Affiliate Leaders’ editor, Jyoti Rambhai, and reporter Ellen Jennings-Trace are on the ground in Lisbon at this year’s Affiliate Leaders Summit to bring you the latest over the next three days.
15.15pm: The modern audience
Next up, we’re watching a fantastic panel from Armin Aganovic, Shane Roberts, Tamar Hovhannisyan, Abraham Charles, and Olha Sydorenko. This panel is focused on the younger audience – which, the panel agrees, is not quite as easily distracted and totally disloyal as it first seems.
“As a streamer you can’t be greedy… as you still have your loyal followers to consider,” says streamer Shane Roberts. Within the industry, short term content isn’t as attractive as long-form for casino content. “Give money away. That’s all you have to do.”
Roberts recommends keeping customers incentivised with giveaways on long streams, as engaged audiences can be much more beneficial to your brand.
14.30pm: Defining the next decade for affiliates
Now, we’re at the Affiliate Leaders stage for a fireside chat between Elaine Gardiner, managing director at TAG Media, and Pierre Cadena, chief operating officer of Catena Media.
The first question is: Do you still consider yourself an affiliate?
“Absolutely,” says Cadena. But Affiliate doesn’t mean the same thing anymore. Affiliates must evolve in many ways, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still there.
AI, Cadena says, is being leveraged in a number of different ways across Catina’s ecosystem. SEO content is faster to get onto sites, and AI helps them with engineering workflows which streamlines the process.
12.45pm The next big thing
Jordan is talking about sports marketing and how he chooses his partnerships.
“When I look at how the landscape is changing today, it’s a lot different from my era. Women’s sport is very strong right now, content is huge, when you look at TV, content sells. I look at these things and I think: “what is authentic to me?” and that’s what I focus on.”
There was an opportunity, he says, with his partnership with NASCAR to expand it outside of the norm. He points to F1, which managed to skyrocket its US popularity after a Netflix series, ‘Drive to Survive”, and NFL, which plays matches outside of the US to boost its popularity. That’s his goal with NASCAR.
The future fan experience, Carsten Koerl says, is developing to more closely follow the individual.
“We are living in a society where players are getting more important, and the teams less.” Data on players will soon be more important than team data as star players become the big interest.
The next big thing, he says, is connecting sport and gaming. The bridge is a customised product, built with AI, to offer targeted products developed on the fly.
12.00pm: MJ takes the stage
We’re seated now for the opening keynote, where we’re hearing from the basketball legend himself, Micheal Jordan, as well as Carsten Koerl and Jason Robins. Jordan starts by telling us that fans are now much more engaged, and more involved than they used to be.
“The fans today are more focused on the outcome, and they’re willing to get involved with the outcome… That’s a big change, and I think its a good change,” Jordan says. Enhanced technology, live updates, streaming platforms, and betting information enables fans to get a much deeper picture.
“Before, fans would live vicariously through the atheletes. Now the fans are the athletes with how they’re involved in the game.”
11.50am: Opening remarks
First though, we’re hearing from SBC’s very own chief executive Rasmus Sojmark, managing director Andrew McCarron, and Carlos Moedas, Mayor of Lisbon.
Moedas tells us the story of how Lisbon became the innovation capital of Europe, and how the gaming industry;s deep understanding of emotions, innovation, and people. “Create purpose, change the lives of people, and we’ll always be here to have you in this amazing city.”
11.00am: Coming soon….
Coming soon …… basketball icon, investor, and philanthropist Michael Jordan is set to take to the stage alongside Carsten Koerl, Sportradar’s founder and chief executive and Jason Robins, the founder and chief executive of DraftKings. Stay tuned!
10.15am: Breakfast briefings
To start, we’re getting a bit of breakfast in to fuel the day before we head to Micheal Jordan as our first stop of the day. We’ll do a lap of the (huge!) conference halls to start, so if you see us, feel free to say hi!
9.00am: Here we go
The time has come!
The sun may not be shining in Lisbon, but we’ve had our morning coffee and are excited to bring you the latest from 2026 Affiliate Leaders Summit.
We’ll be bringing you live updates from panel discussions alongside the some of the biggest talking points in the corridors. Stay tuned.
