iGaming Asia Congress, the longest running iGaming event in Asia, opened its doors Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Macao for its 10th anniversary. For the last 10 years, the iGA has been dedicating years of experience in gaming to corporate level executives in sportsbetting, online casino, mobile gaming and more industry sectors.
Chairman Andrew Scott, CEO of Inside Asia Gaming, welcomed over a hundred C-level participants to this year’s event followed by gaming pioneer Sue Schneider keynote speech.
Schneider looked back at the milestones within the iGaming landscape in Asia—from betting exchanges in Australia to poker and payments to live dealer developments. She, however, mentioned that not much have changed in Asia and this will most likely be the case in the future. She pointed out though that the pending concerns the iGaming community still have to work on and manage to improve its ecosystem. These include government controls and crackdown, regulations, money laundering, payments systems and effectively managing the growth of mobile for the Asian market.
CalvinAyre.com spoke to Schneider after her presentation and she advised how Asian operators and the prospective ones should navigate Asia gaming. “The reason people come to Asia and market to the set of people is because the numbers are huge. Feel free to have just like a niche offering,” Schneider said.
During her speech, Schneider also shared some developments and insights on the legalization of sportsbetting and the most important sportsbetting case in the United States. (Stay tuned for this exclusive interview here at CalvinAyre.com.)
Looking closely at the ASEAN region, an expert panel discussed the fragmented and constantly changing gaming market. Martin Williams, Asia editor of Gambling Compliance, moderated this session. The panel, which consists of Rhys Jones, Augustine Ha Ton Vinh and Harmen Brenninkmeijrt, focused on the latest updates and regulatory frameworks in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
With a population of 1.3 billion and an estimated value of US$470 billion of underground betting, India’s gaming market is being poised as the next gambling powerhouse investors should look into. The India panel, composed of Ranjana Adhikari and Pariekshit Maadishetti, excellently shared the status of the Indian market and the opportunities that lie in the potentially second biggest gambling market in the world.
Capitalizing in new opportunities in the region remained to be an engaging topic at the IGA. The afternoon sessions opened with a keynote from Mark Sutcliffe, chief executive of Hong Kong Football Association, talking about football betting in Asia and how HKFA and gaming can create a symbiotic partnership that would help both parties to improve and provide more exciting opportunities to patrons of both industries.
This was followed by daily fantasy sports and eSports focused discussions and presentations.
SportsRadar’s Alexander Higerty spoke to Calvinayre.com and shared some challenges on e-sports betting in the past. He also mentioned that despite these, eSports has grown within the year especially with the money coming in from the NBA franchise and big American franchises now investing in eSports teams.
