SBC Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026: Winners Announced in Lisbon

Catena Media, Flashscore Network, and Hub Affiliations were among the winners at the Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026, held at Lisbon’s MEO Arena on September 30. The ceremony recognized businesses and individuals across 20 categories, covering affiliate publishing, operator programs, marketing, and technology. Several previous winners returned to collect awards at the event’s second edition.

Key Takeaways: Publishers, Programs, and Technology Recognized

• The awards covered affiliate businesses, operator programs, suppliers, and individual roles.
• The ceremony took place during the Affiliate Leaders Summit, which became a standalone event in 2026.
• Results combined scores from an industry judging panel with an industry vote.

Catena Media, Flashscore and Hub Affiliations Take Major Awards

According to SBC’s official winners announcement, Clever Advertising won both Affiliate Employer of the Year and Affiliate Traffic Source of the Year. Flashscore retained its sports affiliate title, while Vegas Legends and RavenTrack also repeated wins.

Selected winners included:

BIG4PLAY received Rising Star of the Year (Affiliate), while GottaGamble won Crypto Affiliate of the Year.

Hub Affiliations had entered the ceremony with eight nominations, the highest total on SBC’s published shortlist. AFFPRO and KR3W followed with five each.

Content and Affiliate Management Roles Receive Individual Recognition

Anna Maria Baccaro of Hub Affiliations retained Affiliate Content Manager of the Year.

Affiliate Leader of the Year was awarded to Brian Christopher, Creator and CEO of BC Ventures, and Anastasiia Shcherbyna, CMO of Melbet. Leon Constantinou of Entain received Affiliate Account / Community Manager of the Year, while Giannis Stavropoulos of Stoiximan won Affiliate Marketing Manager of the Year.

These individual categories gave content and partner management roles their own place in the awards alongside company and product recognition.

Affiverse previously explored the publisher perspective in its interview with Joshua Rawlings following Casino.online’s silver award in 2025, which discussed content, comparison tools, and the platform’s approach to player information.

How the Affiliate Leaders Awards Were Decided

SBC’s awards website describes a weighted scoring system combining judges’ assessments with an industry vote.

Judges were required to declare conflicts of interest and abstain from scoring affected categories. The published rules also limited voters to one vote per category. This process is useful context when reporting the results or using an award in a company’s marketing material.

The ceremony formed part of the Affiliate Leaders Summit, held alongside SBC Summit 2026 from September 29 to October 1. The affiliate gathering began as a dedicated zone within SBC Summit in 2024 and operated as a standalone event in 2026, with its own exhibition floor, conference agenda, and ticketing.

More Winners From the 2026 Ceremony

The ceremony also included categories for casino content, marketing agencies, crypto affiliates and emerging affiliate businesses. These awards covered both affiliate businesses and the suppliers providing games and marketing services to the iGaming sector.

Evolution received Casino Title of the Year, while Basher Agency won Marketing Agency of the Year.

BIG4PLAY was named Rising Star of the Year (Affiliate), and GottaGamble received Crypto Affiliate of the Year.

SBC has also published silver and bronze placements in selected categories. Readers can view these alongside the gold winners in the complete Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026 results.