KPMG is preparing to hold its third annual e-Gaming summit, once again bringing the sector’s major players together to discuss the island’s role in this fast-paced international marketplace.
The summit will be held on Thursday, November 22 at the Mount Murray Hotel and key stakeholders and decision makers from the Government, e-Gaming operators, service providers and industry bodies will attend to discuss trends and developments in the online gaming sector.
Russell Kelly, director responsible for e-Gaming services at KPMG, said: ‘I am very pleased to once again be running this event, which has seen great support from the local and international e-Gaming community, for the third year running.
‘As a fast moving industry, it is extremely beneficial to meet annually, particularly given the many challenges and opportunities we face currently.’
The summit is expected to be as well attended as last year’s event, which stretched the venue’s capacity with almost 180 delegates present on the day.
Previous summits have featured presentations and panels on topics such as tax and regulation, security and fraud prevention, online payment processing, hosting and infrastructure and key market trends, among many others.
This year KPMG have chosen to make an addition to the format of the day, with ‘break out’ sessions running in parallel with the speakers in the main room.
These smaller sessions will be in a more interactive, workshop style, with short presentations followed by periods of open discussion, and will focus on technical aspects of interest to operators and case studies designed to educate and advise those starting out in the sector.
Micky Swindale, the associate director responsible for organising the summits, said: ‘The increasing interest in our annual summit is evidenced by the fact that we have all our sponsors in place three months before the event, with our major sponsors this year being Continent 8 Technologies, PokerStars and Experian, but a host of operators and service providers also involved as sponsors – all of whom are featured on the event website which can be found through www.kpmg.co.im .
Another new element to this year’s summit will take place the night before, and features the support of a regular sponsor of previous summits, Celton Manx. They will host an invitation-only dinner at the Regency Hotel, which will bring together the Chief Minister, the Gaming Regulator and other key representatives from Department of Economic Development to meet and debate with key summit delegates from both on and off the island.
Archie Watt, head of e-Gaming for KPMG in the Isle of Man and Gibraltar, welcomed the addition of the pre-summit dinner: ‘The Department of Economic Development had signalled their desire to work more closely with us this year to attract to the summit operators and potential start-ups who might be keen to learn more about the Isle of Man’s approach and strategy from those who already flourish in our business-friendly, vibrant environment. The dinner will provide a great opportunity for such individuals to meet with our key influencers and decision-makers, and the discussions which take place will be re-aired the next day in one of our panel sessions.’