SBC Summit Americas returns to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for its second year after combining SBC Summit North America and SBC Latinoamerica in 2025.
The reaction, SBC Vice President of Conferences Aidan Brain admits, was mixed at first.
“People really loved the Latin America event that we ran in Hollywood, Florida, and people really loved the North American event that we ran in New Jersey,” Brain said during an interview with CDC Gaming.
But it didn’t take long for the event to take off.
“Last year when we ran this show in Fort Lauderdale and brought every together, people loved it,” Brain said. “It’s just as giving a global dimension to the discussions that we’re having. Your kind of getting away from any kind of parochialism between the two regions. And there’s a lot for both regions to learn from each other.”
SBC Summit Americas is June 9-11 at Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
SBC Summit Americas recently announced representatives from Bet365 and DraftKings Predictions, and former U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy from Rhode Island, will appear on the Leaders Stage for discussions on the evolving future of gaming and sports betting in the Americas.
The Leaders stage forms part of SBC Summit Americas’ six-stage conference program, covering sports betting and casino, affiliation, leadership, player protection, and regulation, with each stage alternating between North and Latin American market focus across the conference.
“Player expectations have evolved in ways I don’t think anyone in the industry truly expected. A great product is no longer enough,” SBC Founder and CEO Rasmus Sojmark said in a statement. “You have to be an entertainment platform, a media brand, even a financial service, all at once.”
“The range of conversations happening across the Leaders Stage shows just how broad the industry has become,” Sojmark added. “That gives us the opportunity to bring together voices from both inside and outside gaming, and this year’s lineup includes everyone from executives at some of the region’s biggest operators to an actual Kennedy.”
One new element at this year’s conference is the Podcast Zone, an area set aside for SBC iGaming Daily, where speakers will be interviewed.
Another new element is the Prediction Markets Forum. The session The Current State of Prediction Markets in the U.S. will examine how prediction markets are blurring the lines between financial trading and sports betting, and what their rapid rise means for future U.S. regulation. Experts Jeanine Hightower Sellitto, Draft Kings Senior Vice President & General Manager; Sporttrade CEO Alex Kane; and Joshua B. Sterling, Partner, Milbank, will debate whether prediction markets represent an evolution in gaming or a direct challenge to existing regulatory frameworks.
“For the last year-and-a-half, prediction markets have just been the number one buzzword in the U.S.,” Brain said. “People get passionate about it because people have very different opinions on it. We’re neither pro or against prediction markets, but we knew this was something that we needed to give a platform to discussions about it.
“We have a lot of lawyers talking about this on stage because I know this is legally a complex phenomenon, and I myself struggle to understand a lot of the debate around it. It’s really helpful that we have these academics and legal folks to kind of break that down for people.”
Other speakers of note include Kennedy, who is involved in the player protection and harm reduction space; keynote speaker David Edelman, formerly the Chief Marketing Officer of Aetna and the author of Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI; and Stephanie De Flora, Bet365 Chief Marketing Officer, who will participate in a fireside chat, Winning is Everything, about her company’s expansion across North America.
Other executives scheduled to appear are Andrew Cochrane, Soft2Bet Chief Operating Officer; Fanatics Betting & Gaming Chief Technology Officer Ian Botts; Geocomply CEO Kip Levin; Manuel Stan, Catena Media CEO; Marco Emilio Hincapie, Coljuegos President; Seminole Hard Rock Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer Macario Gallegos; and Stuart Simms, FairPlay Sports Media Group CEO.
Brain admits it’s a challenge to stay abreast of the latest developments in the gaming industry.
“We do a lot of research all the time,” Brain said. “The conference team always has its finger on the pulse of what is happening, because we’re always talking to the industry. We have amazing media on SBC, and so they have a wealth of knowledge. And if we’re not today on something, you can pretty much guarantee at least they will be, and they’ll make sure they know about it.”
