29 September – 1 October 2026 | FIL & MEO Arena | Lisbon, Portugal
SBC Summit 2026 is one of the largest iGaming events in Europe and one of the biggest industry gatherings on the global calendar. The SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 edition is expected to bring together around 40,000 attendees, 800+ exhibitors and sponsors, and 600+ speakers across FIL and MEO Arena.
At that scale, the important question is not simply whether SBC Summit 2026 is big. It obviously is.
The more useful question is:
Is SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 organised well enough to make those 40,000 people useful rather than overwhelming?
That is what this IGLC review focuses on: the size of the event, the SBC Summit 2026 floor plan, registration, badge collection, transportation, navigation, food, networking, SBC Connect, and the major changes compared with SBC Summit 2025.
This is a pre-event review based on the official 2026 information currently available. After the event, IGLC can update it with the real on-site experience: queues, crowd levels, navigation, transport, staff, networking quality and whether the event ultimately justified the trip.
1. How Big Is SBC Summit 2026?
The first thing to understand about SBC Summit 2026 is its scale.
The organisers expect:
40,000 attendees
800+ exhibitors and sponsors
600+ speakers
3 event days
4 main exhibition halls.
That works out to roughly 50 attendees per exhibitor or sponsor.
SBC Summit 2026 is therefore not the kind of conference where you arrive, walk around for a few hours and hope to meet the right people by chance.
At this size, preparation matters.
The organisers themselves are clearly designing the event around this problem. The exhibition is segmented by industry vertical, registration is spread across several locations, there is an official SBC Connect app, attendees can plan meetings before the event, and the venue includes dedicated networking and hospitality areas.
For anyone considering SBC Lisbon 2026, this scale is both the main advantage and the main risk.
There will be an enormous number of people and companies in one place.
But without a plan, it could also be very easy to waste a day.
2. SBC Summit 2026 Floor Plan and Exhibition Halls
The good news is that the SBC Summit 2026 floor plan is not simply four halls filled with random companies.
The exhibition is deliberately segmented by industry area.
Halls 1 and 2 — Casino & iGaming
The largest concentration of casino-related businesses sits across Halls 1 and 2, with additional Casino & iGaming presence in Hall 4.
This area includes companies working in:
casino games,
live casino,
aggregation,
CRM,
gamification,
personalisation,
retention,
platform technology,
and other services supporting casino operators.
For casino operators, product teams and technology buyers, this should be one of the most important areas of SBC Summit Lisbon 2026.
Hall 3 — Sports Betting & iGaming
Hall 3 is dedicated to the sportsbook ecosystem.
This includes sportsbook platforms, product infrastructure, betting data, trading, risk tools and operators.
The value of this segmentation is simple: if your priority is sports betting, you know where to spend most of your time instead of crossing the whole show floor repeatedly.
Hall 4 — Payments and Fintech
The Payment Expert Summit has a major presence in Hall 4.
This gives PSPs, fintech companies, fraud prevention providers, KYC/AML businesses and payment technology companies a concentrated environment rather than scattering them around the entire venue.
The 2026 payment area includes companies such as Adyen, Nuvei, Rapyd, Trustly, Sumsub and Chargebacks911, alongside dedicated networking spaces including a Payments Bar & Lounge, Coffee Bar & Lounge and Networking Lounge.
That should make SBC Summit 2026 particularly practical for operators comparing PSPs or looking at payment infrastructure.
Additional specialist areas
The wider SBC Summit show floor also includes:
Startup Hub
Player Protection Zone
Media Hub
and other specialist areas.
This matters because an event of this scale needs segmentation. A 40,000-person conference where every type of company is mixed randomly would be exhausting very quickly.
3. Affiliate Leaders Summit 2026 Is Now a Separate Event
One of the biggest changes around SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 is the evolution of Affiliate Leaders Summit 2026.
Affiliate Leaders originally launched in 2024 as a dedicated zone inside SBC Summit. In 2025 it expanded significantly, and in 2026 it becomes a standalone co-located summit with its own audience, agenda and ticketing.
The event is expected to bring together:
10,000+ delegates
150+ exhibitors and sponsors
150+ countries
15,000 sqm of dedicated show floor.
For affiliate marketing, this is a substantial change.
On the positive side, it creates a concentrated environment for:
affiliates,
operator affiliate programmes,
performance marketing companies,
networks,
creators,
martech businesses,
and acquisition teams.
For a Head of Affiliates, that concentration could make the event significantly more efficient.
The potential downside is that affiliates are now more physically separated from the wider SBC Summit audience.
That creates one of the most interesting questions for the final IGLC review:
Does the standalone Affiliate Leaders Summit improve affiliate networking, or does it make operator-to-affiliate movement less convenient?
4. SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 Venue and Opening Hours
SBC Summit 2026 takes place at Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) and MEO Arena in Lisbon.
The official schedule shows attendee access from 10:00.
On 29 and 30 September, the main exhibition closes at 18:00, while Festival Square remains open later.
On 1 October, the event closes at 17:00.
The practical takeaway is simple:
If you are attending rather than exhibiting, there is little reason to arrive extremely early and wait outside before attendee access opens.
Given the size of SBC Summit Lisbon 2026, it probably makes more sense to arrive with your first meeting, hall and route already planned.
5. How to Get to SBC Summit 2026
FIL is located in Parque das Nações, close to Oriente.
This is not Lisbon’s historic centre, but it is well connected.
For public transport, Oriente is the obvious point of reference, and the area is accessible by metro and train.
SBC is also planning a complimentary shuttle service connecting the venue with key hotel areas around Lisbon.
The planned districts include:
Campo Pequeno
Marquês de Pombal
Baixa / Martim Moniz
Sete Rios.
The final hotel pickup points and schedules are due to be confirmed closer to SBC Summit 2026.
Importantly, SBC says attendees staying near the designated hotels can also use the shuttle, even if they are not staying at the exact partner property.
This is a useful feature because transport becomes a real consideration when tens of thousands of people are moving towards the same venue every morning.
For the final IGLC SBC Summit review, one of the most useful additions will be a simple comparison:
Metro vs Uber/Bolt vs SBC Shuttle — which one actually works best during the event?
6. SBC Summit 2026 Airport Registration and Badge Collection
This is one of the strongest practical features of SBC Summit Lisbon 2026.
Instead of forcing everybody to collect their badge at FIL on the first morning, SBC provides an airport registration and badge pickup point.
It is located around a two-minute walk from luggage collection at Lisbon Airport, and SBC says the airport desk typically has much shorter lines than the venue.
The 2026 opening hours are:
Sunday, 27 September — 09:00–23:00
Monday, 28 September — 06:30–23:00
Tuesday, 29 September — 06:30–21:00
Wednesday, 30 September — 06:30–15:00.
This creates a very convenient journey:
Land in Lisbon → collect your luggage → collect your SBC Summit badge → go to your hotel.
The following morning, you can go directly to the conference instead of starting day one in a registration queue.
At a conference expecting 40,000 attendees, that can save a meaningful amount of time.
7. SBC Summit 2026 Pre-Event Badge Collection
There is also another way to avoid first-day registration queues.
On Monday, 28 September, attendees can collect their SBC Summit 2026 badge at FIL between 12:00 and 20:00.
SBC specifically recommends pre-event collection for people who were unable to pick up their badge at Lisbon Airport.
There is also an additional Sunday badge collection opportunity at Myriad Hotel for registered attendees of the invite-only SBC Leaders Summit.
So attendees effectively have three options:
Airport Registration
Pre-Event FIL Collection
Event-Day Registration
This is exactly the type of operational planning that becomes important as an event moves towards 40,000 attendees.
8. Event-Day Registration at SBC Summit 2026
If you do arrive at FIL without a badge, the venue has two registration areas designed to distribute traffic.
Registration 1
The primary SBC Summit registration point is located beside the main FIL entrance.
This area has the largest number of scanners and support desks.
If you already have a badge, SBC says you can use the left lane for immediate entry.
Speakers also have access to a dedicated fast-track route.
Registration 2
Registration 2 is located nearby inside the venue and provides the same core services.
Its purpose is to give attendees an alternative when the main registration area is busier.
That sounds basic, but it is exactly the kind of detail that can determine whether the first morning of a conference feels smooth or chaotic.
9. SBC Summit Staff, Stewards and On-Site Support
For an event as large as SBC Summit Lisbon 2026, signage alone is not enough.
SBC says support staff will be visible throughout the registration area and will direct attendees towards the correct lanes and registration points.
If one desk becomes busy, staff can direct people towards a quieter alternative.
If an attendee is in the wrong area, staff can redirect them to the correct registration point.
This is especially useful because SBC Summit and Affiliate Leaders Summit now have distinct areas and attendee flows.
For IGLC, this is something worth testing rather than simply accepting from the organiser’s website.
After the event, the relevant question is:
If you stop a steward and ask where a specific hall, stand, meeting point or registration desk is, do you actually get a useful answer immediately?
Good on-site staff can make an enormous venue feel manageable.
Poor staff can make even good signage irrelevant.
10. If You Lose Your SBC Summit Ticket or QR Code
The standard badge process uses the confirmation email for SBC Summit 2026 and its QR code.
But there are backup options.
If you cannot find the confirmation email, the registration stations can search using your email address.
If that fails, the help desk can retrieve the registration using your name and company.
There is another very useful option for larger teams:
one colleague can collect badges on behalf of the entire team.
That avoids having a full department queue together simply to collect badges.
It is a small operational feature, but exactly the kind of thing people appreciate when travelling with a team.
11. SBC Summit 2026 Navigation and Floor Plan
One of the biggest challenges at SBC Summit 2026 will simply be moving around efficiently.
The organisers use several layers of navigation:
segmented halls
physical signage
support staff
online floor plan
SBC Connect
The official floor plan can be searched digitally, which is useful when you need to locate a specific company, hall or registration point.
SBC also advises attendees to review the floor plan before arriving.
That is probably good advice.
When your conference is spread across multiple halls and specialist areas, putting meetings back-to-back without checking their locations can create problems.
A meeting at 14:00 in Hall 1 followed by another at 14:30 on the other side of the venue may look perfectly reasonable in Google Calendar.
In reality, it may not be.
For the final IGLC review, one of the best practical metrics will simply be:
How many minutes does it take to walk between the major SBC Summit halls?
12. SBC Connect App for SBC Summit 2026
The official event platform is SBC Connect.
For SBC Summit 2026, SBC Connect is scheduled to launch on 24 August 2026, more than a month before the event itself.
That matters because the app is not intended only as a digital agenda.
Depending on your pass, SBC Connect provides access to:
event agenda
exhibitor information
floor plan
personal schedule
attendee discovery
direct messaging
meeting scheduling
Higher-level tickets provide more advanced networking functions.
For example, VIP access includes the full attendee list, direct messaging, meeting scheduling and other tools designed around business networking.
In practical terms, anyone attending SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 specifically for business should probably begin planning meetings when SBC Connect opens — not when they land in Portugal.
At a 40,000-person event, hoping to randomly run into every person you need is not a strategy.
13. SBC Summit 2026 Badge Colours
SBC uses colour-coded badges to help attendees identify different categories of people on the show floor.
The official 2026 guidance currently lists:
Yellow/Orange — Operators
Purple — Affiliates
Blue — All other attendees.
Interestingly, one part of the official page displays a slightly inconsistent badge-colour graphic, so IGLC would verify the final colour system again immediately before the event.
The concept itself, however, is useful.
At an event with 40,000 attendees, being able to visually identify an operator or affiliate before trying to read a tiny company name on a badge can make spontaneous networking easier.
This is the kind of minor detail that becomes far more valuable as conference size increases.
14. SBC Summit 2026 Food Festival
The SBC Summit Food Festival is one of the features that differentiates the event from many other major iGaming conferences.
SBC plans 50+ food trucks across multiple areas of the venue.
The selection includes:
international street food,
local food,
healthy options,
vegetarian and vegan choices,
coffee,
drinks,
desserts.
The Food Festival areas also include seating, which means they can double as informal meeting locations.
This may sound like a minor point until you have attended a conference where everyone leaves the venue at lunchtime and spends an hour trying to find a restaurant.
Keeping attendees inside the venue saves time and keeps networking going.
15. €30 Daily Food Credit With SBC Summit VIP Passes
One of the nicest practical benefits of SBC Summit 2026 is the pre-loaded Food Festival wristband.
VIP Pass holders receive a wristband with up to €30 in daily credit for food and drinks.
Across three days, that can represent:
€90 of food and drink credit.
Qualified operators, affiliates and regulators who receive complimentary VIP passes can also receive these benefits.
Other pass holders can still use the Food Festival but generally pay directly at the food trucks.
Vendors accept debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
This is a genuinely good attendee feature.
Many conferences are happy to sell an expensive ticket and then leave attendees to solve lunch themselves.
SBC has integrated food into the event experience.
16. Festival Square and Evening Networking
The SBC Summit experience does not necessarily stop when the main exhibition halls close.
Festival Square is designed as another networking environment, with bars, entertainment and informal meeting spaces.
The wider SBC Summit 2026 experience also includes evening networking events and official parties depending on ticket type.
This is important because not every useful business conversation happens at a booth.
After a full day of scheduled meetings, an informal drink can sometimes create better conversations than another 30-minute calendar slot.
For the final IGLC SBC Summit review, it will be worth asking:
Where did the best networking actually happen — the exhibition floor, lounges, Food Festival, Festival Square or private side events around Lisbon?
17. Networking at SBC Summit 2026
Networking is probably the single most important reason many people attend SBC Summit Lisbon 2026.
But scale alone does not guarantee good networking.
Forty thousand attendees can create enormous opportunity, but they can also create noise.
SBC is therefore trying to structure the experience through:
SBC Connect
meeting scheduling
networking lounges
specialist areas
structured networking formats
show-floor discovery
and other networking initiatives.
The floor itself also includes coffee points and charging stations intended to keep attendees on-site throughout the day.
The real test will be whether these tools create useful new connections.
For IGLC, a particularly interesting question is:
How many genuinely valuable meetings came from SBC’s own networking system, versus meetings already arranged through Telegram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn or existing relationships?
That is a better measure of networking value than simply saying there were 40,000 attendees.
18. What Changed at SBC Summit 2026 vs SBC Summit 2025?
The most obvious change is continued growth.
SBC Summit 2026 expects around 40,000 industry professionals, alongside 800+ exhibitors and 600+ speakers.
But the more interesting changes are structural.
Affiliate Leaders Summit becomes standalone
This is probably the most important difference.
What started as a zone inside SBC Summit in 2024 has evolved into a separate co-located conference in 2026.
More focus on segmentation
Casino, sports betting, payments and other specialist areas are increasingly organised into clear zones.
More focus on attendee flow
Airport badge pickup, pre-event badge collection and multiple registration points are all designed to reduce congestion.
More focus on planning before the event
SBC Connect launches more than a month before the conference, pushing attendees to plan meetings before travelling.
More focus on hospitality
The Food Festival, €30 VIP wristband credit, networking lounges and Festival Square are clearly part of the overall SBC Summit 2026 product rather than just secondary extras.
The overall direction is obvious:
SBC Summit is becoming larger, so SBC is investing more heavily in making that scale manageable.
Is SBC Summit 2026 Worth Attending?
Based on the information currently available, SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 looks very strong from an organisational perspective.
The event’s greatest advantage is its scale.
Forty thousand people and more than 800 exhibitors mean there is a very high chance that almost every important segment of the iGaming ecosystem will be represented somewhere in Lisbon.
The disadvantage is exactly the same thing.
Without preparation, SBC Summit 2026 could easily become three days of walking, rushing between halls and having short conversations without enough depth.
What makes SBC interesting is how much effort appears to have gone into solving that problem.
Airport badge collection, pre-event registration, two registration zones, support staff, segmented exhibition halls, colour-coded badges, SBC Connect, dedicated networking spaces, 50+ food trucks and structured event areas all point towards the same objective:
making a huge conference easier to use.
Three features stand out before the event.
Registration looks particularly well designed. Collecting your badge at Lisbon Airport and walking directly into the venue the following morning is exactly the kind of practical feature large conferences should offer.
The floor segmentation also makes sense. Casino, sports betting and payments have identifiable areas, which should reduce unnecessary walking.
The hospitality setup is another strong point. The SBC Summit Food Festival, seating areas, networking spaces and €30 daily VIP food credit solve basic attendee problems that are often ignored at major events.
There are still important questions that can only be answered after SBC Summit 2026 actually takes place.
Were the queues really short?
Did the airport badge collection work as smoothly as advertised?
Was it easy to move between halls?
Were stewards genuinely useful?
Could SBC Connect help people find relevant contacts?
Did the venue feel overcrowded with 40,000 attendees?
Did the new standalone Affiliate Leaders Summit improve the experience for affiliates and operators?
And most importantly:
If you have to pay for the ticket, travel to Lisbon and dedicate three or four working days to the event, is SBC Summit 2026 genuinely worth attending?
That is the question the final IGLC SBC Summit 2026 Review will answer after Lisbon.