SBC Summit 2026 Preview: Michael Jordan and Fabrizio Romano Headline Lisbon's iGaming Gathering
SBC Summit returns to Lisbon September 29–October 1, 2026, with a six-stage agenda and a Super Stage lineup headlined by Michael Jordan, Fabrizio Romano, DraftKings' Jason Robins and Sportradar's Carsten Koerl.
SBC Summit, the betting and iGaming industry's largest annual European trade event, returns to Lisbon from September 29 to October 1, 2026, at Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) and the MEO Arena. This year's edition pairs a six-stage conference programme with a Super Stage keynote lineup headlined by basketball icon Michael Jordan and football transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano, alongside gaming-industry leaders including DraftKings co-founder and CEO Jason Robins and Sportradar founder and CEO Carsten Koerl.
The Agenda, in Six Stages
SBC has structured the 2026 programme around six stages: Global & Emerging Markets, Technology & Innovation, the Payment Expert Summit, the Affiliate Leaders' Summit, and Regulation & Compliance, alongside the separate Super Stage keynote programme. "Success in today's market depends on getting multiple moving parts right at the same time, from entering new markets to building better products and navigating regulation," said Aidan Brain, VP of Conference Production at SBC, in the organizer's own announcement of the structure. New this year is a standalone Affiliate Leaders Summit and a dedicated Product Innovation Showcase Stage.
The Confirmed Headline Sessions
The Super Stage programme opens Tuesday, September 29, 12:00–13:00, at the MEO Arena with "Leadership in Sports Business," bringing together Michael Jordan, Sportradar's Koerl and DraftKings' Robins for a conversation on sport, technology, media, data and fan engagement, hosted by broadcaster Kirsty Gallacher. The following day, Wednesday, September 30 at 13:15, Fabrizio Romano — known for his "Here we go!" transfer confirmations and an audience of more than 70 million followers across social media — headlines a session titled "Here We Go: Trust, Speed and the Business of Breaking News," alongside Lasha Machavariani, founder of SMH Global. UFC fighter Charles Oliveira is also confirmed on the Super Stage, appearing as a brand ambassador for Spribe's Aviator game rather than as an independent editorial booking. An Argentine Football Association keynote on building a globally recognizable sports brand rounds out the confirmed marquee sessions.
Scale, According to the Organizer
SBC itself has said it expects more than 40,000 industry professionals in Lisbon across the three days. Trade outlet InsiderSport, reporting in the days before the event, put more granular figures at over 600 speakers, more than 11,000 operators confirmed to attend, and delegates from more than 150 countries. Those figures come from the organizer and from reporting close to SBC, rather than from independent audit, and are presented here as reported rather than independently verified.
Widening Orbit: Big Tech at an iGaming Show
One notable feature of this year's edition, per InsiderSport's reporting, is representation from major technology companies outside the gambling sector, including AWS, Google, Meta, OpenAI, TikTok, Tinder and Snapchat — a sign of how far the betting and iGaming industry's commercial orbit now extends into adjacent tech and media businesses. Separately, SBC has deployed an AI customer-support and event-concierge tool, nicknamed "Bruna," to help attendees navigate the agenda, speakers and venue logistics throughout the show, following earlier use of the same AI tool at SBC Summit Rio and SBC Summit Americas.
What This Is, and What It Isn't
SBC Summit is a trade conference and exhibition, not a regulatory or legislative event; nothing announced there carries legal force. Its Regulation & Compliance stage will host discussion of current regulatory developments across multiple jurisdictions, but any specific claims made on stage by operators, regulators or speakers during the event would need their own independent verification before being reported as fact — this preview covers only what has been confirmed ahead of time about who is speaking and when.
Reporting & Methodology
This article is based on SBC Events' own site and announcements (sbcevents.com, and an SBC news release relayed by CDC Gaming), cross-checked against trade-press reporting on the confirmed Super Stage lineup and schedule (SBC News, SBC Americas, InsiderSport) and on SBC's AI event-concierge deployment (igamingexpert.com). Attendance and speaker-count figures are attributed to their specific sources and were not independently audited.
