KPMG announces international speaker line-up for 2015 IOM eGaming Summit

Jonathan Parke, a psychologist and former Director of the Responsible Gambling Trust, will explain the drivers and patterns of gambling behaviour

- Three IMGL Master-classes featuring international panellists

- Panels on M&A, technology developments and social responsibility

KPMG Isle of Man has announced the speaker line-up for its sixth annual eGaming Summit, which includes major international industry experts as well as key representatives of the local eGaming cluster.

This year’s Summit will take a closer look at industry developments over the last 12 months and explore other elements that make the sector tick. There will once again be a series of Master Classes run by the International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) that will include international panellists such as IMGL President Joerg Hofmann, Stephen Ketteley from DLA Piper, Andrew Cotton of Gordon Dadds, Wulf Hambach from Hambach & Hambach, Germany, Quirino Mancini from Tonucci & Partners, Italy and Justin Franssen from Kalff Katz and Franssen, Amsterdam. Susan Breen of Mishcon de Reya will moderate a masterclass called ‘Financing the Consolidation Boom’ featuring Chris Treneman (Managing Director of Investec Investment Banking UK), Linda Main (Head of UK Capital Markets for KPMG), Daniel Macadam (Managing Editor, Europe for Gambling Compliance and David Shapton of Akur Partners.

The Summit programme, which will commence on Tuesday 10th November at the Villa Marina will include an opening address from the Isle of Man Government, this time kindly provided by Minister for the Department of Economic Development, Laurence Skelly MHK. Mr. Skelly will provide an overview of the Isle of Man Government’s progress since the last summit, and the plans they have for the next 12 months with regards to supporting and growing the Island’s globally renowned sector. Mark Robson, Head of eGaming at the Isle of Man Government and Mark Rutherford of the Gambling Supervision Commission will then give a sector update for the Isle of Man. This will be followed by a panel session moderated by Archie Watt, Head of eGaming at KPMG, with industry experts discussing technology developments within the sector. Dr Jonathan Parke, a former Director of the Responsible Gambling Trust, will take a look at the psychological factors that make gambling such a successful industry, and explain how these patterns and behaviors can be understood and utilised by the industry.

After lunch, Jennifer Houghton of Annexio will discuss the UK licensing process from the view of an Isle of Man and UK licence holder. A panel moderated by Micky Swindale of KPMG will then debate the increasingly popular topic of social responsibility in gaming, with panellists Dr. Jonathan Parke, Janine Woodford-Dale of Microgaming, Mark Reynolds of Newfield, Sue Hammett of PokerStars and David Schollenberger of Healys. Bernard Marantelli of Colossus Bets will discuss the trends of innovation and incubation before the event concludes with a panel on the outlook for eGaming in 2016. The panel will be moderated by Russell Kelly of KPMG who will be joined by Hilary Stewart-Jones of DLA Piper, Bill Mummery of SBOBet, James Agnew of KPMG and Paul Novellie of Novellie, Veradi & Mitchell.

Commenting on this year’s exciting Summit programme, Russell Kelly, Director responsible for eGaming at KPMG said: “Each year I am amazed at how much has changed in the eGaming sector. As a company we pride ourselves on sharing knowledge, strategies, and insight into the complex environment that we operate in. Regulation is an important aspect of any sector, to protect consumers, but also to offer security and stability. As the KPMG eGaming series grows in scope and renown with each passing year, our job of creating an engaging and outstanding line-up of speakers gets easier and easier. We want to make sure every attendee leaves with an understanding of the challenges to come, and equipped with an idea of how to deal with them.“

Attendance for the KPMG eGaming Summit is by invitation only. For more information, or if you would like to request an invitation, please visit https://events.bizzabo.com/KPMGeGamingSummit. For those unable to attend, a full report of the day’s events will be published due, once again, to the support of Continent 8 Technologies.