Industry conferences are one of the best ways to keep an ear to the ground regarding the biggest developments affecting your industry – coming a close second to media coverage, of course…

This year the SBC News team was fortunate enough to attend some of betting and gaming’s biggest conferences and events, hearing insights straight from the bookmakers, casinos, suppliers and regulators themselves. 

SBC Summit Rio

We started the year strong with the second ever edition of the SBC Summit Rio in February, a particularly special event given that the Brazilian betting market under the ‘Bets’ regulatory regime had only launched around a month-and-a-half prior to the event on 1 January 2025.

In the early days of the Brazilian regulated betting market, excitement was expectedly fierce but so was trepidation. Speakers like Alex Fonseca, CEO of Superbet Brazil, shared that the battle against the black market was one of the industry’s biggest challenges – and one that it is still facing as the year draws to a close.

Attendees also reflected on what the regulated industry can do to better itself, however. Player protection and customer education were mentioned, as was the need to protect Brazilian sports from any integrity impacts that would inevitably emerge from such a rapid expansion of legalised betting.

“When we understand the cultural implications of Latin America’s sports legacy, protecting it becomes an obligation,” said Roberto Regianini, Executive Vice President at the UX Group. 

“We also need to engage in self-criticism because there is always room for improvement.”

Gaming in Holland

Brazil is far from the only country to have had a big year in 2025, although in contrast to the opportunities and boom that Latin America’s largest nation has enjoyed, the European nation of the Netherlands has had a more tricky time of things.

Attending Gaming in Holland shortly after the Dutch coalition government collapsed in June, SBC News’ Viktor Kayed heard first hand the uncertainty and trepidation many in the industry felt around regulatory and political developments affecting the sector.

The pressure of a 34.2% tax rate, set to go up to 37.8% next year, as well as new strict requirements around marketing have put a lot of pressure on bookmakers. Fears around the black market benefiting from this abounded around the halls of Gaming in Holland.

“Channelisation, and therefore player protection, is under pressure,” said Arjan Blok, CEO of the Nederlandse Loterij. “Not even four years after the launch of the regulated online company market, €1.3bn is now floating abroad. As a consequence, we not only face very unfair competition, but most importantly – players receive no protection.”

Painting a clearer picture, Renske Fikkers, Head of the Regulatory Department, the government office overseeing the Dutch gaming market alongside the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), shared that just under 50% of Netherlands channelisation was reaching the regulated space.

“Protecting players was the reason for building a licensed gambling market, so keep prioritising that very thing,” she told the audience.

SBC Summit Malta

At the SBC Summit Malta, Ted Orme-Claye, SBC News’ Editor, took on a different role to just reporting and took to the stage to Chair the affiliate stage at the event – in the process hearing first hand about how affiliate markets have risen to new challenges.

Taking on Artificial intelligence (AI) content has been a huge task for affiliates, while changes to Google’s algorithms have also hit search traffic hard. At the Malta Summit, attendees shared their experience of taking on these challenges while also discussing what lessons can be learned from affiliate marketing in other industries.

Prior to this, a special event hosted by WH Partners saw speakers discuss upcoming regulatory developments in Finland and Italy – the former launching a new market in 2027, while the latter re-regulated its market late this year.

SBC Summit Lisbon

C’mon readers, you all knew this one was coming! The SBC Summit in Lisbon in September was the biggest one yet, with 30,000 people in attendance – including some of the industry’s most prominent leaders and innovators.

SBC News can’t take all the credit for this though, as we worked with our colleagues on iGaming Expert, SBC Americas, Payment Expert, SBC Noticias and SBC Noticias – BR to keep you updated with the latest news live from the event.

With such a huge event and so much going on, it’s easier for us to just tell you our personal highlights

1. Leadership talk AI, crypto, and everything in between – Joanne Whittaker, CEO of Betfred, Jesper Svensson CEO of Betsson Group; Neal Menashe, CEO of Super Group; and Dan Taylor, CEO of Flutter International, talked about some of the biggest technological and regulatory challenges facing the contemporary betting space.
2. The taxman takes his toll – tax has been one of the biggest if not the biggest talking points in the global gaming space this year, from the UK to the Netherlands to the US to Brazil, and this was dissected across various panels by speakers from across the globe.
3. The future of Finland – the emergence of a regulated betting market in Finland in 2027 is set to replace one of Europe’s oldest state-backed monopolies with a multi-licence system. As with any market launch there is a lot of excitement, but will everything go to plan?

Gaming in Germany

Finally in November, as the year approached its end, we decided to hop on one more flight and headed to Berlin for the Gaming in Germany conference. Germany’s regulatory adjustments under the GlüStV 2021 federal gambling treaty have been well publicised, and the market is still facing some notable challenges.

Live from Berlin we heard about the market’s ongoing fight against the black market and the battle to reclaim players into the regulated space, the industry’s discontent with a tax on player wagers, and differing viewpoints on how the market’s size and scale should be evaluated.