A central event for the gaming sector that takes place for the first time in Portugal from today, September 24, until the 26th at the Feira Internacional in Lisbon.
This year's edition of the Sbc Summit is expected to be attended by around 25 thousand people and promises to be one of the events not to be missed. Many and the topics that will be discussed among which stands out an in-depth analysis of the new technologies created to pave the way for the constant growth of sports betting.
We spoke about it with the marketing director of the Sbc group, Dennis Algreen.
First of all, what do you expect from this move?
"Actually, we don't have to expect anything anymore. We've already had the response from the market and I think it's been really positive. Lisbon is also an old acquaintance of the industry. There used to be a pretty big event and I think the venue has a lot of the same advantages as Barcelona. The weather is usually pretty nice in September and the venue that was available in the city was chosen. The location we're using is fantastic: it has a lot of options, it has a lot of growth potential and it's really huge. 25,000 visitors are expected, marking a 66.7 percent increase in attendance compared to the previous edition in Barcelona.
Spread across 110,000 square meters, this year’s Sbc Summit features 600 global exhibitors. We are therefore quite confident that this was the right decision and hope that Lisbon will be the home of this event for many years to come.”
Why did you change venues?
“Barcelona has been a good home for Sbc, but even if we had stayed there, at this point we would have had to move. When Ice moved to Barcelona, it didn’t seem like a good idea for the two biggest industry events in the world to be in the same place. We wanted to move for that reason and Lisbon was the right place. Basically, we needed a place where this show could continue the amazing growth that it has seen every year. We originally planned to kick off the event in 2020 but the pandemic hit, which is why we launched it in 2021 as the first major gathering in the industry post-Covid, and it has grown by over a hundred percent every year since. We went from 2,000 in 2021 to 6,000 the following year, in 2023 we had over 14,000 attendees and now we are aiming for 25,000 people.”
Can you give us a little more detail about the program?
“We have a very knowledgeable conference team who put together the agenda and this time it is quite extensive. When we come to an event of this size it is really important that every delegate has a reasonable opportunity to orient themselves in the event and know where to go. If someone wanted to find a session that they might be interested in, it would be too difficult to search for it considering there are at least 120 other sessions. That is why everything is themed according to the concept of zones and the conference stages have the same logic.
Each zone has its own dedicated themed stage for the conference. For example, when we have a Payment expert summit, all the content is essentially payments, compliance and age/ID verification. Everything there is payments related and there will be stakeholders and interested people. So we have everything in dedicated zones: sports betting, casino and iGaming and player protection, plus the Payment expert summit, the Affiliate leaders summit and the Esi Lisbon focused on esports, plus a Media Headquarters and a StartupSphere specialised.
All this also flows through the conference agenda, so you can filter what you are most interested in. There will be a lot of high-quality content and information available, as people have come to expect from an Sbc event; we make sure to have high-profile speakers and as diverse as possible in terms of expertise. I am talking about gender, ethnicity and also interests that matter depending on the type of quality of the content. This year we are offering more focused content, more master classes where traders can gain specific skills on trading, odds compilations, audience interaction for online casino games and much more. We have also added a very exciting super stage, in the amazing Meo Arena, which is essentially a huge indoor sports arena that will, among other things, host keynotes and talks from global innovators and trailblazers.
Among these will be Tony Hawk, the most famous skateboarder of all time. Tony not only has an incredible skateboarding career to his name, but is also a highly successful entrepreneur and one of the biggest personal brands built through mainstream media appearances, an amazing video game series and a number and business offering skateboarding equipment and apparel. The stage will also feature Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founder and creator of the World Wide Web, possibly the biggest and most important innovation in modern day, something that to this day has a massive impact on the shape of all of our lives and careers”.
What are some of the biggest focal points in the sports betting content at the event?
“We will have a lot of relevant content, but a few examples would be: bet building, in-play betting and streaming. These are just some of the topics that are emerging at the moment. Data acquisition and data handling are big topics in sports betting as well, and will be addressed as well. Another relevant topic is how industry operators make use of big sporting events, like the Olympics and eht Euros this year”.
What are the most interesting technological developments in this period? And what will you present at the event?
“The application and impact of artificial intelligence is a hot topic and something that can be implemented in a wide variety of areas. For example Ai has separate potential applications whether viewed from a marketing perspective or from a data handling perspective. I think a lot of operators are starting to use Ai to help them with player protection, where Artificial Intelligence can help them better and more efficiently process their player user data to help identify potential issues that can be dealt with on a personal level.
I think Ai is going to be unavoidable and will have a place in a lot of the different conference tracks because of these varied application opportunities. While the concept and impact of the metaverse is still relevant, we already highlighted it last year as a topic and it stalls a little bit because essentially the metaverse is still more a “concept” than something tangible in the real world. But still worth coverage as the big social media platforms are actively preparing for this”.
What do you expect from the future for this event?
“I expect that we this year get a chance to show people that we can deliver what has been the absolute top quality that people expect from an Sbc event on a much larger scale. This event in Lisbon is the culmination of what we always wanted it to be: one of the dates you put in the calendar way before the year starts; an event you can't miss! There is simply too much business to be had in three focused days to miss this and at the same time. Moreover, we always ensure that it's an enjoyable experience that the individual industry professional will want to return to year on year. We take great care in the planning, onsite logistics and provide the best hospitality and customer service in the business”.