[Watch: SiGMA Virtual Roadshow] "What happens in Vegas..."

The SiGMA Roadshow Las Vegas' experience featured a series of panel discussions and keynotes from leading industry contributors, bringing top speakers together for discussions, this is what went down

After a well-attended first show in Ukraine, SiGMA Group’s 2-hour event went live covering Las Vegas last night. Along with great speakers, the SiGMA Virtual Roadshow - Las Vegas, welcomed over 1,700 delegate registrations and over 900 conference views. There were also over 85 exhibitors and the number of total booth entries hit close to a 5k mark.

Nicole Fields, VP Growth and Strategy for the US market opened the summit with a brief introduction to our viewers highlighting the great line up of speakers some of which hold the biggest names the sector. Fields is the first addition to SiGMA’s US-based team, bringing a wealth of expertise in the gaming industry to the table.

In the first keynote titled state of play,  Mark Clayton, Chairman of the Global Gaming Practice reviewed the current state of play and sports wagering in iGaming expansion occurring in the United States as a means to set the table to the panels that follow.

In this informative keynote Clayton covered various interesting topics such as the Wire Act Update, states that are currently considering sports wagering, Native American sports wagering opportunities and states that are currently considering iGaming.

The first circuit decision will enhance the opportunity for expansion of casino style online gaming as well as the expansion of lottery offerings - online as well as across boarders.

For the first panel discussion titled 'The online gaming transformation for Nevada' we were joined by John English, CEO of WEBE Gaming LLC as a moderator. English has been in the iGaming business for 38 years.

He was accompanied by Jessica Welman, Division Director of Catena Media and Tonya Roedell, President of Broader Reach Cons to discuss the online gaming transformation for Nevada. Roedell opens up about customers and says that engaged customers are the most loyal ones - they're going to give you that share of a wallet and by opening up another channel within the industry of online gaming it's really going to expand much further. The speaker also pointed out that with the pandemic many major operators and major manufacturers have had a form of online social gaming - those revenues were what supplemented the revenues lost from the land-based side of things.

On the other hand Jessica Welmen said “Now that all of these gaming companies have a multi-platform online gambling offering, I think you're going to see a push for gambling expand online in Nevada. I just wonder if there are so many other pieces in play if the Wynns and MGMs are going to worry more about getting more into New York, Texas - and Nevada for the online piece of it is going to be a bit of an afterthought.”

For any iGaming or sports betting company successfully operating in Europe, the introduction to the US market can be a shock to the system. Regulators in North America generally require much more detail, data and transparency than their European compatriots. The next panel, moderated by Roger Gros
CEO of Schuetz discusses social casinos and real money wagering, as well as the implications of the Wire Act decision.

The three panelists present; Richard Schuetz, C.J. Fisher and Marcus Yoder are all experts when it comes to licensing in the US. This panel was titled 'iGaming and the US Regulatory system' and the outcome of it was to get a snippet of regulatory requirements differing from one jurisdiction to another.

'An introduction to online gaming - tribal spotlight' delved deep into the lessons learned in the roll out of the Michigan online gaming market, the different legal frameworks and various vendors solutions. This stand out panel discussion was moderated by by Andrew Klebanow and he was also joined by Kresimir Spajic, Richard Schwartz and Loretta Tuell as panelists. 

Tuell made quite an interesting point during the discussion where she said that The law could be used as a sword and shield. In Indian country you will have those tribes that desire to grow and those who have a backlash to protect what they have, their brick and mortar, their investment over the years. Ultimately it's time and money.

For Michigan, in order for those tribes to gain they had going to have to look at the source authority - for them its going to be state law. In doing that they've gone outside the confines of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and turned it into a commercial venture. - Loretta Tuell

What emerged out of this discussion is the essentiality of creating new channels of distribution if the industry is to serve players who are no longer comfortable visiting casinos. The panelists also gave a thorough understanding of online gaming, the legal hurdles that must be overcome, and the opportunities and threats that it presents.

In the next keynote titled 'Maximising website success with content marketing' Phillip Thune CEO of Textbroker International tackles what authors should write about to make their content richer on their website and golden guide was:

The easiest place to start is to write the answers to the questions your customers and prospects are asking Google. - Phillip Thune

With a plenty of heated debates we wrapped the roadshow with Christina Thakor-Rankin, Kelly Kehn and Mandi Hart who are all co-leaders in their field and for the session 'Live and interactive networking session: diversity and inclusion'. This session was moderated by Charles Harper and they discussed the business case to be made for a more diverse workforce while sharing data, spreading ideas, discussing best practices, reflecting on their own experiences, and engaging with the audience.

"Bravo SiGMA for taking this conversation where it needs to be" - Christina Thakor-Rankin

This roadshow keeps proving that going virtual is a viable direction to go for interactive networking.

This will be followed with a spring line-up featuring Manila in May, Germany in June, and Nigeria in July.  View the full calendar of events and agenda here.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved in making roadshow a success. This includes the SiGMA Squad, speakers, sponsors, media partners, all those who supported us along the way.

If you want to re-live the SiGMA Virtual Roadshow experience go to our Youtube channel – SiGMA – World’s iGaming Festival.

Want to be part of the SiGMA Virtual Roadshow? Get in touch and register here.

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