The heat is on with only five days to go until the launch of EAG Expo at London’s Excel.
It is a story, which dominated the headlines of the amusement and gaming press, and caused much excitement among us here at Exhibition News last summer.
Just to remind those of you who aren’t aware of the story, exhibitors were left divided when the British Amusement and Catering Trade Association (BACTA) launched a show against Clarion Gaming’s ATEI show.
BACTA sold ATEI to Clarion Gaming for £18m four years ago and had a three-year non-compete agreement. However, BACTA decided to launch a new show after ATEI’s exhibitors expressed anger with the way Clarion Gaming was moving the show away from amusements, and closer to the more lucrative casino market. They also resented, what they describe as, the rising costs to exhibit at the show.
AEG Expo at Excel and ATEI at Earls Court will directly compete between 26 and 28 January. Where are you putting your money? Is there room for two shows in this sector? Are they flooding their markets?
When Exhibition News spoke to two large ATEI exhibitors, Crown Leisure and Instance Automatics, back in June, they hadn’t decided where to hedge their bets. Crown Leisure’s Dean Harding said: “Both camps have represented reasons for us to join their shows this year, but we are undecided.”
Instance Automatics’ Ian Eason, said: “We won’t make a decision until we have some firm guarantees from either show, that we will make a return on investment.”
Both exhibitors are confirmed at BACTA’s new show this year.
Clarion Gaming, must be dusting its paws and putting on a brave face, after all the gaming industry association has taken away its support for its show, and many of its exhibitors with it. Or perhaps, this is the opportunity for it to put all of its eggs into the so-called lucrative casino market that it was hoping to cash in on?
The gloves are off.
