AffPapa distributed more than 40 awards across the global iGaming industry at the fifth edition of its annual awards ceremony, held on May 20 at the Real Casino de Madrid during the final day of the AffPapa Conference Madrid.
The event gathered over 1,500 industry professionals representing affiliates, operators, and B2B providers from across the global iGaming ecosystem, with Madrid replacing Malaga as the host city to accommodate the conference’s growing international audience.
AffPapa CEO Levon Nikoghosyan said in a statement: “Five years ago, we launched the AffPapa iGaming Awards to celebrate the ones moving the industry forward every single day. With everyone together in Madrid for this anniversary edition, it’s amazing to see what the Awards have turned into today.”
The ceremony ran under the theme “The Test of Time,” a deliberate framing that shifted recognition toward companies demonstrating sustained performance rather than single-year momentum, which has become more commercially meaningful as the sector matures.
Four new categories were introduced for the 2026 edition: Woman Leader of the Year, CEO of the Year, Affiliate Manager of the Year, and Best Employer of the Year, reflecting the industry’s growing attention to individual leadership and internal culture as genuine competitive differentials.
Among the headline winners, 22Bet, FortuneJack, Spribe, and 01.tech collected major titles across the evening, with 01.tech also serving as the headline sponsor of the event.
Additional sponsors included Spribe, 1win, Jack.com, Linebet, 100HP, Blockbuster Partners, 22Bet Partners, 7StarsPartners, 50 Partners, Betable, WinAndYou Partners, and Income Access, a roster that reflects the breadth of commercial activity now underpinning what began as a smaller regional conference.
The Madrid venue itself, a 19th-century institution in the heart of the Spanish capital, added a layer of occasion to an anniversary edition that the organisers framed as a reflection of how far the awards programme has come since its 2022 launch.
The awards arrive at a genuinely difficult moment for the sector. Regulatory tightening across multiple jurisdictions, rising compliance costs, increased KYC requirements, and SEO volatility have collectively compressed margins for affiliates and operators who were generating strong returns only two to three years ago.
Recognising companies that have navigated those conditions while maintaining quality and growth is therefore more substantive than it would have been in a period of easy expansion, and the Test of Time framing gave the ceremony a relevance that straightforward popularity contests sometimes lack.
The next AffPapa Conference is confirmed for Cancun in November, with Latin America representing one of the sector’s most active growth regions as Brazil’s regulated market matures and Mexico’s online betting environment continues expanding.
Voting for all categories was conducted online before the event, with the wider industry serving as the jury rather than a closed panel of judges, a model that gives the results broader legitimacy across a sector accustomed to scrutinising the credibility of its own award structures.
