Over the years, SBC Events has garnered tremendous support from the iGaming industry globally, which is why SBC cited that support as a primary reason for the unparalleled 2023 edition of SBC Summit Barcelona.
An awe-inspiring audience
The 2023 conference and exhibition attracted an astonishing audience of nearly 15,000 participants, a three-fold growth over 2022 numbers, cementing its status as the industry’s fastest-growing event. Additionally, post-event poll data discovered a Net Promoter Score of 49 for the aforementioned event, emphasizing the SBC’s commitment to maintaining a high-quality standards, even despite the significant increase in participation compared to 2022.
As for the event itself, it got off to a great start at the SBC Leaders Summit, the introductory edition of the private “pre-event, invite-only” event that lured 500 of the industry’s best executives. It also lasted all day and included plenty of conference content, involving Frank Abagnale’s keynote, the man who was the main inspiration behind Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me if You Can,” a poker tournament and networking chances.
An important peak of the event was the initiation of Jordan Levin (OpenBet, CEO), Brigid Simmonds OBE (Betting and Gaming Council, Chair) and Gustaf Hagman (LeoVegas, CEO and Co-Founder) into the SBC’s Hall of Fame.
Description of SBC Summit Barcelona
The aforementioned SBC Summit Barcelona, which was held from September 19 to September 21, was held in a large conference area of 38.000 square meters conference area that gathered 350 exhibitors, which represented a growth of 175% compared to 2022. Commenting on the event, VP of Global Gaming at IDnow, one of the exhibitors and provider of identity verification solutions, Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk, said: “We are being treated as a partner, not just as a company that pays money to get services. We’re being taken to events and get introduced to people. SBC is a solution-finding partner for us.”
The 2023 exhibition space is practically divided into 5 zones that mark the crucial areas of the industry, such as: Affiliate, Media and Marketing, Emerging Tech, Payments & Compliance, Casino & iGaming and Sports Wagering. Additionally, there was an appointed “Festival area,” which, in addition to exhibitor’s displays, also offered the ultimate casual networking environment, consisting of a tapas & sangria bar, smoothie and juice bar and an ice cream bar in addition to other benefits.
As for the exhibition space, it was enhanced with many networking zones, and the SBC Content+ Lounge acted as a central meeting centre for representatives who arranged their meeting via the official event app. Interestingly, the app involved a lead scoring feature that was actively used, amounting to 2,560 interactions. Answering the question about what makes the SBC Summit in Barcelona special when compared to other events, the Founder & CEO of investment firm Bonmoja, Sab Jhooti, commented: “It’s the community element. Whenever I come, I have the opportunity to meet the who’s who in this industry. Everybody you want to meet comes to this event, so I don’t really have to go anywhere else.”
Involving seven stages, the extensive conference program featured more than 80 hours of conference content and provided insights from more than 450 of the industry’s top firms. In this regard, of the speakers, 89.4% were C-level officials, 63.7% were operators and 8.9% were subsidiaries. However, the standing 24.7% was made up of providers, regulators, associations, sports teams, investors and the media. All of them had to answer a total of 302 questions, which further added to the interactivity of the mentioned event.
Moreover, according to the insights from SBC Connect+, it’s obvious that the next 5 panels were the most requested by the users of the application.
- “Sports Betting’s Makeover: The Influence of Gamification, Streaming, and Stats”
- “Affiliate Leaders Panel: Leading Partnerships in Emerging Markets”
- “Sports & Sponsorship Landscape: Growth Markets and Partnerships”
- “SBC Leaders: Exploring Global Growth Markets”
- “Everything, Everywhere, All-of-the-Time: Managing Marketing, Tech & Compliance”
One of the significant events of the aforementioned 2023 agenda was the opening remarks by reputable bestselling author and metaverse expert, Matthew Ball, and chief executive of Flutter International, Daniel Taylor. With enhanced participation, every day’s program in 2023 completed educational roundtable meetings on verticals, topics or particular markets, of which there were 30 in total.
The ultimate peak of SBC’s events, the First Pitch contest, was created to help startups bring their inventive visions to life, according to its newest champion, SnapOdds. In addition, it also won a desired reward package of more than 60,000 euros, which involves a 2-day workshop experience in Tallinn, offered by Yolo Investments, who is sponsoring the contest, among the list of rewards.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the SBC Awards ceremony took place in the famous Caves Codorníu and gave the official recognition to the industry’s flagship firms in 39 distinguished categories. The MCs of the event were already a familiar face at the SBC Awards, Kirsty Gallacher, TV presenter and Clarence Seedorf, previous professional football player and now manager, and one of the best midfielders of today. However, what is a ceremony without a special guest, which is why Luis Figo, the previous “World and European Footballer of the Year,” who played for Real Madrid and FC Barcelona and is a Digitain ambassador at the moment, appeared as a special guest. On that note, CEO and Founder of SBC, Rasmus Sojmark, commented: “The Barcelona chapter for SBC came to a spectacular close. This event exceeded our wildest dreams as we worked tirelessly to make it the industry’s fastest-growing gathering. With 15,000 attendees filling the exhibition floor, this show will forever be a cherished part of SBC’s history. However, as you all probably know, we’re far from done. The success of this edition paves the way for an even more prosperous next edition. We can’t wait to welcome you all in Lisbon for SBC Summit 2024!” Additionally, Managing Director of Brazilian operator VaiDeBob, Thomas Carvalhaes, added: “The quality and calibre of people attending is very impressive. I was on a podcast recently and they asked what my favourite event was. I said it’s SBC Summit Barcelona – for its relevance, for the people who are here and for giving us a sense of what’s about to come.”
Next location
The SBC has revealed the next location for its famous international leading event, which has now been officially rebranded as the SBC Summit to emphasize its global significance. The next location will be Lisbon’s Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) and the summit will start from September 24 to 26 and is projected to take place at the massive area of more than 100,000 square meters, where 25,000 participants and 600 exhibitors are expected. It will also include insights from 500 speakers who will be experts in the category they’re speaking about.
Source: “SBC Summit Powers Onto Lisbon After Record 2023 Performance”, European Gaming. October 6, 2023.