SBC Summit Europe | 19-21 April 2027 | RAI Amsterdam
Table of Contents
Amsterdam and gaming. It’s a combination that goes together like stroopwafels and coffee, bitterballen and beer, and Gullit and Van Basten.
It has been several years since the city last hosted a major gaming industry event, but the ingredients that made Amsterdam such a natural meeting point for the industry have not changed.
Its location, connectivity and history as a hub for international iGaming make it an obvious home for SBC Summit Europe, which will bring licensed operators, regulators, suppliers, and affiliates from across Europe’s regulated landscape to RAI Amsterdam from 19–21 April 2027.
So why Amsterdam, and why now? In this blog, we look at what makes the city such a strong fit for Europe’s gaming industry.
A City with Gaming History
Amsterdam has long held a special place in Europe’s gaming industry.
For years, the city was a familiar destination for people across the sector to reconnect and do business.
But since 2024, a gaming conference has been absent from the city. Even so, our clients and partners have consistently made it clear that Amsterdam still feels like one of gaming’s spiritual homes.
So when we began designing an event to bring together Europe’s regulated players, Amsterdam felt like a natural choice.
The result is SBC Summit Europe, bringing gaming back to RAI Amsterdam in April 2027 with a proposition built specifically around the challenges facing Europe today.
Regulated markets will sit at the heart of the conference, giving the industry a place to compare different jurisdictions, share lessons and discuss how Europe can become stronger and more interconnected.
And Amsterdam offers more than familiarity. Its location and connectivity make it a natural place to bring that European conversation together.
Why Amsterdam Works as Europe’s Meeting Point
Beyond its canals, culture and history, Amsterdam is also one of Europe’s most practical meeting points.
The city is within easy reach of many of the continent’s biggest gambling markets, with direct flights from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and across the Nordics.
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
Schiphol Airport is a major part of that appeal. It connects Amsterdam with more than 300 destinations across five continents and ranks first in Europe for direct connectivity, making the city particularly easy to reach from across the continent and beyond.
That accessibility matters for an event built around Europe’s fragmented but interconnected markets. A city that is easy to reach from so many jurisdictions makes it easy to bring these different perspectives together in one place.
RAI Amsterdam
Then there is RAI Amsterdam itself. The host venue of SBC Summit Europe offers 116,000 square metres of floor space, 12 interconnected halls and 70 meeting rooms, giving the event the scale to combine exhibition, conference content and networking in one location.
The venue is also well connected to the rest of the city. RAI has its own metro stop, with central Amsterdam station just a few minutes away, while direct trains from Schiphol take around 10 minutes. By taxi, the venue is roughly 15 minutes from the airport and around 10 minutes from the city centre, depending on traffic.
For delegates, that creates a fairly simple journey from plane to hotel to show floor. For SBC Summit Europe, it means Amsterdam can offer both the international reach and the infrastructure needed to bring a genuinely pan-European audience together.
A Market with Lessons for Europe
Amsterdam is not only convenient to reach. It also sits in one of Europe’s newer regulated online gambling markets, with the Netherlands having opened its licensed online market in October 2021.
One of the country’s original objectives was to move players away from illegal gambling websites and towards licensed operators. Initially, the results looked promising. By 2023, the Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) reported that 92% of players were using only legal gambling websites, comfortably exceeding its original 80% target.
More recent figures, however, reveal a more complicated picture. According to the KSA’s spring 2026 monitoring report, 91% of players were gambling exclusively with licensed operators, yet only an estimated 53% of online gambling revenue remained within the regulated market during the second half of 2025.
In other words, while most players were using legal websites, unlicensed operators were still capturing a substantial share of gambling expenditure.
The market has also shown how quickly policymakers may need to reassess their approach when outcomes do not match expectations. In 2025, for example, the KSA concluded that a rise in gambling tax from 30.5% to 34.2% had failed to deliver the expected increase in government revenue, as the underlying gross gaming revenue being taxed had fallen. The regulator has also continued to adjust player-protection rules and monitor their impact on channelisation and the health of the legal market.
That makes the Netherlands a particularly useful market to learn from, and SBC Summit Europe is being built to bring those first-hand experiences into the conversation. Senior figures from licensed Dutch operators will join industry leaders from across the continent to share their experiences, challenges and priorities. Partnerships with VNLOK, the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) and International Masters of Gaming Law (IMGL) will further strengthen the mix of operator, regulatory and legal perspectives.
That mix gives attendees the chance to hear directly from businesses operating under the Dutch framework, while comparing their experiences with regulators and legal experts from other jurisdictions.
Amsterdam’s relevance to the industry extends beyond regulation. The city also has deep roots in financial services and a strong fintech ecosystem, both of which increasingly overlap with the practical demands of operating a regulated gaming business.
Amsterdam is home to the headquarters of major Dutch banks ABN AMRO and ING, offices for more than 50 international banks, and homegrown fintech companies such as gaming industry partner Adyen. The wider Amsterdam region also supports around 200,000 jobs across finance and fintech.
That ecosystem has obvious crossover with gaming. Payments, fraud prevention, KYC and financial compliance are increasingly important parts of running a regulated gambling business, giving Amsterdam another layer of relevance as a host city for SBC Summit Europe.
Why Now?
The timing of SBC Summit Europe is just as important as the location.
Europe’s gambling industry is becoming more fragmented at a regulatory level, with businesses navigating different licensing regimes, tax structures, advertising rules and player-protection requirements across dozens of jurisdictions.
And that landscape is still changing. Finland will open online betting and casino gaming to licensed competition from 1 July 2027, ending Veikkaus’ monopoly across those products. The new system represents one of Europe’s most significant regulatory shifts in years. Ireland, meanwhile, is implementing its new licensing framework under the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, while Denmark is considering tighter rules around gambling advertising and enforcement, with several proposed measures due to take effect during 2027.
That makes April 2027 an especially useful moment for the industry to come together.
SBC Summit Europe will provide a forum to look beyond how European markets operate today and explore what comes next, drawing on first-hand experience from established jurisdictions alongside markets entering new regulatory phases.
It also creates an opportunity for lessons to travel across borders. The questions facing Finland as it prepares to open its market, Ireland as its new regulatory system takes shape, and other countries reviewing their frameworks are not entirely new. Issues around channelisation, player protection, advertising and commercial viability are already being tested elsewhere in Europe.
Amsterdam provides a fitting setting for those conversations. It is familiar to the industry, easy to reach and sits within a recently regulated market that has itself had to adapt as the impact of new rules has become clearer.
Final Thoughts
Amsterdam already has a special relationship with Europe’s gaming industry. For the past few years, however, its accessibility, infrastructure and position within a fast-evolving regulated market have been missing from the industry’s event calendar.
From 19–21 April 2027, SBC Summit Europe will bring gaming back to RAI Amsterdam with regulated markets at the heart of the event.
Europe’s gambling landscape will continue to evolve, with different jurisdictions taking different approaches to regulation, taxation, player protection and growth. What happens in one market increasingly carries lessons for another. SBC Summit Europe is being built around the opportunity to compare those experiences, understand what is changing and help shape what comes next.
For an industry that has long felt at home in Amsterdam, there are few better places to bring that European conversation back together.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is SBC Summit Europe?
SBC Summit Europe is the Home of European iGaming, with regulated markets at its heart. It is the annual meeting place for the people leading, regulating and building European gaming.
When and where does it take place?
19-21 April 2027 at RAI Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Who will be there?
Around 8,000 attendees are expected, including more than 3,000 licensed operator representatives. They will be joined by regulators, policymakers, industry associations, legal experts, suppliers, affiliates, investors and media. SBC Summit Europe attendee overview.
What is the main focus of SBC Summit Europe?
SBC Summit Europe is where the people running, regulating and building licensed markets finally share a room. Regulators and policymakers join the conversation directly, alongside licensed operators, who sit at the heart of the event with more than 3,000 operator representatives expected. Networking is as much a priority as education, so the programme is built to turn insight into conversations, relationships and commercial outcomes that would be hard to arrange any other way. Partnerships with IAGR and IMGL, alongside relationships with regulatory bodies and industry associations, are bringing gaming authority representatives from across Europe to Amsterdam.
What topics will be covered?
Channelisation and black-market competition, taxation, advertising restrictions, player protection and affordability, licensing and compliance, and the impact of new technology and AI. The programme will also cover compliance technology, payments, sports betting platforms and data, casino, marketing and changing player behaviour. Check the SBC Summit conference agenda.
Is the event focused on one market or on Europe as a whole?
Both. Dedicated sessions explore individual jurisdictions in detail, while broader discussions look at the trends and lessons that apply across borders.
How can I get a pass?
Operators, regulators, and qualifying affiliates can apply for complimentary passes. For everyone else, registration will open soon. For now, register your interest for SBC Summit Europe.
