One of the biggest gaming gatherings in the world is coming to Israel. Israeli company Playtika is collaborating with the Casual Games Association to bring to Israel the international games conference Casual Connect. The conference will take place in Tel Aviv from October 19 to 21.
The conference is expected to attract over 1,500 executives and experts from leading companies in the gaming and social games industry, with over 700 companies from 30 countries having a presence at it.
"We’ve been following the Israeli Gaming industry for a while and there is no doubt that Israel has become a global powerhouse in the category," said Casual Games Association managing director Jessica Tams, "We are super excited to host our very first Casual Connect in Tel Aviv and thank Playtika for playing a big role in making it happen. Tel Aviv will be added to our yearly roster of global events alongside our yearly events in San Francisco, Singapore, and Amsterdam.”
“We’re proud to be a major catalyst for Casual Connect Tel Aviv 2015. Casual Connect is one of the industry’s most important conferences, therefore it’s a great honor for both Playtika and for the entire Israeli gaming industry. Hosting the industry’s greatest talents in Tel Aviv will bring lots of value to both the global and the local markets” said Playtika VP of business development Elad Kushnir.
Among the companies due to send representatives to the conference are Facebook, Ondoklassniki, AppAnnie, Bidalgo, TabTale and Plarium. Senior figures from the local venture capital industry, such as Gigi Levy, Modi Rosen of Magma Venture Partners, Arnon Dinur of 83North Venture Capital, and Daniel Cohen of Carmel Ventures, will also attend.
According to research by Newzoo, the gaming industry was worth $83.4 billion in 2014, with 30% of this coming from mobile. Most of the money came from Asia ($37.5 billion) and North America ($23 billion). The number of gamers in the world is estimated at 1.7 billion.
This year, the industry is expected to turn over $91 billion, 33% of it from mobile, growing to $106 billion in 2017, with 38% from mobile.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 1, 2015
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