Awards
Recognising the Powerhouses of Performance: SBC Launches Affiliate Leaders Awards

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.
Awards
ReferOn Earns Dual Nominations for Innovation and Marketing Excellence at SiGMA Euro-Med Awards 2025

The company continues its growth in 2025 with key industry recognition
ReferOn, a next-gen affiliate management platform has been shortlisted for the “Affiliate Product Innovation” and “Best Marketing Solution Provider” categories at the upcoming SiGMA Euro-Med Awards 2025.
These nominations come after an important year for the company, defined by strong market traction, continuous product development, and an increased demand from operators and affiliate managers looking to transition from outdated legacy platforms to a more agile, transparent, and scalable solution.
Since its launch, the ReferOn team has demonstrated its commitment to solving real problems for affiliate teams. At the core of its value propositions is creating a simple and accessible platform that’s built for modern needs. Core developments like full-cycle automation, customisable dashboards, instant postbacks, and real-time data visibility help to reduce chaos and boost performance. Additionally, tools like the Sub-Affiliate System, No Bundling Model, and dynamic variables assist with increased operational control.
Vlad Bondarenko, ReferOn’s Head of Product, commented on the nominations, “We didn’t build ReferOn to compete with legacy platforms — we built it to replace them. Every development, addition, and decision is guided by the goal of empowering our users to move faster, make more insightful decisions, and scale efficiently. These nominations have shown us that we’re moving in the right direction and that our incredible team is working towards something truly impactful.”
ReferOn’s roadmap remains ambitious and future-focused, with numerous investments in product developments, customer-facing services, and initiatives that help affiliate teams act faster and move smarter.
Awards
Casino Guru shortlisted for inaugural Affiliate Leaders Awards

Casino Guru has been shortlisted for the inaugural Affiliate Leaders Awards 2025 and joins a competitive field of contestants in the “Casino Affiliate of the Year” category.
This new format is meant to celebrate excellence and outstanding accomplishments in the iGaming space, bringing together the most influential affiliates.
Hosted on Wednesday, September 17, the event will reunite 500 guests at the MEO Arena Lisbon at 7:00 pm, with the ceremony concluding at 12:00 am.
The latest shortlist comes after Casino Guru was previously shortlisted for the SBC Awards Europe 2025, another inaugural event, which the Casino Guru won in the same category, “Casino Affiliate of the Year.”
Commenting on this achievement, Daniela Sliva, Public Relations and Creative Projects Director, had this to say: “A true success story takes years to build, and even more years to prove its worth. I am incredibly proud to see Casino Guru nominated for the inaugural Affiliate Leaders Awards. This nomination reaffirms our commitment to providing casino players worldwide with the most complete, accurate, and reliable database of casinos, regardless of where they are or who they are.”
The Affiliate Leaders Awards include 24 highly contested categories, which will see the very best industry representatives, among which is Casino Guru, compete for important accolades that attest to these companies’ mission in providing the best service in their respective verticals.
Casino Guru has demonstrated its clear commitment to maintaining industry standards for responsible, fair, and safe gambling by introducing numerous initiatives focused on exactly this.
The Casino Guru Awards largely focused on ethics and responsibility in their latest iteration, a marked shift from most industry awards available.
Casino Guru’s Complaint Resolution Center was able to return more than $49,000,000 to different players so far. This hardly exhausts the list of achievements and commitments Casino Guru has initiative and demonstrated to make gambling safer.
The project similarly operates the Safety Index, which allows players to make informed decisions about an operator’s reliability. To achieve this? Casino Guru uses a strict list of reviewing criteria and real-time monitoring and reevaluation of brands.
Casino Guru has also created the world’s leading Forum and Community, reuniting hundreds of thousands of users all seeking to join the conversation and find the best online casinos available to them. In July 2025 alone, Casino Guru’s Forum and Community welcomed 14,130 members, saw 1,1130 unique contributors, and 7,228 posts were written.
Awards
MightyTips has been shortlisted for the Affiliate Leaders Awards 2025 in four major categories

MightyTips has been named a finalist in four prestigious categories at the upcoming Affiliate Leaders Awards 2025: Best Affiliate Network, Sports Affiliate of the Year, Affiliate Traffic Source of the Year, and Affiliate Product Innovation. The awards ceremony will take place during the SBC Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 17.
Operated by SEOBROTHERS, MightyTips expanded into new regions, strengthened relationships with leading sportsbooks, and navigated multiple search engine updates while maintaining strong traffic performance.
Other notable nominees in these categories include such brands as RichAds, Odds Scanner Group, Catena Media, Better Collective, Oddschecker Global Media and Gentoo Media, highlighting MightyTips’ stature in the market.
MightyTips also launched fresh tools and content formats, including redesigned bonus offer listings, rapid daily betting tips, and enhanced comparison features –all aimed at improving user experience. Exclusive interviews with sports legends, such as Andrea Pirlo, underscored MightyTips’ growing role as both an affiliate and a trusted sports media brand.
Eugene Ravdin, Head of PR at SEOBROTHERS, said: ”Being shortlisted in four categories is a tremendous honour for the team. It reflects not only our performance but also our willingness to innovate and adapt. These nominations are proof that our efforts to connect players with the right betting opportunities are making an impact.”