From one perspective, it’s a story about expansion. From another, it’s about tightening regulations. Shift your view again, and the real pressure points appear: acquisition costs rising, payment friction increasing, product teams redesigning around compliance rather than creativity.

SBC Summit’s conference agenda mirrors that complexity.

Rather than treating the industry as a single conversation, it breaks it into its defining forces. Markets. Technology. Payments. Affiliation. Regulation.

Each stage examines one dimension in depth, while recognising that every decision made in one area ripples across the rest.

In this guide, we walk through the structure of the conference and explore how each stage refracts the industry through a different lens, and what that means for the decisions you are making in 2026.

A Conference Overview

The topics may be complex, but the conference’s structure has been designed with clarity in mind. The programme is organised across:

- Six stages, including the Super Stage

- A structured three-day format, with a new focus for each stage every day

- 600 expert speakers with over 100 hours of educational content.

- Additional hands-on formats, including three academies

Alongside the Super Stage, five dedicated stages form the backbone of the agenda:

- Global & Emerging Markets looks at where growth is really happening and what changing regulation means if you are trying to expand, enter new regions or defend your position in established ones.

- Technology & Innovation focuses on the tools behind the scenes, from trading systems to UX design, and how they shape the experience players actually have.

- Payment Expert Summit is about money, trust and friction. Approval rates, fraud checks, crypto, AML and the decisions that quietly determine whether a player stays or leaves.

- Affiliate Leaders Summit tackles the reality of modern acquisition. Rising costs, tougher ad rules, tracking issues and what it now takes to build a sustainable affiliate business.

- Regulation & Compliance addresses the rules that increasingly shape everything else, from marketing freedom to product design, and how to operate commercially while staying on the right side of oversight.

GLOBAL & EMERGING MARKETS STAGE

Emerging Markets | Latin America | Western Europe

Unlike the other stages, which focus on themes like technology or payments, this stage is organised around markets themselves.

Each day zooms in on a specific region and the debates happening inside those markets right now.

It challenges assumptions about mature markets such as Brazil, the UK, Italy and Mexico, which many believe they already understand, yet continue to shift under regulatory and commercial pressure. At the same time, it explores emerging regions including Africa, the UAE and parts of Eastern Europe, not as potential opportunities, but as live and competitive markets where frameworks are still forming, and early advantage is still to be claimed.

As with any market discussion, regulation sits at the heart of these conversations, with sessions connecting policy directly to commercial outcomes and how rule changes influence acquisition costs, retention strategy, payments, affiliate models and product design.

Bringing together global operators, regional leaders and regulators themselves, this stage is built for those assessing expansion, managing risk or refining long-term strategy.

Stage breakdown:

- Day 1: Emerging Markets: Breaking down the world’s fastest-moving markets, where regulation is evolving quickly, and early advantage depends on getting ahead of the rulebook.

- Day 2: Latin America: Focusing on Latin America’s shift into a more regulated era, where rising competition and acquisition costs are forcing operators to rethink long-term strategy.

- Day 3: Western Europe: Explores Western Europe’s tightening landscape, where higher taxes, tougher compliance and growing black market pressure are reshaping the region.

Panels include:

- The Africa Advantage: High Growth, Fast Regulation, Huge Potential

- UAE’s High-Stakes Shift: Regulators, Resorts and a Brand-New Rulebook

- LatAm Leaders: Strategy, Scale and Survival

- Brazil Unfiltered: What CEOs Actually Think

- The UK Squeeze: Can Affiliates Survive the New Reality?

- Scandinavia: High Tax, High Standards, High Stakes

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION STAGE

Sports Betting Innovation | iGaming Product & Design | Marketing & CX

The Technology & Innovation stage is dedicated to uncovering the systems and technology powering the industry.

Moving beyond the ‘buzzwords’, it focuses on the real pressure points where technology provides solutions, not because it sounds groundbreaking, but because it is practical, functional and delivers results.

Sessions span the full spectrum of the industry, from the way live data feeds are transforming sportsbook odds to how automation is strengthening fraud detection in iGaming, and how marketing teams are using technology to build campaigns driven by insight rather than instinct.

Whether you work in trading, product, technology, UX or marketing, this stage is built around what truly creates competitive advantage in 2026: resilient infrastructure, seamless user experience and intelligent use of data.

Stage breakdown:

- Day 1: Sports Betting Innovation: Exploring how sportsbooks are evolving into real-time tech businesses, shaped by data speed, automation and growing integrity demands.

- Day 2: iGaming Product & Design: Looking at seamless player experience, increasing regulatory pressure, and how product teams are designing for both.

- Day 3: Marketing & CX: Examining the new rules of marketing and how brands can still be personal whilst remaining responsible around data, technology and messaging.

Panels include:

- Sportstech Intelligence: How Live Data Shapes Smarter Odds

- AI Referees for Risk: Automation in Trading & Fraud Detection

- RegTech and the Reality of Invisible KYC

- Cross-Platform Consistency Across Mobile, Web and App

- AdTech Intelligence: Helping Operators Do More With Less

- Designing Campaigns the Data Can Read

PAYMENT EXPERT SUMMIT STAGE

Fintech | AML & Compliance | Crypto & Blockchain

The Payment Expert Summit Stage is where the industry stops treating payments as a back-end function and starts recognising them for what they really are: the foundation of trust.

From approval rates and payout speed to affordability checks, AML oversight and fraud detection, sessions explore how money movement now sits at the centre of player experience and performance. It also reflects how quickly the landscape is shifting, with sessions on how open banking, crypto infrastructure and stronger monitoring requirements are reshaping what “good payments” looks like in 2026.

Bringing together operators, PSPs, fintech companies, compliance and AML specialists, risk teams and regulators, this stage is essential for anyone responsible for keeping payments smooth, compliant and trusted.

Stage breakdown:

- Day 1: Fintech: Exploring how payments are evolving from a processing tool into a growth engine that impacts trust, retention and long-term performance.

- Day 2: AML & Compliance: Examining the new compliance reality, where regulators expect continuous oversight and operators need monitoring built directly into payment flows.

- Day 3: Crypto & Blockchain: Looking at the growing role of crypto and blockchain in gaming, and the tension between speed, innovation, and tightening regulatory expectations.

Panels include:

- From Click to Cashout: Building Reliable Payment Infrastructure

- Solving Payments at Scale in Regulated Markets

- AML Challenges in a Cross-Border Market

- AML in Motion: Continuous Monitoring in Modern Gaming

- The Other Half of Blockchain Nobody Talks About

- One Wallet, Many Countries: Crypto Payments at Scale

AFFILIATE LEADERS SUMMIT STAGE

Omnichannel Marketing Tech | Future of Affiliate Strategy | AdTech & Analytics Innovation

The Affiliate Leaders Summit is dedicated to tackling the evolving role of affiliate marketing in 2026.

Affiliation is no longer about ranking a review page and capturing easy traffic. Today’s affiliates operate as full media businesses, who must contend with tighter advertising restrictions, collapsing attribution and a younger, less loyal audience.

Over three days, the focus shifts from rebuilding the foundations of affiliate performance, through stronger tracking, smarter CRM use and tighter funnel ownership, to rethinking the business model itself in light of tax changes, regulation and new monetisation approaches. It will also feature sessions examining the tools shaping day-to-day competitiveness, including adtech, fraud controls and AI.

For anyone working in acquisition, partnerships or performance marketing, this stage doesn’t just show where affiliation is evolving, but how you can evolve alongside it.

Stage breakdown:

- Day 1: Omnichannel Marketing Tech: Exploring how affiliates are rebuilding with better tracking, stronger funnels, and targeted traffic generation.

- Day 2: Future of Affiliate Strategy: Tackling the bigger strategic reality, where taxation, regulation and tightening markets are reshaping affiliate economics and forcing smarter financial models.

- Day 3: AdTech & Analytics Innovation: Looking at the new tech landscape, with fraud controls, hybrid media planning and AI-driven optimisation built into the model.

Panels include:

- Killing the Silo Monster: Integrating CRM, SEO, Paid Media & Content

- The Modern Affiliate Audience: Younger, Multi-Channel, Easily Distracted, and Totally Disloyal

- Ad Crackdowns = Affiliate Minefield

- Content That Still Cuts Through: What Audiences Actually Engage With Now

- SEO vs Paid: The 2026 Power Shift. Can Affiliates Survive Without Paying to Play?

- 2027 Media Planning for Affiliates: When Meta, Google and TikTok Keep Changing the Rules

REGULATION & COMPLIANCE STAGE

Global Regulations | Player Protection Symposium | Compliance Tech

The Regulation & Compliance Stage looks at how shifting policy is restructuring the industry itself.

It tackles rising taxes, tighter advertising controls and stronger AML enforcement, and asks the big question: how can markets protect players and preserve integrity without driving consumers toward unlicensed alternatives?

Alongside global reform discussions, the Player Protection Symposium will explore where responsibility starts and ends, and what effective protection looks like in a high-speed digital environment. The Compliance Tech track will then focus on execution, addressing how operators can implement financial risk checks, digital identity tools and cross-border AML controls without stalling growth.

For compliance leaders, regulators and senior executives, this stage will confront the practical and commercial realities of operating in an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.

Stage breakdown:

- Day 1: Global Regulations: Exploring how regulation across key regions is reshaping market access, operator strategy and competitive balance.

- Day 2: Player Protection Symposium: Examining the tension at the heart of modern gambling policy, how to protect players effectively while maintaining commercial viability.

- Day 3: Compliance Tech: Looking at the tools and systems operators need to meet stricter oversight without slowing growth or damaging the player experience.

Panels include:

- Canada: Province by Province Progress

- Big in the Baltics: iGaming in Estonia

- Having the Edge in Player Protection

- Is the Industry Closing Its Eyes to Gambling Harm in Its Own Workforce?

- More Players, Less Risk: Maximising Approvals in a Regulated World

- Bring on the new markets: What are the compliance challenges?

Final Thoughts

SBC Summit’s conference agenda is designed around the real pressures shaping the industry. From expansion strategy and regulatory reform to product design and acquisition performance, it moves beyond surface-level headlines and into the decisions operators, affiliates, and suppliers face every day.

If you are looking for deeper-level conversations and practical takeaways rather than broad commentary, SBC Summit’s conference is where those conversations happen.

View the agenda here.

Want to attend SBC Summit 2026? Register your interest here.