Rasmus Sojmark: Building connections in the gaming industry

Rasmus Sojmark, Founder and CEO of SBC, talks to IMGL magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Simon Planzer about the company’s partnership with International Masters of Gaming Law and the International Association of Gaming Regulators. Simon Planzer: We’re talking on the eve of the SBC Summit in Lisbon, where the partnership between IMGL, IAGR and SBC will be announced. How did that partnership come about? Rasmus Sojmark: I think the partnership with IMGL is a very natural one for SBC because regulation and legal expertise have become such an important part of the global gaming industry. SBC brings the platform. We bring together tens of thousands of people from across the global industry – operators, suppliers, affiliates, regulators, associations, investors and many other stakeholders. IMGL brings an incredible network of some of the most respected gaming lawyers and regulatory experts in the world. It was successfully wrapped up by (SBC’s Managing Director) Andrew McCarron on our side, Marc Dunbar, IMGL president, and IAGR’s CEO Kevin Mullally. They were able to build on the good relationship maintained between former president Quirino Mancini and Ben Haden, IAGR president. SP: From your perspective, what do you think the relationship will achieve? RS: There are two parts for me: a back end part and a public part. The back-end part is where IMGL’s expertise, advice and relationships contribute to how our events come together. For us, that’s very valuable because we don’t just want our conferences to be big. We want them to be credible and genuinely useful to the people running the industry. And regulation has never been more important. We’re operating in an industry where markets are opening, regulations are changing, new technologies are emerging, and there are major discussions around things like AI, prediction markets, responsible gambling, advertising, affordability and player protection. That’s where organisations like IMGL are so important. They can help us make sure we’re not just discussing what is exciting today, but also the difficult issues that will determine where this industry goes tomorrow. And I think SBC can give IMGL something equally important: a much larger stage and the opportunity to bring that legal and regulatory expertise into conversations with the wider industry. Ultimately, I see the partnership as IMGL bringing some of the world’s best legal and regulatory minds into the SBC ecosystem, and SBC giving those voices a global platform. I can also add that we have created some additional strong partnerships that tie closely in with our IMGL partnership. We have formed partnerships with IAGR and are also collaborating with GRAF for the SBC Summit in Lisbon. And we are working closely with key industry Associations in Europe, Latam, Brazil, North America and Africa. SP: You mentioned a public part: What will visitors to Lisbon see as a result of the partnership? RS: There are really quite a few things. We’ve got the Leaders Summit which we’re opening with an announcement of the deal. We have invited many of the regulators and the IMGL members to that event to deal on a very high level with operator CEOs and some of the key supplier and top affiliate CEOs so that should be an exciting day. Then at the SBC Summit itself there is an IMGL super-masterclass on one of the main conference stages and, in addition, we have created new Regulatory Gaming Meetups, which are running over the course of three days. There’ll be over 20 of these focused networking sessions hosted by IMGL and IAGR members and regulators covering most of the European jurisdictions, LatAm, North America and places like New Zealand and Australia. That’s a hugely strong addition to the event where operators can come and meet regulators and IMGL can contribute on the legal side. Rounding off the week we have added in a dedicated day on prediction markets where several IMGL members are participating. So I think you will see the partnership really making a difference to the event. SP: As a veteran of more industry events than I can remember, I genuinely think you strike a balance between the commercial part, high-quality content and stellar entertainment, particularly with some huge names on board. I guess it wasn’t always like this. How did you get to this point? RS: When I look back at SBC, it’s actually quite difficult to believe how far we’ve come. We didn’t start with some enormous business plan to build one of the world’s biggest gaming and tech event companies. We started by bringing people together. That was really the foundation of SBC. I’ve always believed this industry is built on relationships and respecting the people that have continued to support you. In the early days, we were organising relatively small gatherings and events. Today, we’re bringing tens of thousands of people together from all over the world. There have definitely been moments where I’ve thought, ‘How did we get from where we started to this?’ I’m a big football fan and I well remember the early Betting on Football days at Chelsea’s ground Stamford Bridge. We hosted keynotes and appearances from some of our idols like Peter Schmeichel, Ruud Gullit, Marcel Desailly, Petr Cech, Franco Baresi, and Gaizka Mendieta. We grew our Awards events from a small Octoberfest Pub in Fulham to spectacular gala events at the Natural History Museum in London, and today we host it at MEO Arena in Lisbon. Year-by-year we managed to scale and retain the quality business and experiences we have become known for, and every year it felt special. We’ve had some incredible footballers, sports stars, business leaders and personalities involved over the years. And now we’re preparing for the SBC Summit in Lisbon with my all-time favourite person: Michael Jordan. If you’d told me when we started that one day we’d have Michael Jordan speaking at our event in Lisbon with Carsten Koerl (Sportradar Founder and CEO) and Jason Robins (DraftKings Co-founder and CEO), I would not have believed you. I don’t think anyone would. Even today this still feels like a dream. SP: How did you manage to scale up while keeping a focus on quality and not becoming so big that the events lose their character and uniqueness? RS: The thing I think I’m most proud of isn’t actually the celebrities or the size of the events. It’s that SBC has become a place where the industry comes together. It allows me and everyone at SBC to be part of something special. We are actually creating a place where the industry feels that it belongs. I don’t want to put down my competitors, but I think this is something no other industry organiser can lay claim to. Focusing on relationships and delivering something that works to build them has always been the ambition, even if the scale of it has become much bigger than we originally imagined. That said, when you grow a business, things change, of course, and you sometimes forget to take pleasure in what we have actually achieved. Very quickly we are chasing the next goal. But for me that is part of my ambition and the excitement, I have always loved to create and build things, take on new challenges and make something truly special out of it. SP: You’ve featured some big names in the last couple of years. I was at the event last year with some of the biggest names in football. What is the thinking there and how do you get those big names to show up? RS: I’ve always believed that B2B events don’t have to be boring. Business focus and willingness to learn will align more easily when people feel happy and appreciated; when they are allowed to connect with what you offer them in more than one way. As a result, the different experiences create a better outcome for everyone. People are giving us three days of their time. They’re travelling from another country, staying in hotels, being away from their families and spending money to attend. We have a responsibility to make those three days memorable and worth the trouble of attending, both when it comes to business ROI and personal experiences. For me, there are five pillars of a great event: the trade show, the networking, the conference and content, the education and learning, and the visitor experience. That’s what we’ve always tried to combine: serious business with great experience. You need excellent content, you need the CEOs, regulators, lawyers and industry experts discussing the issues that genuinely matter. But why can’t you also have Michael Jordan? Why can’t you have some of the biggest names in sport, entertainment and business? Michael Jordan is not just a sports legend, he’s a leader, an entrepreneur, he’s an inspiration. Then why can’t you finish the day with an evening event where The Script will perform? Or an incredible closing party with legendary DJ Tiesto dedicated to all the hard-working exhibitors? I don’t see those things as in competition with each other. I think they make the event stronger. Some people might say it takes away from the business and ROI, but I think quite the opposite is true. When you have a well-executed B2B event and people are enjoying themselves, then actually more business gets done. And getting the big names has become easier as SBC has grown, but it’s still about relationships, persistence and sometimes being a little bit crazy and ambitious. It’s also about reinvesting into the events, because the stars don’t come cheap. I have always made clear our events are not just about making money. We are in a position to put something back into the industry, to give people the best time and ultimately that makes the business better too. You just can’t do that if you are backed by a private equity house that needs to maximise profit. That takes money out of the industry where we are in a position to invest back into the industry. We have always had big ambitions around the Super Stage. The ambition was to create special moments paired with the greatest speakers in sports, tech and gaming; And when you start asking yourself, ‘Who is the ultimate name? Who could we bring to Lisbon that would genuinely make people stop and say, wow, SBC has taken this to another level?’ Michael Jordan was the name; alongside industry legends like Carsten Koerl, CEO of Sportradar, and DraftKings Co-founder & CEO, Jason Robins. SP: So how are you going to top this year’s line-up? RS: Every year my team probably wishes I’d stop asking, ‘OK, what’s bigger?’ But that’s part of SBC. I never want us to say, ‘That was good enough, let’s just do it again’. I don’t know whether you necessarily top Michael Jordan by finding someone more famous. You top it by making the entire experience better – better people, better conversations, better networking, better content and more reasons for the most important people in the industry to be there. So, all I can say is ‘watch this space’. SP: What’s next for SBC, your vision for the future of the industry and how will your events stay relevant? RS: I would say that we started by connecting people, we grew by connecting more of the industry and our future is about connecting the entire gaming ecosystem. But we also know that we have to earn that place. You cannot take anything for granted. I have always had that mindset: I try never to get complacent, never think we’ve made it even when the business is approaching a couple of hundred people. Yes it’s a growth story, but at the same time, you can never take things for granted. SBC Summit is becoming the annual global gathering point for the industry. I love it when I see more and more people adding SBC to their yearly schedule as they’ve done with ICE for many years. In my opinion, and this is backed up by the people I speak to, SBC offers a far superior event experience and better content, and is more ideally placed in the calendar year with September compared to mid-January when it comes to budget and business planning for the coming year. So we have a lot going in our favor. But I don’t want the relationship between SBC and the industry to start when somebody registers for an event and finish when the event is over. The bigger vision is for SBC to help connect the global gaming industry 365 days a year. Our events will always be incredibly important but we also have our news service, our iGaming Daily podcast that I know a number of IMGL members have been part of, we have webinars, we have our Leaders magazine. All of that adds up to better connections between operators, suppliers, regulators, associations, affiliates and other key stakeholders. More opportunities for people to meet and do business. More intelligence and knowledge. And much deeper relationships with the industry throughout the year. That takes investment from our side, but I think it’s also at the centre of how events stay relevant. You can’t simply build an exhibition floor, put up some conference stages and expect 40,000 people to keep coming. It’s a crowded calendar: people have too many choices. We have to answer a very simple question: ‘Why do I need to be there?’ For an operator CEO, that answer is oftentimes completely different from a regulator, a lawyer, an affiliate or a start-up founder. We want to create purpose, belonging, which happens when you deliver outstanding events with focus on hospitality that make people feel great, while achieving their business goals and objectives. SP: The Global Gaming Summit in Lisbon is just around the corner, but what’s coming up next year? RS: You’re right: Lisbon is a global event but I’ve been thinking for a while that we needed something focused just on Europe. So what’s next on the SBC journey is our European Summit in Amsterdam next April – SBC Summit Europe. This is a space carved out to just focus on Europe. And everyone loves going to Amsterdam, right? IMGL will be on that journey with us. We’ve always had a great relationship and we really appreciate the quality that IMGL members bring to our events. And we’re delighted to have you on board for that journey. ———————————————————– This interview originally appeared in IMGL magazine.