SBC Summit tackles Western Europe’s regulatory squeeze

• SBC Summit’s Western Europe track runs on Wednesday, 30 September on the Global & Emerging Markets Stage in Lisbon.
• Sessions will cover regulatory pressure in the Netherlands, UK, Italy, Scandinavia and Portugal, alongside the rise of prediction markets.
• The track is part of SBC Summit 2026, running from 29 September to 1 October and expecting more than 40,000 industry professionals.

SBC Summit has confirmed a dedicated Western Europe track for its 2026 Lisbon event. The programme puts operators, regulators and industry leaders in the same room to talk regulation, black-market competition and player retention across the region’s most established gambling markets.

It runs on Wednesday, 30 September, on the Global & Emerging Markets Stage, ahead of the wider summit from 29 September to 1 October.

Five jurisdictions long treated as Europe’s regulatory bellwethers get their own sessions, each looking at what happens when a mature market keeps tightening the screws.

Mature markets, mounting pressure

The Netherlands opens the conversation, where deposit caps and advertising restrictions have run alongside a surge in unlicensed play.

The Dutch Dilemma: Deposit Caps, Ad Bans and the Black-Market Boom brings Cristiano Blanco of Spincore Group, Björn Fuchs of VNLOK, Eric Olders of JOI Gaming and Frank Op de Woerd of CasinoNieuws.nl together to weigh what licensed brands can still do against offshore rivals.

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The UK gets its own reckoning in The UK Squeeze: Can the Regulated Market Keep Winning? Andy Wright of LeoVegas Group and Josh Hodgson of H2 Gambling Capital pick apart how financial risk assessments, rising taxes and tighter advertising rules have pushed operator strategy since the Gambling Commission confirmed a staged rollout of financial checks earlier this year.

Scandinavia follows a similar script. High Tax, High Standards, High Stakes brings LeoVegas Nordics’ Fredrik Wastenson and Danish Gambling Authority’s Anders Dorph in to unpick how bonus restrictions, payment controls and compliance costs are hitting acquisition and retention across Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Italy rounds out the regulatory line-up. Beyond the Reform: The New Italian Gaming Landscape turns to what the country’s latest reforms and upcoming land-based tenders could mean for competition and market entry, with Sisal, Stake Italy and Microgame among those weighing in.

Rasmus Sojmark, CEO and founder of SBC, said:

“Western Europe is home to some of the world’s most established regulated gambling markets, but maturity doesn’t necessarily mean stability. Rising taxes and shifting regulation mean companies now have to navigate a genuinely complicated period.”

He added:

“This track is about understanding what operators can actually do next. By comparing how mature markets are responding to similar pressures, delegates can see which strategies are working, where regulation may be creating unintended consequences, and what those lessons mean for sustainable growth across the region.”

Not every session is about defence. The opener, The Impact of Tech on Operator Revenues and Player Retention in Europe, asks Soft2Bet’s Andrew Cochrane, Tote’s Paddy Desmond and Playtech’s Elena Rousseva which technologies actually move the needle on retention, and which just add cost.

Prediction markets get their own billing too. Prediction Markets: The Future’s Not Near, It’s Here draws on the sector’s rapid US growth to ask what European regulators might take from it, a theme SBC has since built into a standalone Prediction Markets Forum running alongside the summit.

Portugal, as host market, closes the track with Portugal’s Gambling Evolution: Growth, Pressure and New Opportunities, on where expansion is still possible as compliance demands rise alongside revenue.

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The Western Europe track is one thread in a much bigger tapestry this year. SBC has also built out a dedicated marketing track and a Player Protection Symposium, both running the same week, alongside Regulatory Gaming Meetups covering Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal and the Nordics.

SBC Summit runs from 29 September to 1 October at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa and MEO Arena, with conference access reserved for delegates holding a conference, business or VIP pass.