GGRAsia – SiGMA South Asia to be held in Sri Lanka in 2025

SiGMA South Asia to be held in Sri Lanka in 2025

Aug 29, 2024 Newsdesk iGaming, Latest News, Top of the deck

The first SiGMA South Asia trade event and conference for the online gaming sector will be held in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, from November 30 to December 2, 2025.

“It was only a matter of time before South Asia, home to over 25 percent of the world’s population, would have its inaugural big gaming summit,” said the SiGMA organisers in a recent press release.

The announcement said Sri Lanka was “set to redefine gaming for the region,” with the tourism sector contributing an estimated “US$4.4 billion to Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product.

The inaugural SiGMA South Asia is expected to draw circa 5,000 delegates, “with an expert-led speaker line-up featuring over 150 industry authorities, including government officials, regulators, and representatives from South Asia’s leading gaming and land-based companies,” stated the organisers.

The event will see “additional participation from more than 800 affiliates and an expo floor boosted by tier-one companies from the region’s top 10 companies,” they added.

The organisers said the Sri Lankan Ministry of Tourism had “officially endorsed” the SiGMA South Asia event. They cited a letter from Thisum Jayasuriya, chairman of the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, that said that the ministry was “in the view that SiGMA South Asia 2025 would be an extremely important event to Sri Lanka”.

Mr Jayasuriya also was said to “pledge the fullest support” from his organisation to SiGMA South Asia.

The first casino resort in Sri Lanka is set to open in phases starting later this year, with the gaming portion set to launch next year.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd announced in April a partnership with John Keells Holdings Plc to develop a US$1-billion casino complex in the centre of Colombo.

Melco Resorts had already mentioned it would spend US$125 million as its contribution toward the City of Dreams Sri Lanka resort, and that the casino would launch in mid-2025.

Earlier this month it was reported that India-based Majestic Group Hotels & Casinos had signed an agreement to run a Majestic Pride Casino at the Colombo Lotus Tower, in Sri Lanka’s capital city.

SiGMA already promotes the SiGMA Asia event in the Philippine capital Manila, which debuted in 2023.

The next instalment of SiGMA Asia is to be held from June 1 to 4 next year, at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay, Manila. The 2025 edition “will see a 40-percent increase in footprint, with a number of new areas included in the floor plan,” stated the organisers in a previous release.

In a separate announcement this week, the organisers said they would dedicate “half” of the exhibition floor to “land-based clients” in next year’s event.