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Gaming
Latest developments in the eGaming sector
After a delay of 15 months due to the pandemic, the latest eSummit took place onboard the Sunborn Yacht Hotel in September, with a large and enthusiastic audience in attendance, Tony Alan reports
Delegates at the much-anticipated 10th KPMG Gibraltar eSummit were given a valuable insight into the new Gambling 2021 Act, as industry leaders gathered together to
discuss the latest developments. As well as all the usual updates and
news from the global gaming industry, there was a particular focus on the here and now for Gibraltar with reflections on how both the Corona Virus and Brexit have impacted the sector.
Opening the conference, Minister for Digital and Financial Services, Albert Isola said that Gibraltar’s gaming businesses had shown themselves to be “more resilient than most” over the previous 18 months with Gibraltar Betting & Gaming Association members voluntarily receiving “not a penny” in financial support from the Gibraltar Government during the pandemic. He also paid tribute to the sector for its adaptation over Brexit and the natural transition that had occurred with the loss of
EU business and a new focus on the UK and rest of world markets. “When this conference first started in 2011, there were around 2,000 employed in the gaming industry, a very good number,” he said. “At the height of Brexit in 2016, we had 3,500 employed in the sector and today, having lost all of the EU business, we have around 3,400. Which tells me that, despite the loss of the EU business, you have continued to grow. I congratulate you on that”.
Looking forwards, he said “border fluidity” was the “number one priority on our 2016 heat map” and that work was continuing on the Schengen Treaty to enable businesses “to continue to grow on the basis of shared prosperity”. At the same time a Plan B for a no negotiated position well-advanced. The importance of border fluidity was also raised as a key issue in the operators’ discussion panel later in the day, where a team of representatives from some of the big names in the industry (Kindred, Entain, Gamesys and Lottoland) looked at trends over the past 10 years and opportunities and
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