African gaming expert Roy Bannister believes the decision by Clarion Gaming to launch a new, free to attend, dedicated business event for Africa, will provide a spring board for the development of gaming across the continent. 
 
Assessing the response to the launch of Gaming Africa (Johannesburg 24th and 25th October), which was announced to world media on 25 August, he said: "There has been a lot of excitement in the gaming and regulatory industry surrounding the launch of Clarion’s Gaming Africa, mainly as the industry here is crying out for a professionally run industry event that will draw all key customers and regulators. Excitement is high in the market that a world-renowned trade show operator like Clarion will be applying their expertise to African gaming.”
 
However Bannister believes that interest will not be confined to just the indigenous industry. “I anticipate a lot of interest from international visitors looking to get in on the action in a jurisdiction that is pretty hot at the moment" he stated. "One only needs to look at the trade press to see almost weekly announcements of deals being done in Africa, new developments and advances in sports betting, payment technologies and mobile growth that is fuelling a lot of excitement about the continent.
 
"That said, Africa has a vibrant land-based casino market led by South Africa’s 39 world-class casinos based on the Vegas style model of hotel-casino and entertainment complexes. Internationally recognised manufacturers like Novomatic, IGT, Scientific Games, Aruze, Konami, Aristocrat and the like have a serious presence here. Across the continent there are numerous casino and sports betting operations with varying degrees of sophistication in countries like Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Morocco, Mozambique and Angola and these all provide a growing market. So, we also find a lot of interest from African operators looking to see the latest gaming technology, looking to share knowledge and learn from their peers.  There is also interest from numerous African regulators wanting to understand how to more effectively regulate their industries, as well as manufacturers looking to place the latest gaming technology on the continent and enable operators to run profitable gaming ventures.”
 
"Clarion will bring a professionally run gaming event to the African continent, that will draw upon its international expertise and networking capabilities, and allow a market crying out for a world class gathering to finally be able to convene on the African continent and in the process, take the gaming industry to greater heights."
 
Gaming Africa, is a free-to-attend two-day conference taking place in Johannesburg across 24 and 25 October. The decision to launch Gaming Africa follows requests from major industry players for a quality business-to-business event dedicated to meet the specific gaming needs of the continent. The Clarion organising team has experience working with the market having staged a highly successful World Regulatory Briefing (WrB) in Kenya earlier this year, which was preceded by WrB Nigeria in 2015. 
 
For more information on how to build relationships with the industry's best at Gaming Africa 2017, visit: http://www.gamingafrica.za.com. Entry is free to operators and regulators.


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