Dragan Skrbić elected president of the Balkan Gaming Federation

Dragan Skrbić was elected as the first president of the Balkan Gaming Federation (BGF) on September 30, 2026, in Bucharest. The vote completed the organization's transition from the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in Belgrade in March 2026 and enables an agenda of joint initiatives for late 2026 and 2027. Skrbić will operate alongside vice presidents Filip Jelavić and Sorin Georgescu.

Composition of the board and elected representatives of the Balkan Gaming Federation

The new executive board is constituted with Dragan Skrbić, president of the Serbian association AGOS, as president of the BGF. The vice presidents are Filip Jelavić, secretary general of the Croatian association HUPIS, and Sorin Georgescu, president of the Romanian association ROMSLOT and vice president of FEDBET. The election took place during a two-day program in Bucharest that included meetings with the EUROMAT leadership.

The BGF groups national associations from seven countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia. The legal seat of the federation has been established in Croatia and a working group led by Filip Jelavić drafted the Statute and institutional framework prior to the election.

Relationship between the Balkan Gaming Federation and EUROMAT

The connection with EUROMAT was a focus of discussions in Bucharest. Jason Frost, president of EUROMAT, attended the election ceremony, and on September 29, representatives of the federations held a working dinner with the EUROMAT Board. The declared intention by the founders is for the BGF to act as a regional cluster within the broader EUROMAT framework while preserving its own governance, identity, and autonomy.

Four of the seven member associations of the BGF — AOGGAB, AGOS, ROMSLOT, and HUPIS — are already members of EUROMAT. The presence of Karoly Buzás from ROMSLOT and Filip Jelavić from HUPIS provides direct representation of the region within the European structure, and the federation seeks to channel the challenges and positions of the Balkan markets into the European policy debate.

Institutional support and signal to Romania during the re-regulation

The holding of meetings in Bucharest had a political-institutional component. Romania is undergoing relevant regulatory changes for its licensed gaming market, and the joint meeting of the BGF and EUROMAT was interpreted as a show of support for ROMSLOT and the legal Romanian sector. In its early months of activity, the federation has already issued joint positions on regulatory developments in Romania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

"The creation of the federation aims to ensure that regulatory challenges are not isolated within national markets," stated a participant in the sessions in Bucharest.

Immediate actions and calendar of joint initiatives

Following the election, the BGF presented an initial package of public and working initiatives: a gala and a rotating B2B forum, as well as an annual industry meeting.

• On November 24, 2026, in Sofia, the board will participate in the Gaming Industry Gala Dinner – New Horizons, where the BGF is expected to outline priorities and plans for 2027 before an international audience in the sector. This will be the first public appearance of the new board together.

• On November 25, 2026, a roundtable will be held with companies and experts from the Balkan industry; the meeting will be proposed as the start of an annual initiative focused on regulation, protection of the legal market, and business cooperation.

• A regional B2B forum with an exhibition component is being designed, which will rotate between Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia.

The federation has already used joint positions to address regulatory changes in specific markets and aims to institutionalize that approach through periodic meetings and visibility activities.

Implications for operators, suppliers, and national associations

For operators and suppliers in the Balkans, the BGF represents a coordination platform to address regulatory and business issues with a regional voice. The structure aims to facilitate that cross-border issues reach European forums through EUROMAT while also providing EUROMAT with a more structured institutional link to the Balkan markets, which include EU states and territories from the Western Balkans.

The founding members involved AGOS (Serbia) and AOGGAB (Bulgaria) from the initial phase in Belgrade in March 2026, and those associations led the work to define the governance model in the following months. The BGF promises to transform ad hoc coordination into an entity with statutes, a legal seat, and a public and technical activity agenda.

Next steps and short-term challenges

The federation must now convert the statutory structure and the joint positions into sustained cooperation. The operational test will be the execution of the planned events before year-end and the ability to maintain a joint agenda on regulatory matters that have already generated recommendations and statements in Romania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

The BGF also faces the challenge of balancing market representation with different regulatory frameworks and ensuring that its regional voice functions within EUROMAT without mandate overlaps or loss of autonomy.

For those following the sector's evolution, the BGF is now an entity with formal leadership and a concrete work calendar; the next period will determine if that structure consolidates a lasting influence platform for the legal gaming industry in the Balkans.

For more coverage on regulatory changes related to the federation, consult our pieces on regulation and follow the evolution of the B2B forums at b2b.