Konami to premiere Konami Online Interactive at ICE Barcelona 2026

Dig Deeper

Related stories

2025/01/20: Sold out ICE Barcelona 2025 kicks off in its new home 2025/01/17: Flutter to sponsor Sustainable Gambling Zone at ICE Barcelona 2025/09/11: Konami Gaming launches online games through Kaizen Gaming in Brazil 2025/01/21: Four Leaf Gaming unveils partnership with Bragg Gaming Group at ICE Barcelona

The Backstory

Why this launch matters now

Konami’s plan to unveil a fuller online platform and fresh cabinet hardware at ICE in Barcelona next January did not emerge in a vacuum. It follows a year when the trade show’s move to Spain reshaped the industry calendar and put product road maps under a brighter spotlight. Organizers described the show’s first outing at Fira Barcelona as a sold-out ICE Barcelona 2025 debut with an expected 55,000-60,000 attendees, signaling pent-up demand for face-to-face dealmaking and platform showcases. That scale has become a forcing function: vendors are timing premieres to meet global operators who are accelerating omnichannel plans, compliance tooling and content pipelines across multiple markets.

The Barcelona venue also recast the mix of conversations on the floor. Panels drilled into how cashless payments, digital currencies and data transparency are colliding with stricter rules, while late-evening networking drew product leads and procurement teams into the same rooms. That intensity helps explain why suppliers are aligning major reveals to ICE rather than spreading them across smaller regional shows. For Konami, bringing an online brand under a unified banner alongside a new cabinet family at the next edition fits the show’s role as a global launchpad.

Latin America: test bed and growth engine

Konami’s online ambitions were already gaining traction in Latin America before this latest step. In Brazil, the company and Kaizen Gaming announced the local debut of Konami titles through the Betano platform as the country’s legalized online market opened this year. The partnership, detailed in Konami Gaming launches online games through Kaizen Gaming in Brazil, put popular slots such as China Shores and Fortune Mint in front of a large new audience and leveraged Kaizen’s first-mover licensing status. The launch underscored how remote gaming servers unlock back catalogs long proven in land-based venues while meeting new compliance frameworks.

Mexico has been another key proving ground. PlayCity Casino expanded its online lineup with Konami slot titles delivered through Konami’s remote gaming server, building on a land-based relationship that spans 17 properties across 11 states. The omni-channel shift, captured in PlayCity Casino expands igaming offering with Konami slot titles, shows how content already familiar to on-property players can migrate online with lower friction and higher retention. These Latin American rollouts have given Konami distribution scale, telemetry and regional regulatory experience that now feed into a broader online brand strategy.

The sequencing matters. By first integrating with established operators in newly regulated or fast-growing markets, Konami gathered performance data, refined remote delivery and demonstrated reliability. That groundwork increases the odds that a dedicated online brand can open doors with operators elsewhere, who will ask for proof points across uptime, engagement and responsible gambling features before allocating lobby real estate.

Rivals and partners reset expectations

Competition for operator shelf space is intensifying as mid-sized studios piggyback on larger distributors and platform specialists to reach the United States and other mature markets. On ICE Barcelona’s opening day this year, Four Leaf Gaming used the show to announce its entry into the U.S. via Bragg’s remote games server and delivery platform. The tie-up, covered in Four Leaf Gaming unveils partnership with Bragg Gaming Group at ICE Barcelona, highlights how content creators are pairing with aggregators that offer marketing tools, player journey systems and commercial reach.

That model raises the bar for larger suppliers too. It is no longer enough to ship a cabinet lineup and a set of slot math models. Operators expect integrated promotional tooling, personalization, cross-channel bonusing and analytics that can be switched on without heavy engineering. Konami’s choice to position its online presence as a distinct brand signals it is moving to meet those expectations head-on rather than simply syndicating games to third parties. The company’s emphasis on remote gaming server access across partners in Brazil and Mexico, and its talk of omni-channel showcases, suggests it is building a bridge between hardware-led innovation and software services that operators can manage centrally.

Sustainability and safer gambling move to the center

ICE’s agenda is not just about content and commerce. It has also put responsibility front and center, with a dedicated area of the show floor and a rebranded focus on early intervention. Clarion Gaming named Flutter Entertainment as headline sponsor of the Sustainable Gambling Zone for the Barcelona event in January. In Flutter to sponsor Sustainable Gambling Zone at ICE Barcelona, organizers described a larger footprint, three days of programming and a shift toward identifying risk earlier in the player journey. Flutter framed the sponsorship as part of its Play Well strategy, citing targets for tool adoption and increased investment in research, product development and marketing.

For suppliers, the takeaway is clear: responsible design and data-driven monitoring are now core buying criteria. Operators want demonstrable controls and modular features that align with local rules and corporate ESG commitments. Any major product reveal at ICE will be judged against that context. A new online platform or cabinet family must show not just entertainment value but also how it supports personalized risk monitoring, configurable limits and interoperability with operator compliance stacks. The Barcelona platform gives vendors a stage to prove they can deliver both.

Reading the signals ahead of ICE 2026

Against that backdrop, Konami’s decision to time its online brand premiere and new hardware for next January’s show looks like a bid to converge its land-based pedigree with a modern, services-led offering. The company has already previewed an omni-channel slate tying exclusive IP to both online and cabinets, a strategy designed to help operators market across verticals while keeping players inside a single ecosystem. If the content resonates and the remote server integrations remain robust, Konami can deepen relationships it has established in Latin America and use those references to expand with regulated operators in North America and Europe.

The stakes are rising. ICE Barcelona has become a high-visibility checkpoint where operators scout portfolios for the coming year and vendors seek to lock in distribution. The show’s scale, documented by the sold-out 2025 edition, compresses evaluation cycles and puts pressure on suppliers to tell a coherent story that spans regulation, responsibility and returns. Konami, having tested its online content through partners in Brazil and Mexico, now aims to package that experience under a single online identity while pushing new hardware that can amplify brand recognition on casino floors.

What to watch next: whether operators view a unified online brand and fresh cabinet family as a stronger commercial hook than incremental content drops; how responsibly designed features are presented and verified on-site; and the extent to which partnerships like the Four Leaf-Bragg deal pressure larger suppliers to offer more flexible delivery and promotional tooling. Barcelona’s evolution from a venue change to a global product barometer means announcements made there carry more weight. Konami’s next act will be measured not only by headline IP and lighting packages, but by how well its online infrastructure, content cadence and safer gambling capabilities meet the market’s tighter demands.