Introduction
SBC Summit Americas brought together operators, affiliates, suppliers, and innovators from across North America and LatAm, providing a valuable opportunity to explore the trends shaping the region's iGaming landscape.
Over two days of conversations on the exhibition floor, Team NetRefer connected with businesses ranging from established operators to ambitious startups, discussing everything from player acquisition and affiliate marketing to emerging gaming verticals and technology innovation.
Across these conversations, several clear themes emerged. Here are the key takeaways from SBC Summit Americas 2026.
Sweepstakes and Prediction Markets Are Reshaping the iGaming Landscape
One of the clearest themes throughout SBC Summit Americas was the growing prominence of alternative gaming models, particularly Sweepstakes and Prediction Markets.
“While the prominence of Sweepstakes was largely expected, one notable trend was the growing interest in Prediction Markets. Compared to previous events, there appeared to be a broader range of companies evaluating or actively pursuing opportunities in this segment, suggesting that it is gaining momentum as a category to watch.”
David Buhagiar, Head of Marketing & Acquisitions at NetRefer
The evolving regulatory landscape in the United States continues to create opportunities for alternative approaches to player engagement, and interest in both sectors was evident throughout the event. This was particularly noticeable among startups and businesses looking to establish a presence in the US market, resulting in strong demand for conversations around player acquisition, affiliate marketing, and performance-driven growth strategies.
As competition for players intensifies across emerging verticals such as Sweepstakes and Prediction Markets, maintaining confidence in attribution and traffic quality is becoming increasingly important. Solutions such as Enhanced Tracking are helping operators gain greater visibility into traffic sources, maintain confidence in the quality of their acquisition data, and make more informed decisions around player acquisition and affiliate performance.
Beyond the growth of these individual verticals, their increasing prominence reflects a broader shift within the industry. As emerging products continue to gain traction alongside traditional sportsbook and casino offerings, the iGaming ecosystem is becoming increasingly diverse, creating new opportunities for operators, affiliates, and technology providers alike.
“Sweepstakes models are growing quickly as a way for operators to enter states where online gambling is not yet fully regulated, while Prediction Markets are becoming an emerging vertical that many companies are watching closely.”
Melina Boutlioua, Regional Acquisitions Specialist at NetRefer
Operators Are Looking Beyond Traditional Tracking
As affiliate programmes become increasingly sophisticated, operators are placing greater emphasis on turning data into meaningful business outcomes. Conversations throughout SBC Summit Americas highlighted a growing demand for actionable insights that help businesses make faster, more informed decisions and identify opportunities for improvement.
Beyond tracking performance, businesses increasingly value platforms that provide greater visibility into affiliate activity, support strategic decision-making, and help optimise acquisition efforts through clearer reporting and analytics, with solutions such as NetRefer's BI Analytics solution, the Report Builder, helping businesses transform performance data into actionable intelligence.
At the same time, ease of implementation is becoming an increasingly important consideration. Flexible integration options, including robust API capabilities, can help businesses overcome resource constraints, reduce development workloads, and accelerate the adoption of new technologies.
“From a platform provider perspective, we noticed that companies are looking for affiliate platforms they can easily integrate. One of the main challenges mentioned during conversations was the availability of resources, project priorities, and existing development backlogs.”
Melina Boutlioua, Regional Acquisitions Specialist at NetRefer
Operators Need Technology That Can Evolve With Them
As new gaming verticals emerge and regulatory requirements continue to shift, operators are increasingly looking for technology partners that can adapt alongside their business. Conversations throughout SBC Summit Americas highlighted the growing importance of flexibility, both in terms of platform capabilities and the ability to support diverse acquisition strategies across different markets.
This is particularly relevant for businesses entering emerging sectors such as Sweepstakes and Prediction Markets, where requirements can differ significantly from more traditional online gaming models. As a result, operators are placing greater value on solutions that can support growth efficiently while providing the agility needed to respond to changing market conditions. Reflecting this demand for flexibility and scale, NetRefer continues to invest in the infrastructure needed to meet evolving industry requirements, supported by strategic technology partnerships with Microsoft, Databricks, Cloudflare, GlobalDots, and Coralogix.
“As newer gaming verticals such as Sweepstakes and Prediction Markets emerge, operators are looking for affiliate platforms that can adapt to different business models while maintaining robust tracking, reporting, and partner management capabilities.”
David Buhagiar, Head of Marketing & Acquisitions at NetRefer
Conclusion
While many of the themes discussed at SBC Summit Americas reflect broader industry trends, the event also highlighted several opportunities and challenges that are particularly relevant to the US market. The growing prominence of Sweepstakes and Prediction Markets, in particular, demonstrates how businesses continue to adapt to changing regulatory frameworks and player preferences.
From the increasing demand for actionable insights to the need for flexible and scalable technology, the conversations throughout the event reflected an industry focused on identifying new opportunities while remaining agile in a rapidly changing environment. As operators continue to adapt to these evolving market conditions, having the right technology foundation can provide the visibility, confidence, and control needed to support long-term growth.
NetRefer’s Affiliate Marketing Platform is a comprehensive, cloud-based ecosystem of solutions and tools that covers the entire Affiliate Marketing life cycle. We empower users with total control, knowledge, and vision through our evolving platform, in line with our three core values: Clear • Fair • Trusted
Request a free 14-day demo of NetRefer’s Affiliate Marketing Platform today!