Following on the successful purchase of two key gaming industry event/publication companies by Clarion Events, a merger of those into a single entity called Clarion Gaming began on September 10 and be complete by early 2008.

ATE produces the major London exhibitions ICE and ICEi, along with The Betting Show and other conference events. In July 2006, ATE was joined by sister company, River City Group. Together they produce the European I-Gaming Congress and Expo (EiG) and BetMarkets.

River City Group produces the Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo (GIGSE), World Poker Congress, Asian i-Gaming Congress (AiG, formerly PCIG) and I-Gaming InDepth conferences.

In addition, both companies are responsible for key trade publications such as IGaming News, Betting Business and Casino Review among
others.

Simon Kimble, Managing Director of Clarion Events in London, said, „We made these two strategic purchases to get a foothold in serving the global gaming industry. We expect, as these two companies integrate, that they will form a dynamic foundation allowing us to assemble yet more key gaming industry publication companies in various regions of the world.“

“This merger will allow us, and by extension, our clients, a broader reach as the lines between terrestrial and online gaming services continue to blur. We’ll be offering a combined suite of events and even more innovative digital information services so that you can best reach your markets,” he added.

The staff and services of River City will remain essentially the same and plans to continue offering the same trusted services to readers, delegates, exhibitors and sponsors.

Clarion Gaming, as the newly merged companies will be known, will espouse the same principles that have allowed River City Group and ATE to become the standard by which gaming companies gauge conferences and exhibitions serving their markets.