The British casino sector launched a fair in London 32 years ago that was later opened to international companies and gradually adapted to the times until it became the world's leading show under the name of the International Casino Exhibition (ICE). The growth with the incorporation of bookmakers and online gaming in recent editions has been such that the organizers have decided to pack their bags and look for a place to gain space to go beyond the 45,000 professional visitors from 150 countries. and more than 600 exhibitors that it brought together this year.
The organizing company, Clarion Gaming, opened a selection process for the new headquarters in which London itself was among the finalists along with Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. As The New Barcelona Post reported, after long months of negotiations, the candidacy of the Catalan capital, presented by Fira and the Convention Bureau de Turisme de Barcelona, has ended up prevailing.
The event will be held annually from January 2025 to 2029, at least, at the Gran Via de l'Hospitalet venue. There it will occupy about 125,000 square meters, around half of the available space. It will do so together with the iGB show, focused on digital marketing in that same sector and which will go from taking place in Amsterdam to being held under the same roof as ICE.
Among the attendees are the most classic operators and industry professionals along with more recent ones such as technology developers and cybersecurity experts, as well as regulators or related organizations such as those that watch over consumer rights and promote responsible gaming.
Its incorporation into the fair calendar will make this event the start of the annual fair activity in the first month of the year, when Barcelona is not used to hosting fairs. "It is another success for the city, a clear example of deseasonalization as the event is in January," celebrates the director of the Barcelona Convention Bureau, Christoph Tessmar.
The casino congress will kick off the intense weeks that follow, in which the ISE and Mobile audiovisual halls will take place, two large congresses in which the City Council fully invests. For the gaming industry, on the other hand, the previous municipal government had at least planned to bet on a lower profile, in line with the current moratorium that prevents the opening of new betting houses in the city.
In the autumn of 2025, the world's largest exhibition for the printing of packaging, folding cartons, labels and associated machinery will also move to Fira de Barcelona. LabelExpo Europe, organized by the Tarsus Group, has been held biennially for 38 years in Brussels, where its latest edition will take place next September.
For this year, still in the Belgian capital, they hope to bring together more than 500 companies and 40,000 visitors from 140 countries. The change of location, as the ISE decided just before the pandemic, is due to the need to gain square meters, a need to which Fira de Barcelona responds well with the eight pavilions on Gran Via and the future construction of one more . In this sense, the general director of Fira de Barcelona, Constantí Serrallonga, considers that "it is great news for the business fabric since its impact can generate great economic and technological opportunities".
