Who Should Attend the Affiliate Leaders Summit 2026?

What started as a dedicated affiliate marketing zone within SBC Summit has now become a standalone event in its own right.

The Affiliate Leaders Summit will bring together more than 10,000 delegates from over 150 countries for three days of networking, exhibition, and conference content focused on acquisition, audience growth, performance marketing, and affiliate innovation.

The reason behind this evolution is simple: affiliation is undergoing significant change as AI reshapes search, acquisition costs continue to rise, and attribution becomes increasingly complex.

The Affiliate Leaders Summit puts these conversations at the centre of the event experience. Here’s how:

• A show floor built to grow your revenue: Meet the operators actively investing in affiliate partnerships and discover the latest technology, tools, and platforms designed to help you acquire, convert, and retain more players. With 15,000 sqm of exhibition space, Affiliate Leaders Summit gives you direct access to the companies that can help scale your business.
• Insights that help you stay ahead of market changes: The conference agenda tackles the challenges and opportunities shaping affiliate success today, from the evolution of SEO and GEO expansion strategies to creator marketing, attribution, compliance, and regulation. Walk away with practical strategies you can apply immediately to protect and grow your revenue streams.
• Meet the people who can transform your business: Your ticket includes access to a programme of targeted networking opportunities designed to help you build valuable relationships faster. Connect with operators, affiliate programmes, technology providers, and fellow affiliates through dedicated meetups, speed networking sessions, guided show floor tours, and premium evening events, creating opportunities for new partnerships, deals, and long-term growth.

In this blog, we’ll discuss who the event is ideal for and explore why operators, affiliate programmes, creators, and technology providers all have something to gain from attending.

Affiliates

Whether you’re running a comparison site, media business, content platform, tipster service, streaming channel, or affiliate network, the event is designed to help you grow your audience, expand your commercial partnerships, and unlock new revenue opportunities.

As a standalone event, the Affiliate Leaders Summit brings together thousands of affiliates, operators, creators, and technology providers from around the world, creating opportunities to form new partnerships, enter new markets, and identify new revenue streams.

The conference agenda has also been shaped around many of the issues facing affiliate marketers today, including:

• How AI is changing search, content discovery, and traffic acquisition
• The future of SEO and what comes next as traditional strategies evolve
• New approaches to attribution and performance measurement
• Emerging acquisition channels, including creators, influencers, and social-first media
• Opportunities to expand into new markets and diversify revenue streams

Key conference panels that will help affiliates find the solutions to these problems include:

• The Modern Affiliate Audience: Younger, Multi-Channel, Easily Distracted, and Totally Disloyal
• Why the Affiliate Model is Under Threat Right Now
• Generative Engine Optimisation Masterclass: Here’s what wins next
• Building short-form content: strategy, gamification, and monetisation at scale  

The exhibition floor has also been designed to help affiliates identify new revenue opportunities and build valuable commercial relationships. Here’s a snapshot of the businesses you’ll be able to meet:

• Operator affiliate programmes looking to recruit high-quality affiliates and diversify their acquisition channels.
• Operators and challenger brands looking to enter new markets, strengthen their affiliate strategy, and accelerate customer acquisition.
• Affiliate technology providers offering tools for SEO, tracking, attribution, compliance, and audience growth.
• Media and content businesses exploring distribution, monetisation, and strategic partnership opportunities.
• Marketing and service providers specialising in acquisition, retention, CRM, and audience engagement.

The conference’s networking programme has been designed to help affiliates build valuable relationships before, during, and after the event, making it easier to identify new partnership, traffic, and revenue opportunities.

• SBC Connect: Our dedicated event app allows you to identify relevant operators, affiliate programmes, technology providers, and fellow affiliates before you arrive. Browse attendees and exhibitors, arrange meetings in advance, and maximise every minute on-site.
• Access to SBC Summit’s networking ecosystem: Affiliate pass holders receive full access to SBC Summit’s networking programme, including speed networking sessions, Regulatory Gaming Meetups, and guided show floor tours, helping you connect with the people most relevant to your business goals.
• World-class networking events: Continue conversations and build stronger relationships at the SBC Summit Opening Party and INFINITY Lisbon, headlined by Tiësto. These events bring together thousands of industry professionals in a relaxed setting, creating ideal opportunities to connect with operators, affiliate managers, technology providers, and potential business partners.

Are you an affiliate? Claim your complimentary VIP Pass here. 

Operator Acquisition Teams

Affiliate Leaders Summit provides operator acquisition teams with a dedicated environment to discover new affiliate partners, diversify traffic sources, and stay ahead of the trends shaping customer acquisition.

Here’s what attendees can expect:

• Direct access to global and regional affiliates: With attendees from more than 150 countries, the Affiliate Leaders Summit connects operators with both multinational affiliate networks and region-specific publishers, creating opportunities to enter new markets and diversify acquisition strategies.
• Pre-arranged meetings through SBC Connect: Identify potential affiliate partners before the event, arrange meetings in advance, and make the most of your time in Lisbon.
• Networking spaces designed for business conversations: Dedicated lounges and meeting areas throughout the exhibition floor provide opportunities to connect with affiliates, creators, and acquisition specialists in a more relaxed setting.
• A conference agenda focused on the future of acquisition: Explore how AI, creator marketing, GEO, attribution, and changing consumer behaviour are reshaping the operator-affiliate relationship.
• Industry-leading networking events: From the SBC Summit Opening Party to INFINITY Lisbon, Affiliate leaders Summit VIP pass holders can continue conversations outside the conference environment and build stronger commercial relationships.

To get a feel for the type of affiliates operators can connect with, here’s a list of some of last year’s company attendees:

• Better Collective
• Catena Media
• Flashscore (Livesport)
• Gambling.com Group
• Oddschecker
• Raketech
• SofaScore

View the full attendee list here.

Looking to connect with affiliates? Purchase your Affiliate Leaders Summit VIP Pass here.

Creators, Influencers & Media Brands

For years, affiliate marketing revolved around search rankings and comparison sites. Today, consumers are just as likely to discover a brand through a creator, podcast, newsletter, YouTube channel, or social media feed.

That shift has created a new class of affiliate. Not necessarily someone who sees themselves as one, but someone with an audience and the ability to influence how people spend their money.

For creators, media brands, and community builders, the Affiliate Leaders Summit offers an opportunity to understand how their audiences can be monetised. Just as importantly, it provides direct access to the operators, affiliate programmes, and brands looking to work with them.

To reflect this shift, the third day of the conference agenda will focus on content creation, audience development, and creator-led acquisition.

Sessions include:

• Keynote – Content evolution: why content is the most undervalued asset in iGaming affiliation
• Panel – Building short-form content: strategy, gamification, and monetisation at scale
• Fireside – The affiliate crackdown: Navigating the rules and regulations on gambling adsㅤ
• Case Study – Lessons from LATAM: What Affiliates can learn from the Brazilian use of Influencer? 
• Panel – Winning the next generation: How do you reach and retain younger audiences (without getting it wrong?)

Away from the conference rooms, creators will also have the opportunity to meet operators, agencies, and technology providers looking for new ways to reach customers. In many cases, the most valuable conversation won’t happen on stage, but across a coffee table, at a networking event, or a pre-arranged meeting.

For anyone building an audience, the Affiliate Leaders Summit is ultimately about turning attention into opportunity.

Creators and influencers can apply for a complimentary VIP Pass here.

Technology & Service Providers

The Affiliate Leaders Summit brings together the affiliates, operators, creators, and acquisition teams that technology and service providers are looking to reach.

As customer acquisition becomes increasingly complex, businesses are investing in specialist solutions to improve performance, streamline operations, and gain a competitive edge. From affiliate platforms and tracking technology to CRM, compliance, payments, AI, and marketing services, providers have the opportunity to showcase their solutions to an audience actively seeking new ways to grow.

With thousands of decision-makers in attendance, the event offers a highly targeted environment to generate leads, build relationships, demonstrate products, and gain valuable market exposure. The exhibition floor provides a platform to showcase innovations and engage directly with prospective customers, while the conference agenda offers insight into the challenges and priorities shaping affiliate and operator acquisition strategies.

Here are some of the technology providers that attended last year:

• Affise
• PartnerMatrix
• ReferOn
• SEON
• Similarweb
• StatsDrone

View the full list here.

Looking to empower affiliates with your technology? Purchase your VIP Pass here.

So, Who Should Attend the Affiliate Leaders Summit?

The Affiliate Leaders Summit has been built for anyone responsible for growth.

Whether you’re an affiliate looking to increase traffic, an operator seeking new acquisition partners, a creator building an audience, or a technology provider helping businesses grow, the event brings together every part of the modern acquisition ecosystem under one roof.

More importantly, it brings together the people tackling the same challenges. How do you reach new audiences? How do you stay visible in an AI-driven world? How do you build sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive market?

For three days in Lisbon, these conversations will take centre stage as the industry comes together to explore the next chapter of affiliate marketing and acquisition.

If your role involves attracting customers, building partnerships, growing audiences, or driving revenue, the Affiliate Leaders Summit 2026 is designed with you in mind.