EGR Live and The EGR Awards 2009 01/12/2009

THE EGR AWARDS, the premier recognition of achievement and innovation in the online gaming industry, were presented at London's Old Billingsgate Market on Monday night. 

Bwin scooped the coveted Operator of the Year 2009 trophy, beating off strong completion including specially commended Bet365. 

Cashcade took Bingo Operator of the Year, beating shortlisted competitors including arch-rival Tombola; Unibet successfully defended its European Sports Betting Operator of the Year title; PartyGaming’s flagship poker product took Poker Operator of the Year;  while Sweden’s Betsson landed Socially Responsible Operator of the Year for its commitment and innovation in protecting players; and Betfair’s 2009 was recognised in UK Sports Betting Operator of the Year 2009.   

Click here to read the full list of EGR Awards 2009 winners. 

The trophies were presented by comedian Mark Watson in front of a sell-out audience of more than 900 guests after the first day of EGR Live, eGaming Review's two-day conference and exhibition for operators, which has been busy, busy, busy... 

Software entrepreneur and TV Dragon Doug Richard made it through the rain to entertain the 1,400 odd delegates that poured into London’s Old Billingsgate market – click here to read how to make a million in technology and why Doug Richard hates Texas.

And the afternoon's CEO Panel saw speakers including Betfair’s Mark Davies, Bwin's Manfred Bodner, Ladbrokes’ Ed Andrewes, Mangas’ Nicolas Beraud and Unibet’s Petter Nylander debate issues including whether EU countries are ever going to regulate egaming properly.   

Other highlights yesterday included Yahoo! commercial development head Guy Beresiner, Domicilium CTO Phil Adcock and Translate Media’s Matt Train discussing how to target global while appearing local; and Google UK entertainment industry leader James Cashmore and Cashcade director Simon Collins explaining how to differentiate your brand. 

In the Power Affiliates stream for career affiliates, meanwhile, Poker Strategy CEO Dominik Kofert battled it out with former William Hill Online COO Peter Marcus and Julian Artope of Moneybookers to determine the future of affiliate revenue models, while Fremonte CEO Johan Hagenfeldt, Paul White of the new Gambling Affiliates Union (GAU), A4U’s Matthew Wood and James Arnold of Sportingbet told the crowd how to get the most from the affiliate-operator relationship. 

Tuesday morning’s keynote address came from Catriona Campbell of user experience consultancy Foviance, who shared a few secrets on understanding the player experience, while as we write speakers including Poker Voters of America boss Melanie Brenner and a host of top legal minds debated egaming legislation; before PKR’s Malcolm Graham, Dragonfish’s Gabi Campos, Crown Bingo’s Joe Saumarez-Smith and Poker Strategy’s Dominik Kofert braved their champagne hangovers to face an onslaught of questions in EGR Live’s final Any Questions session, fielding questions on topics including US legalising poker and the 'big four' casinos and whether the Euro poker market has stagnated.

We had a blast with 1,700 of our closest friends in egaming. Congratulations to all our winners, thanks to all our excellent speakers, and we hope to see you again next year.

Don't miss out on egaming news: sign up for our free, daily Snapshot email. Or get the news as its breaks with the free eGaming Review RSS feed.

Posted: 01/12/2009