Continent 8 Technologies’ Principal of Innovation & Technology, David Brace, recently attended ICE 2025. With a new home in Barcelona, the event was busier than ever with a footfall of 56,000 attendees!
Here, David shares his key takeaways from the industry’s biggest ever event.
This year’s ICE was hosted in a significantly larger venue than in previous years. This expansion allowed for larger exhibition stands and provided ample space for engaging, meaningful discussions. It was a really great job from the organisers.
On Monday, the organisers also held a memorial for NEXT.io’s Nico Jansen, who passed away on January 9, just before ICE. Members of the iGaming community gathered to share memories of Nico. It was a heartfelt tribute to honour and remember a cherished member of our community.
That’s certainly a wonderful and touching gesture by the ICE organisers.
The World Gaming Forum – ICE’s three-day learning, networking and knowledge sharing exchange – featured various tracks, with my role as Chair of the cybercrime stream. The organisation was once again exemplary, with the event producers assembling a distinguished lineup of speakers. The four panels I participated in or chaired included CEOs, CISOs, company founders and expert consultants from various companies.
The first session, ‘Risks to the gaming industry: cybersecurity & organised crime,’ was a terrific opening presentation by AlixPartners. The US-based cybersecurity consultants delivered a global overview of cybersecurity, highlighting the potential impact of cyberattacks on organisations and sharing key statistics, such as the estimated average cost of a data breach exceeding 4.88 million USD, according to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report.
Although I wasn’t involved in the subsequent session, ‘Meet the modern day hacker: What’s wrong with gaming’s current information security?’, Greg van der Gaast, Hacker & Ex-Undercover FBI Asset and Managing Director from Sequoia Consulting, did an exceptional job of translating cybersecurity risk into real-world analogies that people could use in boardrooms and for presentations.
In the panel session I moderated, ‘Convincing your boss that cyber matters: building a strong cybersecurity culture’, Alexandre Tomic, Founder of Alea, offered valuable insights on API security and its critical role in safeguarding against third-party vulnerabilities.
In the same session, Brian Harris, CISO of DraftKings, provided insights on third-party library vulnerabilities, illustrating a common scenario where engineers might download code snippets from the Internet and integrate them into their applications, potentially compromising their own systems. Brian emphasised that while human behavior cannot be entirely controlled, implementing static code reviews can help identify potential vulnerabilities.
The biggest operators are now at the forefront of promoting cybersecurity adoption and advocacy. In the US and EU, publicly listed companies are legally required to ensure cybersecurity, leading them to implement stringent cybersecurity and business practices for their suppliers to ensure comprehensive security measures are in place. This topic was discussed on the aforementioned panel session, where it was noted that companies such as Alea, DraftKings and Entain conduct thorough due diligence on their suppliers, especially from a cybersecurity perspective, as part of any provisioning or tender process.
ICE was extremely well-attended – there literally wasn’t a quiet moment!
Over the course of three days, it facilitated numerous good-quality discussions, interactions with existing customers and engagement with potential prospects. Our brand-new stand was busier than ever, and the team welcomed customers and partners to a must-attend cocktail and networking event on the Tuesday evening at the Terraza del Sercotel Rosellón.
The show is certainly a must-attend for Continent 8. We’re already looking forward to ICE 2026!
Continent 8 provides comprehensive, multi-layered threat prevention, detection and response solutions to secure your iGaming and online sports betting organisation’s digital assets in the face of evolving cyber threats. For more information on how Continent 8 can support your cybersecurity initiatives, email sales@continent.com or fill out our Contact Us page.
Continent 8 Technologies’ Regional Sales Directors, Jerad Swimmer and Jamie Garcia, and Principal Solutions Architect, Anthony Engel, recently participated in the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association (OIGA) 2024 Conference and Trade Show.
At the booth, they were showcasing Continent 8’s cybersecurity solutions designed to support tribal casinos in the US.
Here, Jerad, Jamie and Anthony share their key takeaways from the show.
Jerad Swimmer (JS): OIGA is a show that always delivers. In my opinion, it’s a must-attend event. Although I’ve been to the show before, this was Continent 8’s exhibition debut, and it was impressive to witness the impact our company’s presence had on the attendees. ‘Busy’ barely begins to cover it – we were engaged with attendees from start to finish.
Jamie Garcia (JG): Like Jerad, I’ve experienced OIGA before, but I’m thrilled to have been part of Continent 8’s first OIGA exhibition. It’s an event that showcases all the key players in Oklahoma’s iGaming and online sports betting scene. Moreover, the OIGA organization excels at helping people establish and nurture relationships. They add a personal touch that makes you feel like family.
Anthony Engel (AE): This was my inaugural OIGA experience, and it was quite the introduction! The tradeshow floor was busy, and our booth saw such heavy foot traffic that I rarely had the opportunity to walk the show floor – a nice problem to have.
JS: Cybersecurity was the number one most common theme throughout the show. Tribal gaming personnel were exploring Continent 8’s cybersecurity offerings and their various use cases. In a number of instances, attendees reported having cybersecurity tools that failed to function properly, or they experienced delayed and unresponsive support from their current cybersecurity providers. In several cases, attendees had suffered multiple attacks, adversely affecting their cybersecurity insurance standing.
JG: If I were to sum it up, the primary concern among attendees was their cybersecurity level, often asking themselves “How secure are we?”. Attendees were sharing stories of cyber incidents, either personal or from other tribal communities, and were seeking advice on cyber defense strategies, from foundational steps to advanced improvements.
AE: The gaming sector, including the tribal gaming community, is a primary target for sophisticated cyber attacks (see Jerad’s latest cybersecurity blog here). Discussions at the show highlighted various cyber threats such as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS), ransomware and malware, indicating the diverse nature of potential cyber attacks.
Echoing Jerad’s earlier point, while attendees have some cybersecurity tools and measures in place, a comprehensive 360-degree protection strategy is paramount. It starts with Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) and vulnerability scanning (V-Scan), followed by services that safeguard infrastructure, cloud environments, mobile endpoints – and ones that even account for human behavior and potential errors – to ensure the best cybersecurity posture possible.
JS: Cyber threats are ever evolving, necessitating ongoing vigilance to monitor and counteract the tactics of malicious actors seeking to exploit potential vulnerabilities. For over 25 years, Continent 8 has been powering and protecting the iGaming and online sports betting industry. We possess a deep understanding of the evolutionary and innovative technological requirements needed to counteract emerging cyber threats. We invite tribal gaming casinos and organizations seeking to bolster their cybersecurity strategy to get in touch, allowing us to assist them in securing a safer future.
Continent 8 provides comprehensive, multi-layered threat prevention, detection and response solutions to secure your tribal organization’s digital assets in the face of evolving cyber threats. For more information on how Continent 8 can support your cybersecurity initiatives, email sales@continent.com or fill out our Contact Us page.
Also be sure to check out our new podcast series: Tribal Talks: Cybersecurity Unlocked. The podcast explores new stories, lessons learnt, best practices and headlines that shape the future of tribal casino gaming and cybersecurity, one episode at a time.
Watch Episode 1: The Beginning