There was a strong Isle of Man presence in an e-gaming webinar hosted by island based data centre Continent 8 Technologies.

The virtual event featured six of the online gaming industry’s most successful leaders.

Continent 8, based in Pulrose Road, Douglas, was named ‘International Business of the Year’ in the 2018 Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence, and is a leading global infrastructure partner to many of the world’s biggest e-gaming brands.

The event was entitled ‘The Return of the Leaders and Legends’ and was powered by EGR, the biggest business to business (B2B) publisher and networking group for the global gaming and gambling industry. With 1,154 people registering to attend, it attracted the biggest ever audience for an EGR webinar.

The panellists included John Coleman, chief executive of island gaming software giant Microgaming, Shimon Akad, chief operating officer of Playtech which has an important base in the capital.

The webinar was chaired by Micky Swindale, partner, KPMG global gaming team, who is based at KPMG’s office in Athol Street, Douglas.

The rest of the group included Matt King, chief executive of the New York headquartered FanDuel Group, which is part of the Flutter empire that also includes PokerStars

They were joined by Jordan Levin, chief executive, Scientific Games Digital; Yaniv Sherman, senior vice president, US, 888 holdings PLC; and Matt Kalish, co-founder and president of DraftKings North America.

All the companies involved are Continent 8 clients.

During a one-hour discussion, the ‘leaders and legends’ gave their expert views on the industry’s hottest topics, including the impact of the pandemic; industry innovation; strong growth in regulated US sports betting; along with security, compliance and regulatory challenges.

Roberta Castle, chief revenue officer, Continent 8, said: ‘Last February at ICE London, we worked with our clients to organise a very successful leaders and legends panel discussion on our stand. As we were unable to meet at ICE London this year, we decided go digital with a webinar featuring six excellent panellists whose experience and insight are respected across the global e-gaming industry.

‘We’re delighted with the level of interest in the webinar, and would like to thank all of our leaders and legends for taking part. Micky Swindale was an excellent moderator. EGR, and of course everyone who attended.’

Playtech’s Shimon Akad said: ‘Our thanks go to Continent 8 and EGR for designing and executing such an enjoyable and insightful session.

‘High quality events like this bring collaboration, thought leadership and engagement to the industry, which is needed now more than ever.

‘Given Continent 8’s robust position in the industry they are uniquely placed to bring the industry together in these ways, and we thank them for their continued partnership.’

Jordan Levin of Scientific Games Digital, said: ‘While we definitely miss the value of sessions like this in person, Continent 8 and EGR did a terrific job of making the session dynamic and valuable in a virtual format. Thank you to Continent 8 for organising the session, and for being great partners to Scientific Games and the industry as a whole.’