Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026 Shortlist Revealed at Last

Key Points

• Eight nominations of Hub Affiliations have made it to the Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026 shortlist along with five nominations each for AFFPRO and KR3W and four nominations for Betandeal, Matching Visions, SlotCatalog, and Vault Network.
• The Affiliate Leaders Awards 2026 will see five champions from last year including Flashscore, RavenTrack, 1spin4win, bet365 Partners, and Vegas Legends competing to retain their titles across 20 categories.
• Public votes are currently being conducted on the Affiliate Leaders Awards website until 14 August, with winners to be selected together with ratings from an independent judging panel.

SBC Announces List of Finalists for the 2026 Affiliate Leaders Awards Before the 30th September Event in Lisbon

The shortlist for the second Affiliate Leaders Awards was released by SBC on 31st July 2026. Hub Affiliations had eight nominations in total, making it the most nominated company in the entire industry. Both AFFPRO and KR3W have five nominations each. Betandeal, Matching Visions, SlotCatalog, and Vault Network got four each. There are 20 award categories that cover affiliates, operator programs, technology, marketing, content, acquisition, and industry leadership. The ceremony will be held on 30th September in MEO Arena, Lisbon, which will be part of the Affiliate Leaders Summit taking place from 29 September to 1 October along with the SBC Summit 2026.

From First Edition to Defending Champions

The very first Affiliate Leaders Awards hosted by SBC occurred on 17 September 2025 at the same venue – MEO Arena. As many as 500 industry representatives attended 23 categories in that year. The winners of the inaugural awards edition are now the title holders for 2026. Flashscore got the Sports Affiliate of the Year award. Bet365 Partners was awarded Best Affiliate Programme. Vegas Legends became the winner of Affiliate Programme of the Year in the Medium/Small category. RavenTrack received the award for Affiliate Management Platform of the Year. 1spin4win won the Casino Title of the Year. All five of the winners appear again in the 2026 list to defend their titles.

2026 sees a drop from the 23 categories to 20 categories. While there has been no official reasoning from SBC on this change, what this means in essence is that the same amount of nominations are being distributed among fewer categories where the brands have to compete head-to-head.

Category by Category: The Complete Picture

Casino Affiliate of the Year has three nominees in total: Betandeal, Hub Affiliations, and KR3W. These three did not win in this category in 2025, with Game Lounge being awarded the title, but not being considered for nomination this year.

Flashscore challenges for the Sports Affiliate of the Year award from Better Collective, Clever Advertising, and Spotlight Sports Group.

When it comes to the Operator Programmes category, bet365 Partners, the winner of Best Affiliate Programme in 2025, will be fighting for the Large award with the likes of Betsson Group Affiliates, Boomerang Partners, and NOVIBET. Vegas Legends is going for their consecutive Medium/Small award. Hub Affiliations and KR3W fight in the  Best Affiliate Network category.

RavenTrack enters as the defending Affiliate Management Platform of the Year. Affigates won Affiliate Technology of the Year in 2025 but does not appear in the 2026 shortlist for that category; AFFPRO, PartnerMatrix, SlotCatalog, and Vault Network now contest it. SBC has not addressed Affigates’ absence in any public statement. For Casino Title of the Year, 1spin4win defends against BGaming, Evolution, Evoplay, and Pragmatic Play.

KR3W and Vault Network Appear in Both Senior and Rising Star Categories

Seven businesses are shortlisted for Rising Star of the Year: BIG4PLAY, BIZZU, Cape Media, GottaGamble, KR3W, Trident Media Buying Agency, and Vault Network. KR3W and Vault Network are also nominated in senior categories in the same awards cycle. The published shortlist criteria do not restrict a business from competing in both, and SBC’s announcement does not address the overlap.

The name of the Affiliate Leader of the Year will remain a secret until the event itself when it will be announced on stage. The year 2025 saw a tie for the award between Alina Famenok of Already Media and the co-founders of Better Collective, Jesper Søgaard and Christian Kirk Rasmussen.

Voting: Public Ballots and an Independent Judge Panel Score

Affiliate Leaders Award members are allowed to vote on their awards website until 14 August 2026. Winners are selected using the combination of the public vote and secret score awarded by an independent judge panel. SBC has not revealed the weighting process used for the two criteria.

Rasmus Sojmark, CEO and Founder of SBC, said: “Launching Affiliate Leaders Summit as a standalone event reflects our long-term commitment to the affiliate and performance marketing community. Now in its second year, the Affiliate Leaders Awards gives us the opportunity to celebrate what makes this sector so important, recognising the leadership, innovation and achievements of the individuals and companies driving it forward.”

Dates and Ticketing

Deadline for voting: 14 August. Affiliate Leaders Summit will take place from 29 to 1 October 2026 in Feira Internacional de Lisboa. The ceremony will take place in the evening of 30 September in MEO Arena. A separate ticket is required to attend; individual tickets and table reservations are available through the SBC Events affiliate awards page.

Expert Analysis

Hub Affiliations receives nominations in eight of the 20 categories available, which is 40% of all categories up for grabs at this year’s awards ceremony. That level of breadth is significant because the dual-scoring system, public votes weighted alongside a closed panel, means Hub Affiliations needs both community support and panel credibility across multiple verticals simultaneously. The return of five 2025 winners as defending champions also raises the bar for any newcomer trying to break through. Vault Network is the most notable new presence, appearing in four categories including Best Affiliate Network and Rising Star of the Year. Whether SBC’s decision to reduce the category count from 23 to 20 narrows the field enough to produce clearer, more contested results on the night is something the September ceremony will confirm.