If exhibitors and visitors to the London shows hoped to have all their questions about the future of the exhibitions answered this month, they may be disappointed. What we saw this January, were two very different expos serving quite separate sectors of the industry.

“Can you tell me where the amusement machines are?” asked a harassed visitor at the IGE. Unfortunately for him, the answer was that most of the amusements were an hour and a half’s commute across London at the ExCel exhibition centre.

At this year’s EAG Sound Leisure and Soundnet will once again display a quality and diverse range of digital jukeboxes and music solutions.

Sound Leisure will unveil a major new development in digital jukebox technology at this year’s EAG show on stand 350.

Suzo-Happ, the global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of gaming and amusements products, has chosen to partner billiard cloth manufacturer Milliken at the inaugural European Amusement and Gaming (EAG) Expo in January.

Harry Levy Amusements has chosen the debut EAG Exhibition, at the Excel, to showcase its huge range of products next January.

“We are looking forward to EAG, as we have a cracking line-up of machines and know we have a great position and location to show them off on stand 440,” says Harry Levy’s Colin Mallery. “Of course, we are saving some surprises for the show itself, but here is a sneak preview of some of the great games you can expect.”

Leading machine distribution company Brent Sales will go into 2010 promoting two new product categories. The categories, which have been branded as ‘Fun With Prize’ and ‘Adrenaline Based Gaming’ represent Brent’s vision for the business over the mid-term. The Fun With Prize or FWP sector encompasses prize redemption, ticket redemption and prize every time products, with Adrenaline Based Gaming (ABG) the umbrella term for participation games which provide players with a compelling out of home experience. Both categories, together with a much greater emphasis on prize retailing and licensed products, form a central part of Brent’s major game presence at January’s debut EAG show (ExCel Centre, London 26-28 January).

There’ll be no shortage of innovation and creativity from Aristocrat Technologies when the international games developer unveils a raft of new slot games and concepts at IGE 2010. The company is planning to launch no fewer than 17 first-release Viridian™/Gen7™ titles for Europe, with at least 25 games making their maiden appearance at any EMEA trade show.

The team of wh Münzprüfer Berlin GmbH will present ist complete range of payment systems at the ATEI show.  The EMP 800 v6 coin selector with its considerable higher efficiency of coin recognition rules has proven very successful on the international markets since its launch about 2 years ago. 

JENSIgame SE is pleased to announce its debut at the forthcoming International Gaming Expo (IGE) in London. JENSIgame SE will be exhibiting on stand number 4460 in Hall 1 at Earl’s Court. JENSIgame SE will be presenting the next generation of video lottery terminals (VLT’s) called the Internet Lottery Terminal (ILT).

The GREaT Foundation, formerly known as the Responsibility in Gambling Trust, will be using January’s International Gaming Expo to promote and acknowledge the unique work undertaken by the gambling industry to help care for the small percentage of people in the UK who are classified as being ‘problem gamblers’.

APEX founder Mr. Weissengruber and his team are particularly looking forward to the world premiere at the IGE of their latest electronic table game innovation – the Quikker®.

A wide range of innovative touch solutions for gaming applications will be exhibited by Elo TouchSystems at the annual International Gaming Expo (IGE).

From a global leader in touch technology comes a new technology that has achieved the “Compatible with Windows 7” logo. IntelliTouch Plus surface acoustic wave touch technology expands the industry-leading Elo TouchSystems portfolio by giving OEMs, application developers and customers new tools to leverage the distinct advantages of the Windows 7 touch interface.

At ATEI 2010 COMPUMATIC will launch the new Dart Machine VIRTUALDART, developed with state of the art technology. 

A 19” screen gives all the necessary information like instructions, game options, details during the games, ranking lists and sport related activities under dartserver.com.

Stand 3340 at London’s 2010 International Gaming Expo will reflect Astro Corp’s increasing presence on the international gaming scene.

The company will be showcasing 25 single and dual screen games targeted at Asia, Latin America, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Also on show will be Cronus Roulette a highly flexible Multiplayer roulette system based on a  46” LCD Touchscreen layout.

Following a truly successful G2E, Innocore Gaming is anticipating a similar experience at IGE 2010. The combination of an impressive number of new design-wins and a ongoing improvement of the market have had a very positive effect and caused the company’s phenomenal growth in 2009.

Since it was first launched the Ardac Elite has been a market leader in bill acceptors.  Now, with the addition of EASITRAX® Soft Count compatibility the Elite offers even more benefits to customers.  Launched at G2E in November, UK and European customers will get the first chance to this integrated system when it is demonstrated at this year’s IGE at Earls Court.  

Stand 5110 at IGE 2010 will see the launch of Plus-Five Gaming, a Maltese licensed  company offering full-service “white label” online and mobile gaming solutions.

Crane Payment Solutions will showcase NRI & CashCode innovations for Casino Gaming and AWP Markets at the 2010 IGE/ATEI exhibition in London on stand 3232, Hall 2.

AWP operators will be pleased to see the debut of NRI’s highly anticipated next generation G-40 coin validator.  This product will leverage G-40’s highly reliable proven architecture yet re-set the coin validation standard with its best in class Multi Frequency Technology (MFT).

Launching in London will be MD’s new platform that will boost both MD and operators business.  Brand new Multireel Games, Brand new Jackpot, Brand new Roulette, but overall a Brand new Platform: the show has just begun.

Suzo Happ will be distributing the new Gaming catalogue at this year’s IGE in London on stand number 4240 in Hall 1. The catalogue reflects the strength-in-depth of the Suzo Happ product range. The new Suzo Happ Gaming Catalogue has grown by over sixty pages, covering over 220 pages in total. The catalogue will be available in English and German.

At IGE 2010, JCM Global will be showing three revolutionary new products in stand #4260: the iVIZION™ bill validator, the new TBV™ transactional bill validator and the Sentry 2.0™ bezel. Additionally, JCM will be showing its UBA® Universal Bill Acceptor, ICB™ Intelligent Cash Box, Vega™ bill validator and Taiko (Pub 7/11) bill validator.

Under the successfully established umbrella brand, Games Unlimited, the company will introduce its new country-specified game packages. “We are sure that among the great variety of our games every player can find his favourite one,” states Frank Ziegler, Director Sales and Marketing at MERKUR GAMING.

The SMART Way from Innovative Technology is a revolutionary new way to pay in and out mixed notes and to pay out mixed coins.

From stand 4350 at the IGE - International Gaming Expo (January 2010) The SMART Way will be demonstrated to the gaming and amusement industry’s elite. Innovative Technology are inviting all operators and machine manufacturers to our stand to see for themselves the combined ability of the SMART Hopper and the SMART  Payout with the NV200.

Amatic Industries from Austria can be found on number 3060 in a prominent position reflecting its status within the industry.

Multi Game EVOLUTION PRO symbolises what Amatic Industries stands for. It is the multi game concept that has seen Amatic Industries grow to become a major industry player. This year Amatic Industries is placing particular focus on the Multi Game EVOLUTION PRO.

London’s new exhibition dedicated to the coin op and amusement sectors, EAG Expo 26-28 January 2010, Excel Exhibition Centre London, is set to be a must attend event.

83 companies have booked their stand space and will exhibit their own products and services. In addition, they will also demonstrate the products of furthercompanies for whom they are distributors or partners. With companies and products from as far a field as Australia, Belgium, France, Poland, Spain, Taiwan, The Netherlands, and USA, EAG is an international show and an important event for anyone in the European amusement industry.

The 2010 edition of ATEI and IGE, taking place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London across 26-28 January, is on track to deliver international operators with yet another feast of amusements and gaming innovation as show organisers revealed robust levels of exhibitor participation two months ahead of the doors opening. Clarion Gaming announced that by the beginning of December, the number of amusements/low stake gaming suppliers scheduled to appear had surpassed the 150 mark.

There’s no sign of any crisis here - quite the opposite, in fact,” says IMA event manager Petra Lassahn about the IMA show in Düsseldorf in January.

Following the significant increases posted last year, the IMA looks set to continue its growth in 2010. “The goal of up to 250 exhibiting companies is ambitious, but from where we stand right now, it’s entirely realistic,” continues Petra.

FER Interazar, the International Gaming Fair, marked its twenty-ninth anniversary with FER INTERAZAR 2009 which took place on 23rd, 24th and 25th September at the Juan Carlos I exhibition centre in Madrid. It is worth mentioning that at the end of the Málaga fair in the spring, the sector was left with a bittersweet taste which, although it sustained its expectations for the Madrid fair, did not offer any guarantees for the awakening from its long period of lethargy, of the market for the sale of machines.

Preview 2010 (October 7-8, 2009) is promising to be one of the most exciting shows on the calendar this year. It will be the first opportunity for the industry to see a comprehensive range of new stakes and prize AWPs, following the initial summer operating season.

"A clearer picture should be emerging of which machines are really the ones doing the business now," says Preview organiser Ylva Howard. "The new stakes and prizes have allowed designers to be more creative with the machines and there will be some exciting new developments on show."

Events conspired against the Park Avenue Open Day this year - tube workers decided to go on strike and the rain came down. Bizarrely, the introduction of the new stakes and prizes for the £70 AWPs also happened on the same day. Everyone was expecting the changeover date to be two days later.

Like many others at the Park Avenue Open Day last month, Steve Hawkins at Essex Leisure was surprised to find the changeover date for new stakes and prizes AWPs had been moved forward two days.

The twentieth eighth FERIA ANDALUZA DEL RECREATIVO (ANDALUSIAN AMUSEMENT FAIR) which took place in the midst of the financial crisis and was preceded by continuous rumours that it would be cancelled, will be seen paradoxically as one of the most successful fairs in recent years in the history of the sector. Despite the doubts held by the regular exhibitors, the organization never doubted the viability of its project. "The fair most wanted by the professionals in the sector", as the Andalusian operators normally describe it, did not leave anybody without some doubts. Nevertheless and in all honesty the numbers given by the organizers show that, this year, the crisis continues at the moment to affect each of the exhibitions that make up the international circuit.

This year's Amex exhibition in Dublin was overshadowed by the extremely sad news of the demise of Martin Dempsey - the warm-hearted organizer and publisher of Coin-op News. Despite this, the team behind the show and the magazine pulled together and managed to deliver a successful show.