Friday, February 01, 2008

Thousands of iGaming Pros Descend on London for Annual Party Week

I’m just back from a wild week in London for the annual gathering of the igaming industry and I gotta tell ya – the people behind the casino and poker sites where you have so much fun are really a fun crowd – and notorious partiers! I suppose it’s because most of them spend most of their time by themselves, at their computers, that these guys were so ready to let their hair down.

I attended some interesting seminar presentations at the Mobile Gambling Summit, ICEi and CAP Euro but, as always, the highlights of the week were the endless parties!

The most extravagant was Lyceum’s Fire&ICE Cabaret. What started seven years ago as a small gathering of internet gambling professionals has grown to the largest igaming social event anywhere. Lyceum keeps getting bigger and bigger venues to accommodate more and more people. This year they booked the ultimate party venue – London’s famous Hippodrome on Leicester Square where live entertainment, a cool venue and amazing burlesque atmospherics were enjoyed by nearly two thousand igaming operators, media and affiliates. Thanks to sponsors Gambling.com, NextGen Gaming and ESL there was amazing live burlesque entertainment and an open bar.

Photos from the party are now posted here on Lyceum Media’s new website.

I was also lucky enough to score a ticket to the second most talked about event of the week, the 1st Annual CAP Awards honouring affiliate webmasters. I don’t think there’s ever been a formal dinner event at an igaming conference but I hope this is the start of a trend! I can confirm that this crowd cleans up real well! I have to put on a tux more often – felt great!

To kick off the CAP Euro conference, Hollywood Poker hosted a party at one of my all time favourite London clubs, the historic Café de Paris just off Piccadilly Circus. CAP Euro wrapped up with a party hosted by Rushmore Casino at posh, modern club in the Westend called Floridita. Both of these parties were organized by Lyceum Media and there will be lots of pics from these events on their site next week.