Informa to acquire ICE and iGB owner Clarion Events for £2.2bn

Dig Deeper

The Backstory

Clarion’s rebound set the price

Informa’s agreement to buy Clarion Events for £2.2 billion follows a sharp recovery in the trade show business and a reset in the global gambling events market. The price reflects not only Clarion’s broad portfolio across energy, security, defense, electronics and other industries, but also the revived value of ICE, iGB Affiliate and iGB L!VE as in-person gatherings returned after the pandemic.

The path to a sale began when Blackstone, Clarion’s owner since 2017, moved to exit the business after a period of disrupted earnings and then rapid normalization. Blackstone bought Clarion for a reported £600 million, but the events sector was hit hard when the pandemic stopped travel and large gatherings. ICE was postponed twice in 2021 and then canceled, underscoring how vulnerable the company’s flagship gaming property was to restrictions on business travel and venue capacity.

That weakness did not last. By the 12 months through January 2024, Clarion’s revenue had reportedly risen to £432.9 million from £257 million as activity resumed in major markets including China and Hong Kong. When Blackstone initiated the sale of Clarion Events, the company was expected to attract interest from global private equity firms and strategic buyers. The reported valuation of about £2 billion, or roughly 12 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, set the framework for a competitive process.

Barcelona changed the center of gravity

The sale also comes after Clarion completed one of its most important strategic shifts: moving ICE and iGB Affiliate from London to Barcelona. ICE and iGB Affiliate are contracted to Fira de Barcelona at least through 2029, giving the assets venue certainty and a continental European base for exhibitors, operators, suppliers, regulators and affiliates.

The move to Barcelona was more than a venue change. It repositioned ICE as a larger international platform after years in London, where capacity and cost pressures had become recurring issues for large trade events. The relocation gave Clarion a clearer runway to expand the show floor, deepen conference programming and strengthen links between ICE and iGB Affiliate. The decision also gave a potential buyer more visibility over the event calendar and venue economics, factors that matter in valuing recurring exhibition revenue.

Clarion’s gaming portfolio now spans several major moments in the industry year. ICE remains the principal business-to-business gaming show. iGB Affiliate sits alongside it as a performance marketing and affiliate gathering. iGB L!VE, which has returned to ExCeL London, gives Clarion a midyear event aimed at the igaming and affiliate community. Together, those brands support sponsorship, media, exhibition and networking revenue across multiple segments of the gambling supply chain.

Sustainable gambling became a commercial theme

Clarion has also used its events to push responsible and sustainable gambling higher up the agenda, turning a regulatory and reputational concern into a core programming and sponsorship category. That shift was visible at ICE Barcelona, where Flutter sponsored the Sustainable Gambling Zone as the area was formally relaunched under a broader banner.

The rebrand from a safer gambling focus to the Sustainable Gambling Zone reflected a wider industry effort to address player protection earlier in the customer journey. The area occupied 490 square meters in the Fast Forward section of the ICE show floor and included 26 safer gambling bodies, including Spanish organizations ASENCAS and FEJAR. Its content program covered consumer protection and environmental, social and governance issues, aligning with pressure from regulators, investors and operators to demonstrate measurable safeguards.

Flutter’s involvement also showed how major operators are using trade events to signal their commitments. The company has set a target for 75% of active online customers to use a Play Well tool by 2030 and said 47.5% of customers had engaged with such tools by the end of the second quarter of 2024. The sponsorship tied ICE programming to operator-level initiatives on risk monitoring, customer tools and industry partnerships.

At iGB L!VE, the theme carried into anti-fraud and game integrity. Gamecheck’s sponsorship of the Sustainable Gambling Zone put fake game detection and content authentication in front of operators and suppliers. The company said it had detected 8,500 fake games, processed more than 85,000 verification requests and verified more than 67,000 brands. For Clarion, such partnerships showed the event portfolio could accommodate topics beyond sales and product launches, including compliance, trust and market integrity.

iGB L!VE broadened the audience

Clarion’s iGB assets have become more important as affiliates, media buyers and performance marketers take a larger role in customer acquisition. The first London edition of iGB L!VE at ExCeL was designed to sharpen that focus while retaining links to operators, suppliers and technology providers. The event’s programming also suggested a deliberate effort to make the brand broader than a standard affiliate expo.

That was clear when former Formula One team principal Claire Williams was named keynote speaker for iGB L!VE. The session connected Formula One’s data-heavy, technology-driven competitive environment with igaming’s own emphasis on speed, marginal gains and operational discipline. Williams’ tenure at Williams included improved performance, commercial changes and diversity initiatives, themes Clarion used to frame the event around leadership, innovation and organizational culture.

This kind of programming matters because gambling trade events are competing not just on floor space but on relevance. Operators face higher compliance costs, tighter advertising rules, a maturing affiliate market and pressure to improve product differentiation. Suppliers are trying to sell into a crowded technology stack. Affiliates must adapt to changing search, social and paid media economics. A stronger content program can help an event justify attendance budgets and deepen its value to sponsors.

Clarion’s challenge under new ownership will be to preserve that position while expanding where appropriate. Informa has large-scale experience in exhibitions and business intelligence, and its ownership could bring operational efficiencies, data products and cross-industry practices. But ICE and iGB have distinct communities, and any changes to format, pricing or brand identity will be watched closely by exhibitors and attendees.

Rivals are building around affiliates

The acquisition also lands in a competitive events landscape. SBC, one of the clearest challengers in gambling conferences and media, has been expanding its affiliate and performance marketing offer. Its partnership with Conversion Conf ahead of Affiliate Leaders Summit 2026 is aimed at strengthening conference content, speaker recruitment and industry engagement for a Lisbon event expected to attract more than 10,000 professionals connected to affiliate marketing, advertising technology, acquisition and gambling operations.

That move illustrates the pressure around one of Clarion’s most valuable niches. Affiliates remain central to regulated online gambling expansion, particularly as operators enter new markets and compete for customers without relying entirely on above-the-line advertising. Performance marketing has also become more technical, with greater emphasis on attribution, compliance, content quality and lifetime-value optimization. Events that can convene affiliates, operators, adtech companies and regulators have a stronger claim on marketing budgets.

SBC’s Affiliate Leaders Summit sits within a broader summit expected to draw more than 40,000 industry professionals, showing that scale is becoming a defining feature of the sector. Clarion’s advantage is the established ICE and iGB brands, plus venue commitments in Barcelona and London. Informa’s task will be to defend that advantage as competitors try to segment the market with specialized communities and regional formats.

What Informa inherits

Informa is buying Clarion at a moment when the events business has largely recovered from the pandemic but faces higher expectations. Exhibitors want measurable returns. Sponsors want targeted audiences and data. Attendees want programming that addresses regulatory, commercial and technological change. In gambling, those demands are amplified by public scrutiny, fast-moving regulation and consolidation among operators and suppliers.

The immediate stakes are continuity. The next ICE is scheduled for Jan. 18-20, 2027, with iGB Affiliate on Jan. 19-20. iGB L!VE is due back at ExCeL London July 7-8, 2027. Those dates and venue commitments give the market a clear calendar, but ownership changes can still affect strategy, investment levels and management priorities.

The larger question is how Informa uses Clarion’s gaming assets within a wider exhibitions portfolio. If handled carefully, ICE and iGB could benefit from Informa’s scale, data capabilities and international reach. If the integration disrupts the community that made the brands valuable, competitors will have an opening. Blackstone’s exit crystallizes the value created by Clarion’s post-pandemic rebound and Barcelona move. Informa now has to prove that the next phase can deliver growth without diluting the events’ role as central meeting points for the global gambling industry.