There is no shortage of awards ceremonies in iGaming. However, the SBC Awards have established themselves as one of the industry’s most prestigious annual recognitions, covering virtually the entire gambling ecosystem: operators, game developers, sportsbook suppliers, platforms, payments, compliance, marketing and other technology providers.

The 2026 edition was the 13th SBC Awards and took place at Lisbon’s MEO Arena on 1 October, on the final day of SBC Summit. The awards recognise operators and suppliers across major disciplines including payments, marketing, platforms and data.

But there is another reason why the awards are worth following.

Beyond seeing which established companies collect trophies, the different categories provide an interesting snapshot of the iGaming supplier landscape. Looking through the winners can uncover companies that might otherwise fly under the radar: emerging software developers, acquisition platforms, payment companies, data suppliers and smaller operators.

That makes the SBC Awards useful not only as an awards ceremony, but also as a company-discovery tool for anyone analysing the iGaming industry.

SBC Awards 2026 – Operator winners

The operator categories provide a mixture of some of the industry’s biggest names and considerably smaller businesses.

Kaizen Gaming had an especially strong year, retaining both Operator of the Year – Large and Sportsbook Operator of the Year. Betsson Group retained Casino Operator of the Year, while Coolbet and Vegas Legends won the medium and small operator categories respectively.

There is an interesting distinction here. The biggest-name winners such as Kaizen Gaming and Betsson Group are hardly discoveries for anyone working in iGaming. Interplay tech, Megapari and Vegas Legends, however, are precisely the sort of names that make award results useful when researching companies beyond the usual Tier 1 operators.

Operator and supplier awards

The next group is particularly useful for identifying companies with strong workplace, leadership and responsible-gambling credentials.

SBC Awards 2026 – Supplier winners

The supplier section is arguably the most interesting part of the SBC Awards from a market-research perspective.

The 2026 categories cover everything from acquisition and aggregation to casino development, esports, mobile technology, live betting, platforms, sports data and white-label infrastructure.

Several patterns stand out.

Pragmatic Play continued its dominance of casino supply by winning both the large developer category and Live Casino Supplier. BetConstruct AI also took two awards, while Sportradar won both Live Betting Product and Marketing & Services Provider of the Year.

But some of the smaller winners may be more interesting from a business-intelligence perspective. Pascal Gaming, Gameburger Studios, Kanggiten, Insightplay AI and Playbook Fusion are examples of companies worth researching further. Awards do not automatically mean that a company will become a major player, but they can provide an early signal that a business or product is gaining industry recognition.

Payments and compliance winners

Payments, KYC, fraud prevention and compliance have become increasingly important parts of the gambling technology stack. The SBC Awards had three dedicated categories in 2026.

For market analysts, these categories are particularly useful because some of the most important companies in gambling never operate a casino or sportsbook themselves. They provide the infrastructure that allows operators to acquire customers, verify identities, process money or meet regulatory requirements.

SBC Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026

One day before the main SBC Awards, the Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026 were held at the MEO Arena in Lisbon.

The awards focus specifically on the affiliate, performance marketing and operator-affiliate ecosystem. The 2026 event featured 20 categories, with winners determined through a weighted combination of judges’ scores and industry voting.

For affiliates in particular, the results provide an interesting picture of which companies are attracting attention across content, traffic acquisition, networks, technology, casino affiliation, sports affiliation and crypto.

Affiliate category winners

The results show an interesting mixture of established affiliate businesses and newer or more specialised companies. Clever Advertising won two categories, while Flashscore Network took Sports Affiliate of the Year and Catena Media won Casino Affiliate of the Year.

The Affiliate Leader of the Year award was shared by Brian Christopher of BC Ventures and Anastasiia Shсherbyna of Melbet.

Affiliate and operator individual awards

The Affiliate Leaders Awards also recognise people working directly with affiliate partners and communities.

Operator affiliate-programme winners

Novibet’s win is particularly notable because the company also won Innovation in Casino & Gaming Entertainment at the main SBC Awards. Vegas Legends similarly won both the Medium/Small affiliate-programme category and Operator of the Year – Small at the main awards.

Affiliate supplier winners

Technology is becoming an increasingly important component of affiliate marketing, and the final four Affiliate Leaders categories highlight companies providing the infrastructure and services behind the sector.

What can the SBC Awards tell us about the iGaming market?

Awards should never be treated as a substitute for financial data, traffic analysis, market share or product performance. Winning an industry award does not necessarily mean that a company is the largest or fastest-growing business in its category.

But that does not make the results irrelevant. Viewed differently, an awards list can function as a market-discovery dataset.

If you already know Pragmatic Play, Betsson, Kaizen Gaming, Evolution and Sportradar, there is relatively little discovery value in seeing their names again. The more interesting exercise is to look further down the ecosystem.

Why did Kanggiten win Innovation in Mobile? What is Insightplay AI building to be named a rising star in sports betting technology? Why did Pascal Gaming take the medium-sized casino developer award? What is RavenTrackdoing differently in affiliate management? How has BIG4PLAY positioned itself to be recognised as an affiliate rising star?

Those questions can lead to competitors, products, markets and business models that are not necessarily visible when analysing only the industry’s largest companies.

The same applies to recruitment and business development. A company winning or being shortlisted for a Rising Star, Innovation or Employer award may be worth monitoring for hiring, partnerships or future growth.

The companies worth watching after SBC Awards 2026

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the 2026 results is how fragmented the technology layer of iGaming has become.

Operators still attract most consumer attention, but underneath them sits a huge ecosystem of game studios, aggregators, CRM companies, payment providers, compliance specialists, data companies, affiliate platforms, marketing agencies and sportsbook technology businesses.

The major winners tell us who is strong today. The less familiar winners may tell us where to look next.

That is what makes the SBC Awards particularly useful from an industry-analysis perspective. Rather than viewing the awards simply as a collection of trophies, they can be used as a starting point for mapping the companies, technologies and emerging challengers shaping the next generation of iGaming.