SBC Summit Lisbon 2026: Europe’s Biggest iGaming & Betting Show
📅 Date: September 29 – October 1, 2026
📍 Venue: Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) & MEO Arena, Parque das Nações, Lisbon, Portugal
🔗 Website: sbcevents.com
🎟️ Tickets: Register Now
🌟 About the Event
SBC Summit is back in Lisbon, and once again it is shaping up to be the single biggest date on the global iGaming calendar. Running from September 29 to October 1, 2026, across the Feira Internacional de Lisboa and the neighbouring MEO Arena in Parque das Nações, the event has grown at a staggering pace since its move from Barcelona in 2024, and the 2026 edition is expected to be the largest yet.
Organised by SBC Events, the Summit brings the entire iGaming and sports betting value chain under one roof: operators, suppliers, affiliates, payment providers, regulators, and media, all converging for three days of deal-making, product launches, and big-picture industry debate. Last year’s edition pulled in around 30,000 professionals and roughly 700 exhibitors, and organisers are targeting up to 35,000 attendees for 2026, a reflection of just how fast the betting and gaming industry keeps expanding, even as regulation tightens across major markets.
2026 also brings a scheduling twist worth noting: the Summit is running slightly later than its usual mid-September slot, specifically to avoid clashing with major Jewish religious holidays. It returns to its standard September dates from 2027 onward, so this year’s late-September, early-October window is a one-off worth marking carefully in your calendar.
The conference agenda has been reimagined around a six-stage format, spanning Omnichannel Marketing Tech, the Future of Affiliate Strategy, AdTech & Analytics Innovation, and more, giving affiliates, operators, and suppliers a genuinely 360-degree view of where the industry is heading. The headline Super Stage returns to the MEO Arena, hosting the kind of high-wattage keynotes that have become an SBC trademark: last year’s lineup featured names like Gary Vaynerchuk, Randi Zuckerberg, and boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk sharing the stage with industry leaders.
For payments and fintech professionals specifically, the standalone Payment Expert Summit remains one of the most valuable side-events on the floor, bringing together the processors, PSPs, and banking partners that keep the betting and casino industry’s money moving securely and compliantly across borders.
📈 Why SBC Summit Matters
SBC Summit’s rise has been one of the fastest growth stories in the events industry. From roughly 2,000 attendees in Barcelona back in 2021, to 15,000 by 2023, to 25,000 in its debut Lisbon year in 2024, the Summit has more than doubled in scale within five years, and 2025 alone saw a 76.6% jump in first-time attendees, alongside 57.5% growth in new exhibiting companies. That kind of momentum means the show floor genuinely reflects where the iGaming industry is investing next, rather than just where it has already been.
Part of that growth is down to how the event has structured itself around the industry’s real pain points. Themed zones such as the Casino & iGaming Zone, Sports Betting Zone, Player Protection Zone, and Esports Zone let delegates navigate a genuinely enormous show floor without wasting time, while co-located events like the Affiliate Leaders Summit and Payment Expert Summit give specialist audiences a tighter, more focused agenda alongside the main show.
Regulation is also front and centre for 2026. With markets from Brazil to the Nordics tightening licensing and compliance requirements, the new Regulatory Gaming Meet-Ups initiative gives operators, suppliers, and affiliates direct access to regulators and market experts from more than 20 jurisdictions, a rare opportunity to get ahead of policy changes rather than react to them after the fact.
🔍 Key Highlights
- ✅ 3 full days across the FIL and MEO Arena in Lisbon’s Parque das Nações
- ✅ Up to 35,000 attendees and 700+ exhibitors expected, SBC’s biggest edition yet
- ✅ Six-stage conference agenda covering marketing tech, affiliate strategy, AdTech, and more
- ✅ Super Stage keynotes at the MEO Arena featuring high-profile names from inside and outside the industry
- ✅ Standalone Payment Expert Summit and Affiliate Leaders Summit (separate ticket required)
- ✅ New AI Academy offering hands-on sessions on fraud detection and building AI assistants
- ✅ Regulatory Gaming Meet-Ups connecting delegates directly with regulators from 20+ jurisdictions
- ✅ SBC Awards gala celebrating excellence across the betting and iGaming industry
👥 Who Should Attend
SBC Summit Lisbon is built for the full iGaming ecosystem: sportsbook and casino operators, platform and payment providers, affiliates and performance marketers, regulators, and investors. If your business touches betting, casino gaming, affiliate marketing, or the payment rails that support them, this is the one week of the year where the entire industry shows up in one city.
Payment and fintech companies serving high-risk and gaming merchants in particular will find the Payment Expert Summit track especially relevant, with dedicated sessions on cross-border settlement, fraud prevention, and compliant acquiring for the betting sector.
📌 Good to Know Before You Go
- 2026 dates are later than usual (Sep 29–Oct 1) to avoid a religious holiday clash; the event reverts to its standard mid-September slot from 2027
- The Affiliate Leaders Summit and Payment Expert Summit both require separate tickets from the main SBC Summit pass
- Lisbon hotel rooms near Parque das Nações fill up quickly given the scale of the event, book well in advance
- Attendees typically arrive from 60+ countries, making this one of the most internationally diverse gatherings in the gaming calendar
