Clarion Events and River City Group, publisher of Interactive Gaming News, are pleased to announce that River City Group has joined the Clarion family of gambling industry events and publications through a purchase.
This move follows Clarion's successful integration of ATE, the producer of the London-based International Casino Exhibition (ICE) in 2005.
ATE and River City Group have been sister companies, co-producing the European i-Gaming Congress and Expo (EiG) for the past four years.
"We're pleased to formally join the Clarion family through this sale," said Sue Schneider, founder and CEO of River City Group. "It's a marriage based on a proven relationship that will create a powerhouse serving both the land-based and interactive gambling industries."
Simon Kimble, Managing Director of Clarion, stated, "Given the success of River City Group's recent GIGSE event and its range of products serving this sector of the global gaming industry, it's the right addition to our properties at the right time. While the company offers service internationally, its events in North America and the Far East offer Clarion a foothold outside the UK."
Schneider stressed that there will be little or no change to the winning River City Group operation as a result of the sale. "You'll find that our event productions, operations, sales, publications and other operations will remain substantially the same," she said.
Schneider and the management team of River City Group have made a multi-year commitment to remain with the company to continue to grow its range of events and publications for the interactive gaming industry.
"Having a company with such depth in the fastest growing segment of the gaming industry join us is exciting," noted Peter Rusbridge, CEO of ATE, the cornerstone of Clarion's gaming division. "We've worked well together to develop our European event and we see lots of synergies from joining forces in other parts of the world as well as in other niches in the business."