This year’s SBC Summit will see the premiere of the Affiliate Leaders Awards – a bold new addition spotlighting standout contributions in the affiliate marketing industry.

The Affiliate Leaders Awards will take place on Wednesday, 17 September 2025, from 19:00 to 24:00 at the MEO Arena, marking the first time SBC is hosting a standalone ceremony dedicated entirely to celebrating the achievements of affiliates, their operator partners, and the suppliers driving the affiliate ecosystem.

The new ceremony builds on the incredible momentum generated by the Affiliate Leaders Summit, which was first introduced during last year’s SBC Summit and has since been rolled out at SBC Summit Rio and SBC Summit Americas. This event has quickly become a flagship feature within the broader SBC Events portfolio, offering a highly focused environment for affiliates and their partners to connect, learn, and do business.

According to SBC Founder and CEO Rasmus Sojmark, the creation of the Affiliate Leaders Awards is a natural next step in SBC’s ongoing efforts to elevate and support the affiliate community within the iGaming and sports betting industries.

“Over the last year, we’ve doubled down on providing dedicated spaces and meaningful content for the affiliate community,” said Sojmark. “We’ve listened closely to what this community needs and the Affiliate Leaders Awards is the next phase – not just recognising their contributions, but celebrating them in the way they deserve.”

The Affiliate Leaders initiative – which includes the summit, community, magazine, news portal, and now the awards – has always been about empowering the affiliate sector and making business easier for its members. Whether it’s curated expo zones for affiliates and their partners, deep-dive content on SEO, AI, and acquisition strategies, or networking formats built for deal-making, SBC continues to create spaces where affiliates thrive.

Historically, affiliate-focused awards were limited to just a handful of categories within the broader SBC Awards. The introduction of a standalone ceremony enables SBC to significantly expand the recognition offered to this important segment of the industry.

This year’s Affiliate Leaders Awards will feature multiple categories, covering three key stakeholder groups:

• Affiliates – Featuring categories that showcase the full spectrum of affiliate excellence, from top networks and niche verticals to standout campaigns, content leaders, and rising stars.
• Operators – Celebrating operator teams and strategies that actively support, engage, and collaborate with affiliates.
• Suppliers – Honouring the platforms, tools, and service providers that drive affiliate performance and innovation.

Award categories include Affiliate Network of the Year, Affiliate Content Manager of the Year, Affiliate Campaign of the Year, Social Media Campaign of the Year, and Affiliate Technology of the Year — all designed to spotlight the creativity, strategy, and innovation fueling affiliate success.

“With the launch of the Affiliate Leaders Awards, SBC adds a new layer of visibility and recognition. We want to highlight the innovation happening across the affiliate world – not just from the biggest names, but from rising stars, emerging content formats, and the tech providers enabling it all,” added Sojmark. “And we want to do that in a setting that brings everyone together – affiliates, operators, and suppliers – in a night of celebration, inspiration, and connection.”

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Applications Now Open

Entries for the Affiliate Leaders Awards are now officially open and will be accepted until Friday, 4 July. Entrants are invited to submit their applications via the Affiliate Leaders Awards website, where they can also review the full list of categories and entry criteria.

To attend the Affiliate Leaders Awards, participants must purchase a separate ticket. Attendees can choose between individual tickets or book full tables for their teams. For ticket information, please visit the Affiliate Leaders Awards website or contact [email protected] directly.

The Affiliate Leaders Awards will be followed the next evening by the long-established SBC Awards, now in its 12th year, continuing the tradition of honouring excellence across the entire sports betting and iGaming ecosystem.

Betandeal has achieved the most shortlisted entries heading into this year’s iGB Affiliate Awards in London, making the cut in five categories.

The Madrid-headquartered affiliate agency is closely followed by the listed sector’s star performer of the last 12 months, Gambling.com Group.

GDC has put itself in the running across four categories, for best affiliate in casino, sports and bingo (via its WhichBingo brand) as well as Affiliate Employer of the Year.

Newcomer WagerWire also garnered four shortlist nods from the judges in sports, Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year, Employer of the Year and Best Affiliate Campaign.

While more than half of the casino and sports shortlists consist of familiar names that made the cut last time around, including GDC, Better Collective, Gentoo Media, OLBG, Mr. Gamble and Casino Guru, the picture for the Awards’ most popular and highest-growth categories is more mixed.

For Best Affiliate Programme, only three of the 12 shortlisters featured last year – bet365 Partners, last year’s surprise winner Novi Affiliates and Betsson Group Affiliates. While in Best Affiliate Network, for which judgable submissions grew by nearly 80% YoY, only CasinoAffliatePrograms.com and BetAffiliation are back to do battle again this year.

Both of these categories also include submissions from two businesses in the thick of the year’s most significant regulated market opening, Superbet’s Brazil Affiliate Program and Super Afiliados.

The new Best Affiliate Management Platform shortlist sees established names such as MyAffiliates, Affilka and PartnerMatrix pitched against a raft of fast-growing challengers and disruptors such as ReferOn and Aff.Tech.

The winners of this year’s iGB Affiliate Awards will be revealed at a Cool Britannia-themed night at East London’s Troxy Theatre on 3 July, following the second day of iGB L!VE.

The shortlist for the judged categories at the 2025 iGB Affiliate Awards is as follows:

AFFILIATE CATEGORIES

Best Casino Affiliate: Betandeal, Casino Guru, FTD Digital, Gambling.com Group, Gentoo Media, Mr. Gamble, OLBG.com, Traffic Lab

Best Sports Betting Affiliate: Betandeal, Better Collective, FairPlay Sports Media, Flashscore Network by Livesport, Gambling.com Group, Gentoo Media, Hub Affiliations, OLBG.com, WagerWire

Best Bingo Affiliate: BingoPort, FTD Digital, Little Star Media, WhichBingo

Best Poker Affiliate: GipsyTeam, PokerListings, Worldpokerdeals

Best Streaming Affiliate: 3C Gaming, Basher Agency, Betandeal, Kingbet Media

Affiliate Campaign of the Year: OLBG’s Sponsorship of Harry Derham Racing, PAME STOIXIMA x Kingbet Media, Smart Social for TaDa Gaming Influencer Activation, WagerWire for Anyone Can Be An Influencer

Affiliate Employer of the Year: Gambling.com Group, Hub Affiliations, iGamingAffiliates.io, TAG Media , WagerWire

Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year: Casino Guru, Casino.nl, CasinoNieuws.nl, Gamblers Connect, Gentoo Media for AskGamblers, WagerWire

INDIVIDUAL CATEGORIES

Best Affiliate Manager:
Christoffer Grönlund – Winlandia Partners
George Gerakanakis – Campeon Gaming
Kasper Jensen – Entain
Krishi Jain – Bluefox Affiliates
Laura Darks – bet365
Lena Lapina – iWildPartners
Pablo Saborío – CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com
Rachael Ahern – BetMGM
Radoslaw Baranski – LeoVegas Group
Yuan Wang – Income Access, a Paysafe Company

PROGRAMME/NETWORK CATEGORIES

Best Affiliate Programme: 247Partners, 7StarsPartners, Alpha Affiliates, BetMGM US, bet365 Partners, Betsson Group Affiliates, Novi Affiliates, R2D Partners, Royal Partners, Superbet Brazil, V.Partners, WOWPartners

Best Affiliate Network: AdsEmpire, Alfaleads Network, BetAffiliation, CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com, Click Hunters Tech, LeadHouse Network, Play.Partners, revenuelab., Super Afiliados

Programme/Network Campaign of the Year: BetAffiliation, Betandeal, MelBet Partners & Affiliates, PIN-UP Partners

SERVICE PROVIDER CATEGORIES

Best Tech: BetAffiliation, Blask, Cipher Sports Technology Group for Dimers Platinum, Click Hunters Tech, Routy, Statsdrone

Best Affiliate Management Platform: Aff.Tech, Affiliate Access, Affilka by SOFTSWISS, MAP™, MyAffiliates, PartnerMatrix, RavenTrack, ReferOn

Best Digital Agency: Affiverse Agency, BetAffiliation, Betandeal, HIREQUARTERS, Natural Links, Revpanda, TAG Media, Tappx

OPEN TO ALL SECTOR COMPANIES

Rising Star: Already Media, Hub Affiliations, Immerion Partners, Media 24, PixGaming, Tribuna.com

Best Newcomer: Big Betty Partners, BigDeal Partners, iGamingAffiliates.io, KNG Partners, Rocks Partners, WinWin Partners

Innovator of the Year: BetAffiliation, Click Hunters Tech, Pepper Partners, Stars Partners, Statsdrone