LISBON, Portugal — Welcome to SBC Summit, the biggest show in town headlined by the biggest name in sports, Michael Jordan.
SBC Americas Editor Adam Candee here, reporting live from SBC Summit in the capital of Portugal. We will follow along with the news of the day here from the industry’s premier event throughout the three-day event, starting with the keynote panel, Leadership in Sports Business.
In addition to Jordan, the keynote features Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl and DraftKings CEO Jason Robins. The trio will discuss a range of topics including:
- Fan engagement
- Innovation
- Leadership perspectives
- Gaming industry
Stay with us throughout the afternoon and evening for the most interesting notes and quotes from the keynote, as well as panel discussions with industry leaders. We’re here all day so come join in!
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5:20 pm: Time for a wrap-up video (and a beverage)
We’ll see you back here for Day 2 starting bright and early here in Lisbon!
4:50 pm: iGaming on Kalshi, Polymarket was considered
On the “World Cup vs Sportsbook Regulation” panel, Bill Pascrell III, partner at Princeton Public Affairs Group, said he advised both Kalshi and Polymarket to scrap plans to launch iGaming products on their prediction markets this year.
Pascrell also told the audience that prediction markets are here to stay for the long haul, notably for as long as Donald Trump holds the presidency.
4:30 pm: More talk of manipulation challenges at World Cup panel
Operators from around the world battled manipulation challenges throughout the World Cup, as certainly could be expected for the world’s premier event on its most popular sport.
In the “World Cup vs Sportsbook Regulation” panel, both Panagiotis Skyrlas, VP Regulatory Affairs, Super Technologies and Michael Foster, Group Head of Gaming & Commercial Strategy, FEG, highlighted the same issue as their most vexing issue for market monitoring.
“Those that are determined by a single person gives us the biggest headaches,” Skyrias said.
Foster discussed the need for solutions that remove malicious actors while not entirely closing an open market.
“We have to prevent the whole market from betting on things just because someone has an angle,” Foster said of certain current situations.
4 pm: Perspectives on prediction markets
Predictably, the topic of prediction markets drew a variety of perspectives from the “Modern Manipulation: Are Today’s Integrity Tools Built for Yesterday’s Threats?” panel.
Tom Mace, director of global operations integrity services for Sportradar, discussed his company’s partnership with Kalshi.
“They are different to sportsbooks but the key for us is we need to include the prediction markets as part of the solution, not the problem,” Mace said. “They are now a relevant part of the market where there is now significant volumes.”
Not everyone can do so simply, however, as Khalid Ali, International Betting Integrity Association CEO, noted. Ali said IBIA holds licenses in 34 US states and a number of state regulators told the organization that its license could be jeopardized by partnering with prediction markets.
3:45 pm: Betting limits in focus on manipulation panel
In the “Modern Manipulation: Are Today’s Integrity Tools Built for Yesterday’s Threats?” panel, Jay Balan, CISO for Super Technologies, discussed the entire ecosystem of factors that operators use to identify potential match and market manipulation. Of particular note to the US-facing discussion is his perspective on betting limits, one of the hottest topics with state gaming regulators and professional bettors.
“Bad actors love thresholds,” Balan said, adding that people seeking to manipulate markets simply want to know what limits they are working within at the moment. They can then utilize multiple accounts to attack markets from just below the threshold, creating an advantage with that limit information.
2:45 pm: Postscript to the panel from Sportradar
1:15 pm: PlayRadar product prompts back-and-forth
After a video about the PlayRadar product that gamifies sports betting, an interesting chat as Carsten Koerl asks Michael Jordan his opinion:
“The way you look at it and the way I look at it as an athlete is totally different,” Jordan said, adding that he focuses on the moment vs. analytics or info.
Jordan likens the idea of wagering who will hit the ball on the green at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass to analytics that measure when a basketball player will drive left or right. MJ says his focus is solely in the moment, while Sportradar and DraftKings are looking at larger trends that he did not worry about.
12:55 pm: Robins on fans harassing players over their wagers
On fans who harass players over betting, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins points out that people have yelled at players like MJ for some reason forever:
“Betting may add a new dimension to that … but don’t make any mistake about it: there’s been that level of noise and attention in athletics for a long time.”
12:50 pm: Koerl on where the future is heading
An interesting comment from Sportradar CEO Carsten Koerl on how interest is shifting among both fans and bettors in the modern era:
“We are living in a world where the players are becoming more and more important, the teams less and less,” Koerl said.
12:30 pm: Jordan on the evolving fan experience
Michael Jordan begins his remarks by discussing how his perspective on the fan experience changed once he became a businessman and the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and of a NASCAR team. Jordan discussed how fans connect through companies like Sportradar and DraftKings.
“As I look at it here today, knowing what I know now and being associated with these companies, the fans today are focused on being involved with the outcome,” Jordan said. He later added, “Now the fans are the athletes, in terms of how they compete within the game.”
12:15 pm: Meet the keynote speakers
The keynote panelists are ready to go here at SBC Summit:
11:50 am: Warmup time for Michael Jordan, Carsten Koerl, Jason Robins
We’re inside a packed arena floor in MEO Arena for the keynote panel here at SBC Summit. Photography is limited during the discussion with Michael Jordan, Carsten Koerl, and Jason Robins, so this is the best you’ll get from me until after the session ends.
Even with a career spent mostly in sports, I never covered and attended a Chicago Bulls game during the MJ era, so this will be a fun experience to see him live and in-person. (It likely is for the best I never witnessed him live, considering how he tortured my New York Knicks over the years.)
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10:30 am: This is what we’re waiting for: MJ takes flight
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Late yesterday evening: Building the excitement
Out for a walk near the conference center after dinner, I encountered two young people looking at the signage for SBC Summit. Just as we passed each other, the woman exclaimed, “OH S***!”
I turned to see what happened – turns out she looked to the right (just out of frame here because I’m a writer, not a photographer) and saw the large ad for Michael Jordan’s appearance on the keynote panel.
“F***!” the man with her responded.
So yeah, in the words of former President Joe Biden, it seems MJ’s appearance will be a “big f***ing deal.”
