ICE to switch to Barcelona from 2025
Clarion Gaming announces annual industry tradeshow’s relocation from London, with the final ExCel edition set for February 2024
Clarion Gaming has confirmed online and land-based gambling exhibition ICE will move from its historic London location to Barcelona in 2025.
The industry trade show will head to the Fira de Barcelona exhibition centre in January 2025, bringing an end to the event’s 12-year run at ExCEL London. Prior to 2013, the tradeshow was held at London’s Earls Court.
Following a consultation process with several stakeholders, including event specialist Equimore, Clarion confirmed its flagship event would switch to the Spanish city on a five-year contract through to 2029.
The process involved exploring 30 variables overseen by an advisory board comprising international brands from both the land-based and online sectors.
The advisory board made the final decision to relocate the conference to Barcelona from a shortlist announced in January also featuring Madrid, Paris or remaining in London.
Of the 23 organisations on the board, 17 supported the move to Barcelona with five voting for London. One member of the board remained neutral.
Clarion noted that the standout features from Barcelona’s bid included its exhibition and conference facilities, its ability to scale its hospitality infrastructure and the ease of logistics.
Fira Barcelona boasts an exhibitor space of around 1.3 million sq ft, compared with the 940,000 sq ft of the North and South event halls at ExCeL.
As well as becoming home to ICE, Fira de Barcelona will also host the iGB Affiliate conference as part of the relocation.
The final tradeshow at London’s ExCel will occur between 6 and 8 February 2024, with the first event in Catalonia set to occur between 20 and 22 January 2025.
In a statement, Clarion said: “Everything we do is customer-led and dating back to 2021 a number of exhibitors as well as B2B media asked us to look at what alternative venues could offer.
“We are very conscious of our responsibility to the industry and of the need to look beyond the here and now. ICE and iGB Affiliate have grown exponentially and we would not have upheld our duty to the industry if we failed to plan for the future.”
Clarion said it will communicate further details later this summer, and from September it will issue monthly updates on the relocation.
ICE London 2023 hosted 40,000 attendees from more than 150 countries.