summary here.

Once you’d come to comprehend the sights of glittery bosoms and painted nipples nearly poking your eyes out, you quickly became aware that the LAC Conference was absolutely booming with affiliates, and rightly so. Everyone who is anyone was there: Bodog, William Hill, Paddy Power, 888, Ladbrokes, bet365, oh and not forgetting the most prestigious of all: CalvinAyre.com! All affiliates had their own stands, most with built in bars with freshly served beers – ready for any iGamers’ networking needs.

Bodog’s stand was one of the most impressive. An oriental themed chashitsu hut with built-in bar area and adorable Asian ladies on the doors dressed in sexy red Kimonos were awaiting anyone wanting make contacts and exchange ideas, while celebrating the Chinese New Year at the same time.

Betvictor branded poker tables were also set up around the venue allowing plenty of space so the drinking could commence nice and early, which it did. And of course it all kicked off with the pop of beer bottle tops at the our own stand. You can’t deny, where there’s a party, there’s CalvinAyre.com, and that’s probably because we’re the ones to kick it off!

Check out the LAC 2012 pictures here.

Check out the pictures here.

Whilst the grub was being dished out we learned the charity being supported tonight was Great Ormond Street hospital and that the former owner of Poker Listings donated £1000 to Chris Teller’s charity climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. After this everyone got well stuck into the free beer and wine whilst affiliates gawped uncontrollably at the ridiculously hot Brazilian-style dancers.

Then we got on with the awards and were advised, by the venerable Michael Caselli, that drinks were free until half 12. Cue whoops from the crowd. This gave way to 2012’s MC for the night as comedian Miles Jupp hit the stage for a 15-minute cue-card driven cameo (for anyone that’s worried they missed something…search YouTube for him from ’09. It’ll be spot on!) Then came the awards…

NETELLER walked home with the ceremony’s newest award for affiliate payment system. bet365 was given the most audience support throughout the night and one of their own, Nigel Ridgway, walked away with two awards – sportsbook and overall affiliate manager. No one in the CalvinAyre.com Live stream chat room seemed at all surprised by this and were more bothered as to whether Miles Jupp had been subject to a nipple cripple by a member of the audience.

A number of firms weren’t there to accept their award and none even managed to get to the computer to send a webcam message through. We can only assume they were watching our stream. Unfortunately CalvinAyre.com came up short in the race for best iGaming community and thankfully none of us decided it was time to go all Kanye West on the sold out audience. We’re not sure the stream would have coped!

The full list of awards was as follows…

Newcomer Affiliate Program – Come On!

Newcomer Affiliate – Goal.com

iGaming Affiliate Network – Income Access

Lou Fabiano Award for iGaming Community – GPWA

Payment System for Affiliates – NETELLER

Casino Affiliate Manager – Martyn Beacon (Affiliate Edge)

Poker Affiliate Manager – Atil Singh (Carbon Poker/Chip Split)

Bingo Affiliate Manager – Vikki Taylor (BingoCams)

Sportsbook Affiliate Manager – Nigel Ridgway (bet365)

Non-traditional Gaming Affiliate Manager – Sebastian Loaiza (Poker Affiliate Solutions)

Overall Affiliate Manager – Nigel Ridgway (bet365)

Casino Affiliate Program – Affiliate Edge

Poker Affiliate Program – Everest Affiliates

Bingo Affiliate Program – Market Ace (Jackpotjoy)

Sportsbook Affiliate Program – bet365

Non-traditional Gaming Affiliate Program – 24Option

Overall Affiliate Program – bet365

Casino Affiliate – AskGamblers.com

Poker Affiliate – PokerStrategy.com

Bingo Affiliate – WhichBingo.co.uk

Sportsbook Affiliate – OLBG.com

Non-traditional Gaming Affiliate – APCW.org

Best Overall Affiliate – Oddschecker.com

Outstanding Achievement in iGaming Affiliate Industry – Richard Skelhorn, CEO Mandalay Media

When you got in you realized it was the same as usual – and that’s not a bad thing at all. There were girls dressed in next-to-nothing being dry-humped by more semi-nude girls whilst having candle wax thrown on them. Live snakes sitting on the shoulders of men along with the chairs and décor that were something to behold.

The show itself…it might well have been there but unless you were the height of a giraffe and right at the very front it was impossible to see. You got the audio but you didn’t get to see what was going on in the stage area. Instead networking was in full flow as the iGaming fraternity showed they can still get really drunk even if they have to pay for drinks.

Later on, we were told Gilgamesh lost its liquor licence at 4:30pm yesterday for the top and bottom floor meaning drinks were only available on the middle floor and it was all change as the top floor was out of bounds. It certainly explains why everything felt a little cramped but the partly naked girls everywhere and other “wild” shit just had some thinking one thing – had we stumbled into the Walmart-version of a Calvin Ayre party? Well the only thing missing was the dwarves. Bring back the goat, that’s what I say! Hit the “Original Sin” PICTURES now!

First impressions; the exhibition hall would be more appropriately referred to as a tent, as upon entering it initially appears a circus of colours; a multitude of flashing lights, animated video graphics and all singing, all dancing performers (including IGT’s Elvis impersonator and VLT makers Jajot’s lovely lady jokers with cleavages bigger than the melons on its slots) – all adding to the pulsating atmosphere of the exhibition floor.

Once my eyes had adjusted to accept images of more than just tightly clad girls wearing lycra joker outfits, the sheer volume of casino products was literally mind blowing. Lucky, I’m not epileptic – otherwise I would have been writhing around on the floor within minutes. Anyhow, with thousands of vibrant Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) and slot machines were calling me to pull down hard on their arms, and I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on those slots and give them a test run.

The first to grab my attention was WMS’ Aladdin slot game  – not only did this baby have a giant purple genie grasping a electric crystal ball hovering above the screen, but playing the game made sure you were entertained with mesmerising vibrating chairs that had built in surround-sound. The graphics were pretty mesmerising too. One thought that came to mind was “this is casino gaming technology at its best”.

IGT probably held one of the biggest stands – after Playtech‘s double floor stand that is – boasting slots themed after movies such as The Hangover and Ghostbusters. And it’s hardly surprising there’s so many cultural references on these machines. Something more compelling than fruit is obviously needed to grab  the next video gaming generation of gamblers.

Bally Technologies was another firm to take up a substantial amount of exhibition space. And sha’mon mother f***er – with its gigantic Michael Jackson King of Pop slot banners – it certainly needed it. Bally exhibited one of my favourite VLs of the day, a dual-screen Wheel of Fortune-esque slot which possessed an impressive mechanical rotating wheel with holiday themed gameplay. Their mobile iGaming stand didn’t fail to impress either, with iPads and smartphones exhibiting the company’s latest touch-screen online casino games that worked like a treat. Aristocrat’s casino systems also boasted an impressive array of VLTs with its Stunt Man Sam slot definitely taking the stage by storm.

When you’ve been sat playing on slot machines for pretend money and starring into the hypnotising turning of roulette wheels all day, you come to realise that once you’ve seen one, it becomes hard to distinguish it from the next. But that doesn’t go without saying they don’t all have their own unique little perks, such as 3D slot graphics, live animated buttons and characters and vibrating chairs. The ICE Totally Gaming exhibition didn’t half show me what an incredible line-up of casino technology there is out there.

Weizer and Galichan shake

Playtech has announced at today’s ICE Totally Gaming Show that they’ve applied for a remote gambling licence in Jersey. The software and content firm applied to the Jersey Gambling Commission (JGC) for the licence under the Remote Gambling (Jersey) Regulations 2008. Mor Weizer of Playtech and Wayne Galichan of Jersey Enterprise shook hands on the deal with Weizer confirming: “We are delighted to be seeking an operating licence in Jersey. We met last year with the Jersey authorities in Israel who convinced us of the merits of the new licencing regime and their commitment to the sector. With many of our existing licencees having operations in the Channel Islands it makes good sense for us to seek a licence in Jersey to support our customers from a regulated jurisdiction with a first class infrastructure.”

To say Playtech’s had a busy week’s an understatement as they successfully inked two new JVs and acquired Geneity as well as restructuring SciPlay. They’ll need a well-earned beverage or eight at tonight’s Fire and ICE party.

Pacing the floors of the iGaming side of the huge ICE Totally Gaming conference that took place at Earls Court you notice how much the iGaming industry is quickly moving towards mobile gaming technology and Asia.

Appropriately from our corner booth we looked right out to see one of the best inventions in iGaming industry history – naked girls on slots. The best part about it all – they move if you win. Obviously we didn’t win enough for it to turn into a fully-blown porno though! Superomatic were to thank for this.

Right from when you enter the iGaming side of this exhibition instead of the epilepsy-inducing light show in the casino area you are given the chance to take a chance at Inspired’s latest line of 3D virtual games. If you take your eyes off the buxom brunette handing you the 3D glasses for long enough you’ll start to realize virtual sports aren’t half bad. Five years ago if you asked a friend if he wanted to bet on an obscure virtual horse race he’d have told you where the get off.

The latest release might not be that close to the real thing but it gives you something different. The highlight was the speedway with Inspired really doing the sport justice.

As usual Sports Betting Community (SSBC) and the iGaming SUPER Show brought every man (and a few women) and his unquenchable thirst for alcohol to the table on a evening where the drinks flowed from 8pm until the wee hours.

Upon arrival, Jagerbombs and Canapés found their way around the venue that consisted of two floors. Upstairs was a mellower pub type atmosphere where you could sit and have a real conversation if required. Downstairs…that was where the party was at! To the right was a white room complete with the smell of freshly baked chicken wings and rammed to the rafters with iGaming professionals doing what they do best – drinkin’ and networkin’.

A DJ strutted his stuff in the black room to the right that was home to an ice sculpture of the famous Sheamus, the iGaming Super Show mascot. Even better than that was the SBC ice vodka luge that had Shona O’Donnell dishing out the free Grey Goose. It meant iGaming professionals queuing up like excited teenage girls at a boyband gig and everyone saw fit to drink from the very same spot

For the entire evening we were lucky enough to see girls roaming the floors with free shots and then came the highlight – step forward Marcus Richardson. He had the suit and hair with all that was missing the Vanilla Ice vocals. When he took to the stage this came to the fore and there was no lip syncing in sight as we could honestly say Vanilla Ice was here. There was even one thoroughly confused female attendee that couldn’t work out which song it was that Vanilla Ice sang!

Check out the PICTURES for the SBC ICE ICE Baby party and we’ll see you at Fire & ICE tonight!

See Day 2 and Activity Gallery.

Neil Goulden accepts his award

ICE Totally Gaming kicked off the conference week with the first ever Totally Gaming Awards. London’s other gaming industry awards show of the night took place at 8 Northumberland in the heart of London’s West End with 16 awards being handed out across all verticals. 888 Holdings were the night’s big winners, picking up two awards – best online casino for 888.com and best online gaming product for 888poker. Meanwhile Betfair’s iPhone product took home the award for best mobile prodict with Jackpotjoy’s reputation growing with yet another bingo award. The full list of the winners goes as follows:

Online Casino – 888.com

Street Supplier – JCM Global

Lottery Product – Raff Ltd

Betting Product – Inspired Gaming Group

Land-based Casino – Casino Cosmopel Sundsvall

Manufacturer – Austrian Gaming Industries

The Media Award – Novomatic

Casino Operator – The Lido Club – Holland Casino Amsterdam

Mobile Gaming Product – Betfair for iPhone

Bingo Product – Jackpotjoy (Gamesys)

Marketing Campaign – Casino Austria

Online Gaming Product – 888poker

Outstanding Service to Remote Industry – Wes Himes, MD, Policy Action

Outstanding Service to Land-based Industry – Ron Goudsmit, Chair, European Casino Association and Jan Jones, Executive VP Communications and Government Relations, Caesars Entertainment

Lifetime Achievement Award – Neil Goulden, Chairman, Emeritus

Steve Rogers, Managing Director for Virtual Sports at Inspired, winner of betting product of the year, commented: “Our Virtual Sports is extremely popular with many operators all around the world and we’re delighted the judges of this award agree that the product is in a field of its own. Inspired is the leader in virtual sports betting because we’re committed to a continual development of new events suitable for deployment across all available delivery platforms.”

The conference gets underway today and you can follow the CalvinAyre.com team on Twitter for all the latest action and fresh news by using the #CA12 hashtag.

CalvinAyre.com’s team was on hand to cover all the action at the event that sold out a matter of days before it took place. Those who grabbed up one of the hot tickets weren’t disappointed as they arrived to a plush drinks reception followed by a gala dinner that befitted the luxurious décor present throughout.

The evening took on a different format to previous year as awards being handed out were intersected by various courses of the food. This was up to its usual high standard with a starter of ravioli over halibut and a sirloin of venison as the main. The new format may have meant the awards went on for a little longer than usual but it meant that the focus stayed on the awards. Remember it is an award’s gig after all!

This didn’t take away from the fact that it felt that slightest bit disjointed but in terms of charity this ceremony more than lived up to expectations. In the charity auction more than £3,000 was raised with spa and car racing prizes being the top picks amongst the throng of guests in attendance.

In all 21 awards were handed out with the new category of Payment Solutions Provider going to Optimal Payment Solutions. One of the best parts of the evening came shortly after the iPad 2 raffle when a lady came on stage to “receive an award” before revealing herself as a performer along with others dotted around the audience at random interval. By the time they’d all jumped out the whole room was joining them in a rendition of “when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s amore!” Sadly there full room conga to crown it off!

The last of the awards were then handed out before everyone retired to the bar for a couple and then headed for the doors.

You can see a highlights video right here and the full list of winners was as follows:

1. Casino/Integrated Resort of the Year  - Galaxy Macau Integrated Resort

2. Casino Operator Of The Year Europe – Casinos Austria International

3. Casino Operator Of The Year Americas – Foxwoods Resort Casino

4. Casino Operator Of The Year Australia/Asia – Galaxy Entertainment

5. Casino VIP Room of the Year – Crown Limited

6. Customer Experience of the Year – City of Dreams, Melco Crown Entertainment

7. iGaming Software Supplier  - Playtech

8. Industry Publication/Portal of the Year – iGaming Business

9. Mobile Operator of the Year – Paddy Power

10. Online Bingo Operator of the Year – 888ladies

11. Online Casino Operator of the Year  - 32Red

12. Online Poker Operator of the Year – PartyPoker

13. Online Sportsbook Operator of the Year – Betsson

14. Payment Solutions Provider Company of the Year – Optimal Payment Solutions

15. Socially Responsible Operator of the Year Land Based – ALH Group

16. Socially Responsible Operator of the Year Online – Skybet

17. Slot Manufacturer/Provider Online or Land Based – IGT

18. Slots Operator of the Year (Online) – Redcorp S.A (7Red)

19. Technology Provider/Supplier – Continent 8 Technologies

20. Traditional Casino Equipment Supplier – Cammegh

21. Outstanding Contribution Award – Mr. Bertil Knutsson of TCS John Huxley

Click for full size poster

Bodog, the world’s largest iGaming brand, is celebrating London conference week by laying it all on the table at their ICE Totally Gaming booth and offering visitors the trip of a lifetime. Bodog Nation, the recruitment site, will be doing things in typical style at this year’s ICE show with Bodog hunny’s in attendance to fulfill anything Bodog-related you require including that much-sought-after prize.

Before you ask, the prize isn’t a night with one of the girls in question – that’s not to stop you trying though! It’s whilst you visit the booth and attempt to try-it-on you’ll find they have something even better to offer than an intimate flash of their flesh – an all expenses trip to the richest casino business venue on the planet, Macau.

The prize consists of two round trip airfares, three nights accommodation and cash to spend on whatever you please whilst on the gambling industry enclave. Nicknamed the Vegas of the East, Macau has everything that Vegas has but in the gambling industry’s largest market instead of the middle of the desert.

You can find the Bodog Nation booth at stand #6160 and even if you don’t win the prize you’ll have the vivid memories of hot ladies to take away the pain!