IGA Recap: Pretzels, Persistence, and Mustaches (You Had to Be There) Inside the Gaming Industry
- hillarymcafee8
- Apr 13
- 2 min read
By Hillary & Mike, MaxBet Media
We came. We saw. We walked endless NASCAR laps around the IGA trade show floor, pretzel in hand.
This week’s MaxBet Podcast episode recaps our time at the Indian Gaming Association conference in San Diego. IGA isn’t trying to be G2E or ICE, and that’s the charm. It’s tribal, it’s focused, and it’s where business happens in between chocolate-fueled booth visits and near-death experiences with street hot dogs.
Here’s what stood out:
Smaller Show, Bigger Conversations You don’t go to IGA for the flash. You go because you can have six real conversations before lunch. If you missed someone once, you’d run into them again. And again. And again. It’s the Groundhog Day of networking.
Persistence Was the Headliner Incredible Technologies rolled out a new persistence feature that lets operators control how much persistence they want on their floor. That’s a first. Everyone we talked to had a take. Some loved it, some were stressed, some said “gaming is gaming.” The divide is real.
Booth Style Power Rankings Blueberi had a swag truck. Yamava’ gave out legit sports hats. Konami went full mustache across the exec team. Respect. NRT gets the ambiance award for the only booth that didn’t feel like a Times Square billboard.
Chocolate and Guilt-Based Sales Pitches Gifting vendors came in hot. Real truffles, name-brand treats, stress balls, the works. Trick-or-treating for casino professionals is a thing. The unspoken rule? If you want a snack, at least pretend to care about the payment solution.
Podcasting in a Bag We recorded in a backpack. That was new. Turns out all you need is a mic, two chairs, and a lot of caffeine. We snagged some great interviews that we’ll be dropping over the next few weeks. You’ll know who they are when you hear them casually mention “persistence” within the first two minutes.
Tune into the full IGA recap episode for the real talk. We’ll cover the booths, the buzzwords, the swag, and the unspoken tension of changing your lanyard mid-show. See you there.
Listen to the IGA episode of the MaxBet Podcast. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
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