SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 has just wrapped up, and I’m writing this on the last evening with tired legs and a very full notebook. Three days at SBC Summit, spread across FIL and the MEO Arena in Parque das Nações, plus everything that happens around it, is one of the most intense weeks in the iGaming calendar. This year was also one of the best I’ve had there.
Here’s how the week went, from the first morning run to the last conversation.
It started with a morning run
The morning we landed, before a single meeting, a few of us laced up and went for a run through the city. We ended up at Praça do Comércio as the sun came up, with the square almost empty, the Rua Augusta arch in front of us and the giant yellow LISBOA letters to ourselves. It’s become a bit of a ritual for me at events. An early run clears the head, resets the body clock after a flight, and you see a side of the city most delegates never do.
If you’re heading to SBC next year, I’d recommend it. Lisbon early in the morning, before the heat and the crowds, is something else.
The Timeless Passion Padel Tournament
The day before the summit opened, we joined the Timeless Passion Padel Tournament, hosted by Timeless Tech together with Amigo Gaming, BEON and Endorphina. It was billed as their biggest edition yet, with teams from across the industry, music and a full day of networking around the courts.
I’m a big believer in this kind of networking. Put people on a padel court for an hour and you learn more about how they work than in three formal meetings. You see who’s competitive, who’s a good teammate and who laughs at their own mistakes. By the time we walked into FIL the next morning, we already had a handful of warm conversations to pick up. Thanks to the Timeless Tech team for a brilliantly run day.
Day one: the Affnook Partner Palooza
On the first day of the summit, we hosted the Affnook Partner Palooza, our gathering for the affiliates, operators and partners we work with, and the ones we’d like to work with. The idea was simple: get the people behind our network into one room, away from the noise of the expo floor, and have honest conversations about what’s working and what isn’t.
Events like this are some of the most valuable things we do all year. An affiliate network is built on relationships, and relationships are built in person. A lot of the partners in the room I’d only ever spoken to on calls, and putting faces to names changes how you work together afterwards. Thank you to everyone who came.
What the industry was talking about
SBC Summit brings together tens of thousands of people from operators, affiliates, suppliers and regulators, and the hallway conversations give you a good read on where the industry is heading. A few themes kept coming up.
Affiliates want transparency. Fairer deal terms, faster payments and clear reporting were on almost every affiliate’s mind. The networks and operators that are open about how conversions are counted and why some are rejected are the ones affiliates want to grow with.
Tracking is getting harder, and more important. With more markets, more channels and stricter regulation, operators and affiliates both need tracking they can trust. That’s the problem we work on every day at Trackier, and it came up in nearly every meeting.
New markets are where the growth is. A lot of conversations were about expansion into newly regulated and emerging markets, and the partners needed to get there properly.
The evenings
As always at SBC, the days didn’t end when the halls closed. There were dinners with partners, drinks along the river and long conversations that ran well past midnight. The week closed with INFINITY Lisbon at the MEO Arena, headlined by Tiësto, which is about as big a send-off as an industry event can get.
Some of my favourite moments of the week happened around tables like this one. No agenda, no slides, just good food and people who’ve spent years building this industry swapping stories.
What I’m taking home
SBC Summit is staying in Lisbon until at least 2030, and after this week I understand why. The city works for an event of this size, and the mix of business and life outside the halls is hard to beat.
For me, the lesson of this week is the same one I keep relearning: the deals don’t start on the stage. They start on a padel court, at a partner dinner, or on a sunrise run through an empty square. Now comes the important part, the follow-ups. If we met in Lisbon, expect to hear from me soon.
If you work in affiliate marketing or iGaming and want to talk partnerships, send me a message on LinkedIn. Next up for me is Mobidictum in Istanbul, then Affiliate Grand Slam in Rome.
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