Networking, Panels, Awards and Bomb Threats: Looking Back at CEEGC 2016
Published October 1, 2016 by Vincent O
The CEEGC took place September 20-23 in Budapest, Hungary, with awards given to the best companies in the business and several great panels and networking events taking place.
The capital of Hungary, Budapest was the lucky host of the 2016 CEEGC (Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference). One of the most prestigious events in the gaming industry hosted special panels regarding the online gambling markets of Balkans and Eastern Europe, which are gaining new customers and increasing in size on a daily basis.
The conference included a number of other great panels as well and was concluded with the awards ceremony that saw some of the biggest names in the industry awarded for their performance in 2016 in categories such as Best Sports Betting Software, Best Sports Betting Operator in Central and Eastern Europe etc.
Easter European Panels
The conference which started on September 20th had a big emphasis on the emerging Eastern European and Balkans markets and included two whole panels that dealt with these markets in particular. The “Hot topics of the online gambling in Balkans” was presented by the likes of Ms. Mirjana Acimovic of the Association of Gaming Industry JAKTA and Stjepko Cordas of NSoft who talked about the state of the online gambling market in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Balkans panel gave great insight into the current state of the market in the Balkans, with the future of this gambling market looked at closely. This panel was followed by the “Hot topics of online gambling in Easter Europe” panel, which was moderated by Mihnea Paul Popescu-Grisogono, with speeches from the likes of Ms. Nadya Hambach(Head of Entertainment and Gaming Law Department @ Velchev & Co. Law Office) and Mr. Jan Rehola’s (Lawyer and independent consultant @ BetOnSkill Consulting) who discussed the issues of online gambling legislation in the Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic.
A Bomb Threat Interrupts The Conference
Just as the Eastern European panel was going on, the Hungarian authorities asked the staff of the hotel and all the guests to evacuate the hotel as some sort of a bomb threat was issued. The threat came just about the time when all of the guests were supposed to head out for a coffee break as it is, but the break took longer than expected and the Hungarian police came in and searched the premises.
The attendees of the Conference took this as a great excuse to organize an ad-hoc networking event that was characterized by many of the guests as the highlight of the conference and one of the finest networking events they have had a chance to attend as everyone was eager to get to know the other parties involved and there was plenty to talk about.
The break in the Conference lasted about four hours and the event could resume at about 15:15, with several panels being taken off the schedule due to this delay. The Conference continued with the “Hot topics of online gambling in Central Europe” and the “Upcoming events” panels, which were deemed the most important by the organizers, with the missed panels to be uploaded online and sent to all the Conference guests by e-mail.
Wine Tasting, Dinner and The CEEGAwards
Once all the panels were done, the event went into a 2 hour long networking session followed by wine tasking, open bar and a complimentary dinner for all the Conference attendees. The second networking session ended up being just as big a success as the first one and the entire thing was of course followed up by the grand finale, the CEEGAwards ceremony.
The ceremony was presented by Zoltan Tundik and Tal Itzakh Ron who presented all of the awards to the audience in a very relaxed and calm atmosphere and announced the winners in each of the categories. The winners in the CEEGAwards 2016 were:
- Best Sports betting software provider based on Betting Product Support: SBTech
- Best Sports betting software provider based on Open Business Relationship: EveryMatrix
- Best Sports betting software provider based on Product Quality: BetConstruct
- Best Sports betting software provider based on Service/Price ratio: BetConstruct
- Best casino software provider based on Product Support: BetConstruct
- Best casino software provider based on Open Business Relationship: EveryMatrix
- Best casino software provider based on Product Quality: Casexe
- Best casino software provider based on Service/Price ratio: Casexe
- Best Financial Software provider: Tradologic
- Best Casino operator in Central and Eastern Europe: SlotsMillion
- Best Sports betting operator in Central and Eastern Europe: NetBet
- Best iGaming Press in Central and Eastern Europe: Casino Life and Business Magazine (Online Casino Reports was one of the three sites shortlisted)
- Best iGaming Service Provider in Central and Eastern Europe: NMi Gaming
Despite the bomb threats and the interruption, the Conference turned out to be a major success and most of the guests posted on their social channels that they were extremely satisfied with how things were ran, to the great joy of the organizers.
