“As one of the most anticipated sports betting & gaming event in India SBGI 2018 held at the Park Hyatt Goa Resort & Spa on the 27-28 of Feb 2018 was no less than what the industry expected,” the organisers, Eventus, said.
The event started with a house-full of more than 150 attendees on Day 1 with Tim Shepherd, co-founder of Silver Heritage Group presenting on the global gaming industry and growth in demand from India’s burgeoning middle class and how can you capitalise.
This was followed by three panel discussion with key discussions on the gambling and betting in sports legalisation in India, casinos of India and future of lotteries in India, which included panelists William Howie (Betradar), Ranjana Adhikari (Nishith Desai Associates), Susan O’Leary (Alderney eGambling), Vidushpat Singhania (Krida Legal), Manoj Jain (Deltin Group), Vaibhav Gaggar (Gaggar & Associates), Felix Mukaxe (Mozambique Gambling Board), Geaspar Byrne (Lottoland Solutions), RatulSethi (Golden Gaming), Jay Sayta (GLAws), Kit Szybala (Global Market Advisors) and one of the highlight of the day was the fire chat between Kevin Carpenter (Genius Sports) and Chris Eaton.
There were presentations on important topics like analytics from Andrew Pearson (Intelligencia Limited), on sports integrity and responsible gaming from Kevin Carpenter and Nandan Kamath (LawNK) respectively.
The day ended on high spirits with a poker tournament at Deltin Royale.
Day Two also had an amazing turnover of attendees who were eager to learn despite the late-night poker networking tournament.
The day kicked off with a presentation by Christina Thakor-Rankin(1710 Gaming) on the key growth markets and opportunities in India, followed by a joint presentation from AIGF, which was followed by a factual presentation of DFS by Harsh Jain CEO of Dream 11.
The rest of the day was followed by four panel discussions concentrating on fantasy sports, mobile gaming, poker & rummy in India, horse racing and e-sports in India.
Each panels had key panellists from the likes of Akshay Jain (Vinfotech), John Loffhagen, Ankush Gera (Junglee Games), Catherine Chauvin (PMU), Gowree Gokhale (NDA), Porus Govekar (William Hill Australia), Madhav Gupta (Baadshah Gaming), Pariekshit Maadishetti (Taj Rummy), Benjamin Föckersperger, Mujahid Rupani & Devesh Kabdwal (Cobx Gaming), Sudhir Mishra (Trust Legal) and many more!
Yudi Soetjiptadi, the managing director of Eventus International is in total awe of the support we have received from the industry for the event and says, “India is definitely the next big thing, with an online gambling being estimated worth as much as 1.5 billion USD but could rise to as much as $4.6bn – or more – in the years to come, it’s time for a change.
“Regulating online gambling would create jobs, bring in foreign investment, open up a new source of tax income, and protect consumers to the risks of an unregulated market and deployment of responsible gambling awareness campaign.
“The summit was initiated to create awareness about betting integrity, and we had great support from the industry. Everyone present was eager to make it work for the future of gaming industry in India.
“Eventus role has always been to create the platform for various gaming industry stakeholders to network and share ideas. We have succeeded in delivering that in Goa recently as the feedback from participants was very encouraging.
“In conclusion, the event was a huge success to us and the industry and we look forward to hosting it again next year!”
The event will be rebranded as Strategic Platform for iGaming Conference & Exhibition (SPICE) India 2019, scheduled to take place 26 – 27 February.
