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ICE returns to Barcelona in 2026, year two of a five-year growth plan, anchored once again at Fira Barcelona Gran Via and framed by the broader ‘World Gaming Week’ that now stretches across the city from the weekend through to Friday. Clarion Gaming is keeping the core exhibition to three days for 2026, any shift to a fourth day will be judged on rising dwell time, but the show itself continues to scale: since leaving London’s c.95,000sq.m footprint, ICE will occupy roughly 140,000sq.m next year, a near 40 per cent uplift. Visitor quality remains the calling card: the 2025 edition verified close to 60,000 attendees with almost 80 per cent decision-making authority and an average stay of 2.8 days. An independent economic impact study for 2025 estimated around €191m of spend in Barcelona and approximately 3,100 jobs were supported by the event.
The floorplan is evolving to match that momentum. ICE adds a full extra Hall 1 for iGaming and a broader central avenue for meetings and hospitality. The Sustainable Gambling Zone, ICE’s safer-gambling and consumer-protection hub, stays in a prime, high-traffic position and moves forward into the thoroughfare between Halls 4 and 5, with a more open layout to increase visibility and access. Programming follows three clear priorities. First, regulation: having hosted 300-plus regulators in 2025, ICE is expanding its invitational programme with discounted content access, closed-door roundtables and a refreshed World Gaming Gala to foster practical exchange between emerging and mature markets. Second, technology: the main show-floor theatre is rebranded as the Enterprise Stage, with major tech names invited to present, curated VIP technology tours for non-endemic leaders, and a new ICE Innovator Challenge, an industry-led competition, backed by a yet-to-be-named tech partner, to surface AI-driven player-protection solutions, culminating in a live pitch final and implementation support for the winner. Third, startups: beyond Pitch ICE, a new Gaming Startup Accelerator brings investor-led roundtables to help founders move from idea to scale-up and market readiness.
A series of practical improvements reflect exhibitor and visitor feedback from the first Barcelona edition. ICE TV will stream live policy announcements, product reveals and partnerships across the venue and online; a new sports-betting conference will emphasise integrity; a wellness run kicks off on Tuesday and a city-wide unwind session closes the week on Thursday alongside iGB Affiliate. Registration adds Spanish language support and, for LATAM audiences, a seminar series will run in Spanish and Portuguese. Organisers are working with carriers to improve direct air links, Malta a particular focus, and are reverting daily closing to 18:00 after testing later hours at ICE 2025. The show also introduces a Good Neighbours Charter to codify on-site etiquette, expands seating and meeting spaces, and doubles down on sustainability through the Better Stands reuse initiative and a new Exhibitor Standout Awards programme recognising build quality, innovation and pre-show marketing.
iGB Affiliate, which sits under the World Gaming Week umbrella while retaining its distinct, high-energy identity, relocates to Halls 8.0 and 8.1 in 2026. The move creates a two-level experience with the Sky Garden and its own dedicated entrance; brand-wrapped tuk-tuks and upgraded wayfinding will guide traffic from the ICE halls. Clarion is positioning the show as the largest affiliate gathering globally and is targeting around 11,000 specialist attendees, 200-plus iGaming brands and representation from roughly 85 countries, with about 15 per cent of visitors on the operator side. The event remains a two-day format and opens a day later than ICE, though a shift to three days is under active consideration in response to exhibitor demand.
Networking is engineered into every corner of iGB Affiliate. A new Dinner Series will match peers and high-value counterparts in curated settings, while the iGB Executive Programme expands C-level meet-ups for leaders who prefer structured engagement to walking the floor. A paid Summit track is in development to sit alongside the free show-floor agenda. Social zones, iGB Hangout and iGB HQ, activate both levels to avoid dead spots, a branded tattoo station returns as a light-touch activation, and first-time suppliers receive launchpad marketing support to cut through in a crowded floor. The Thursday Unwind session, now a shared fixture with ICE’s closing cadence, rounds off the week.
For operators, suppliers and affiliates, the planning message is straightforward: book space and meeting rooms early, come prepared for deeper regulatory engagement, and line up your technology and AI narratives for the Enterprise Stage, the VIP tours and the Innovator Challenge. If LATAM is on your roadmap, bring Spanish/Portuguese collateral and spokespeople. Build with reuse in mind, brief teams on the Good Neighbours Charter, and keep an eye on air-lift updates if you’re routing via Malta or other secondary hubs. With ICE adding an entire iGaming hall and iGB Affiliate expanding across two floors, Barcelona’s 2026 edition is designed to turn more of World Gaming Week’s city-wide energy into structured, high-quality business.
From a marketing standpoint, the organisers are doubling down on quality over raw headcount. Scale matters, but only if it brings the right buyers and decision-makers; that’s the lens for every 2026 campaign. The plan splits in two: a ‘business-as-usual’ stream that pushes everything new for 2026 (so past visitors don’t miss value they overlooked last time), and a set of focused growth drives aimed at specific markets where the mix can, and should, tilt further toward operators.
Top of the list is the UK. A post-move dip from London to Barcelona was expected, but the strong 2025 reception gives confidence to win back UK operators, especially iGaming, who sat out the first Barcelona edition. Spain remains a priority too: not just more national attendance, but deeper penetration into street/retail gaming so those segments feel the show is programmed for them. LATAM is the most aggressive push, with Brazil repeatedly flagged by exhibitors as the one market they want better represented. Outreach will target operators, regulators, and partners in equal measure. Continental Europe rounds out the list, with Central & Eastern Europe, particularly Poland and Ukraine, identified for more cut-through as regulation and market structures evolve.
A separate thread targets regulators and legislators. The organisers are frank: the future they want to enable is regulated, sustainable growth; the way to help the industry fight illegal markets is to get the right public-sector voices in the same rooms as operators and suppliers. Expect more curated invitations, formats and content designed to convert attendance into practical policy exchange. Overall, the attendance objective for 2026 is 65,000 verified visitors, with segment-level targets tuned to those priorities. Two brand-building arcs run alongside the commercial work. The first is a set of marquee partnerships and experiences meant to signal where the industry is heading and to make the week feel ‘festivalised’ without losing its B2B core.
A major non-endemic tech brand tie-up is in flight (to be named once NDAs lift), and consumer-lifestyle activations are being added, think a daily late-afternoon ‘gin hour,’ more theatrical show moments, and premium transfers that extend the show experience beyond the halls. The second arc is the ICE Research Institute: a legacy project born from the Barcelona move and built with Fira Barcelona to leave something more durable than a three-day spike in hotel bookings. Grants of €50-70k per project are awarded annually, with a clear bias to prevention and sustainability (not treatment), and with Catalan/Spanish academic leadership encouraged but international collaboration welcomed.
Overall, the 2026 marketing brief is to protect the show’s buyer density while rebalancing geography (UK, Spain’s street sector, Brazil/LATAM, CEE), to make regulators central to the week rather than an add-on, and to use both headline partnerships and the Research Institute to signal that Barcelona isn’t just a bigger venue, it’s a platform for a more mature, regulated, and technology-literate industry.
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Read the story in the latest issue of G3 Magazine here. ICE returns to Barcelona in 2026, year two of a five-year growth plan, anchored once again at Fira Barcelona Gran Via and framed by the broader ‘World Gaming Week’ that now stretches across the city from the weekend through to Friday. Clarion Gaming is…
The post Clarion prepares spectacular World Gaming Week appeared first on G3 Newswire.