Barcelona, Spain has been selected as the host city for Clarion Gaming’s ICE and iGB Affiliate conferences beginning in 2025, iGaming Business reported August 1. It was also announced that iGB L!VE will move to London that year.
The selection followed a six-month bidding process that also included Madrid, Paris and London, where ICE was based for 12 years. The selection has been endorsed by the ICE Advisory Board, whose members come from major international companies in online and brick-and-mortar gaming.
The relocation process, which was managed by the event location specialist Equimore, included more than 30 factors in its decision-making, plus venue visits, city presentations and extensive negotiations.
The event will be based at the 240,000-square-meter Fira de Barcelona venue for at least five years, until 2029.
In 2025 it will run January 20-22, and Clarion has already booked some 40,000 hotel nights for the inaugural show. The company indicated that it would begin updating its stakeholders with monthly reports about the progress of the transition beginning this September.
Factors of Barcelona’s bid that impressed the decision-makers were the city’s “world-class facilities, outstanding hospitality infrastructure, logistics, ROI for customers and ability to scale,” said Clarion Gaming Managing Director Alex Pratt.
He added, “[We] have a huge opportunity to create an important legacy for the future.”
He continued, “This was a complex, customer-led undertaking. The process enabled us to identify the city that our customers believe is best equipped to be our strategic partner for the future and is able to host two world-class events which meet the needs of businesses of all sizes and locations across every part of the gaming and ICE community.”
He congratulated the other shortlisted cities “for their highly professional and impressive bids.”
Commenting on the 2025 move by iGB L!IVE to London from Amsterdam, Pratt said, “On behalf of Clarion Events I would also like to thank the team at ExCeL London for their support over the past 12 years,” and added, “We remain committed to ExCeL London as a great destination and are looking forward to bringing iGB Live to London in July 2025.”
