Affiliate Leaders Summit 2026 Adds Platforms & Performance Track

The Affiliate Leaders Summit 2026 will introduce a Platforms & Performance track on 29 September, putting the spotlight on the shifting technologies, strategies, and content models shaping affiliate marketing outcomes in the iGaming space. Organisers confirmed that the track will assemble affiliates, social and content platforms, operators, and marketing experts to address how stakeholder collaboration and technical development are redefining acquisition, engagement, and overall performance in today’s digital environment.

Platforms & Performance: New Realities for Affiliate Marketing

This new conference track sits alongside the broader programme developed in partnership with Conversion Conf and aims to address the structural changes impacting the affiliate channel. Attendees can expect sessions covering:

• The technical foundations that underpin multi-channel strategy
• Acquisition and retention challenges arising as users fragment across devices
• Performance measurement in a world of declining cookies
• Approaches to data, content, and platform integration

Rasmus Sojmark, Founder and CEO of SBC, highlighted the complexity affiliates now face:

“Affiliate performance used to be much easier to define. You could look at rankings, clicks or conversions and get a fairly clear picture of what was working. Today, the journey behind those results is much more complicated,” he said, adding that the track will promote “a wider lens” on performance analysis rather than a single-channel mentality.

AI’s Role in Affiliate Performance

Artificial intelligence will play a central part in the Platforms & Performance agenda, particularly in the exclusive keynote ‘AI Powered Growth: How Meta is Supercharging Performance’. Kaan Camgoz, Head of Gaming, RMG & Console EMEA for Meta, will present case studies from real money gambling operators, demonstrating AI’s application across media optimisation, campaign strategy, creative, and measurement disciplines.

Camgoz’s address is set to deliver examples of practical outcomes with AI, responding to rising demand among operators for high-impact, trackable growth in acquisition campaigns.

Evolving Audiences and the Content Equation

Understanding “The Modern Affiliate Audience: Younger, Multi-Channel, Easily Distracted, and Totally Disloyal” will feature as a dedicated session, with panellists such as Armin Aganovic (COO, Joelsson Media Group AB), Abraham Charles (Founder & CEO, each&everyone), Shane Roberts (Streamer, BC.Game), Tamara Hovhannisyan (Head of Product, Digitain) and moderator Olha Sydorenko (CBDO, Jester Marketing). They will discuss changing patterns in engagement and loyalty, detailing how affiliates can tailor strategies to keep pace with rapid shifts in audience habits and content models.

Further, the session ‘Content evolution: why content is the most undervalued asset in iGaming affiliation’ will scrutinise the business impact of short-form and social-native storytelling. Contributors such as Rui Costa (Head of Content, Gentoo), Alan Záruba (Chief Digital Content Officer, Livesport/Flashscore), Adam Bielinski (CEO & Co-owner, iGamingNuts), and Keith Geary (Director of Marketing, Mr Gamble) will explore how content is becoming a strategic, rather than merely operational, asset within affiliate businesses.

First-Party Data and Measurement After the Cookie

Technological changes in measurement and attribution remain a headline concern. The session ‘Measurement in 2027: the cookie decline and the first-party data crisis’ will see Clemence Dujardin (CEO, MyAffiliates), Robert Kraft (Founder, Atlas World), Clint Griscti (Co-founder & CEO, APIdae.Digital), and Will Barfield (Head of Fan Reach, Better Collective) examine:

• Adjusting campaign measurement for a post-cookie world
• The tools and technologies still delivering value
• How affiliates can prove their worth as traditional metrics erode
• The competitive implications of a first-party data deficit

“Success is increasingly about connecting the dots across platforms and measuring what actually moves the needle, not just what’s easy to track,” said session moderator Jyoti Rambhai (Editor, Affiliate Leaders).

Leadership, Media Planning, and Integrated Performance

Elsewhere, sessions will address long-term approaches in ‘Affiliate Leadership 2030: The Strategies Defining the Next Decade’ and the influence of Google, Meta, and TikTok in ‘Media Planning in 2027: How Meta, Google and TikTok Are Shaping the Next Era’. Integration will also get explicit focus in ‘Killing the Silo Monster: Integrating CRM, SEO, Paid Media & Content’, providing a platform for specialists to assess the practical steps required to break down function-specific barriers in pursuit of improved acquisition and retention.

Event Overview: Dates, Attendance, and Registration

The Affiliate Leaders Summit will run from 29 September to 1 October 2026 at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) and MEO Arena. Organisers expect approximately 10,000 delegates from across the affiliate, operator, supplier and marketing segments to attend three days of networking, exhibition and conference content.

Affiliates are eligible to apply for complimentary VIP passes; meanwhile, the Affiliate Leaders Summit VIP Pass (€599) covers operators, agencies, suppliers and professionals working in acquisition and performance marketing. Further details on the agenda and registration can be found directly via the event’s official channels.

For the latest developments in affiliate technology and strategy, industry stakeholders will continue to monitor how the Platforms & Performance track shapes debate around the measurement, AI integration, and content imperatives affecting the affiliate ecosystem.