This week I went to SiGMA World in Rome for the first time. I knew it was a big event. I did not know how big. You look at the floor plan, you see nine halls and you think you get it. It is only when you start walking through them, one after another, and see that all of them are full, that you realise what this is.
Here is what impressed me, as a first-time visitor, together with what the organisers announced, what the trade press wrote and what other participants posted on LinkedIn.
Nine full halls
The event took place at Fiera Roma from 2 to 5 November, with the exhibition open from the 3rd to the 5th. The first thing that impressed me was the scale. The figures announced by the organisers and the trade press look like this:
- nine halls and more than 100,000 square metres of exhibition space;
- more than 30,000 delegates;
- more than 1,200 sponsors and exhibitors;
- 550 speakers across five conference stages;
- representatives of more than 65 regulators and government institutions.
The organisers also estimate more than EUR 100 million in economic activity for Rome. I organise events myself, as a co-founder of AI Expo Europe, so I know how hard it is to fill a single room. Nine full halls is a different scale.
The stands, a show in themselves
The second thing that impressed me was the presence of the iGaming companies. These stands look nothing like the ones at an ordinary trade fair. They are extremely interesting constructions, designed to stop you in your tracks. A few examples, from those described by the trade press:
- Spribe brought a luxury watch exhibition, with jeweller Jacob Arabo, and a fighting octagon;
- SmartSoft suspended models of Mars, Saturn and an asteroid above a fighter jet, for its JetX game;
- Amusnet had a live pharaoh;
- DELULU Gaming came with graffiti walls and T-shirts printed on the spot;
- Alea placed a sealed orange capsule on its stand.
Then there are the stars. Gianluigi Buffon was at the N1 Partners stand for a penalty challenge, Conor McGregor was the guest of 1xBet, Francis Ngannou was at Solidicon, and Oleksandr Usyk came through GR8 Tech and Ready To Fight. On top of all that, the exhibition itself had a karting track for the SiGMA Grand Prix by SOFTSWISS and a padel tournament, with Marco Materazzi handing out the awards.
Several events under one roof
The third thing I found very interesting is the combination of events. Alongside SiGMA, Fiera Roma hosted:
- AGS (Affiliate Grand Slam), for the affiliate marketing community;
- AIBC, for AI, blockchain and emerging technology;
- FX World, for financial markets and fintech.
Each has its own programme, but you can move from one world to another in a few minutes on foot. The five stages were the Main Stage, Italy Stage, AGS Stage, AIBC Stage and Global Finance Stage. In the evenings the programme continued with four awards galas, SiGMA World, AIBC & FX, AGS and SiGMA Italia, plus parties and networking across Rome. It strikes me as a smart formula: an operator can find an affiliate, a payment provider or an AI company here without leaving the building.
What was discussed on stage
Behind the show, the topics were serious. Gambling carries real risks for players, and regulation and player protection were at the centre of the discussions. At the opening, Tulia Ackson, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, spoke about child protection, loot boxes and AI personalisation. There were also sessions on fragmented rules in Europe, the fight against illegal gambling and the transparency of odds.
AI was everywhere, and not only as an opportunity. A session on risk started from a 64% year-on-year rise in iGaming fraud and a tenfold increase in deepfake threats. Another looked at the skills missing after the arrival of AI. I have also written about AI regulation in Europe, so the subject is familiar to me.
What other participants wrote
I also read the LinkedIn posts from after the event. A few ideas stayed with me:
Stability came before growth. A participant working in payments wrote that everyone wants growth, but the questions in meetings were about stability: will the system hold when traffic doubles, and who picks up when something breaks at 2am?
Local beats generic. Someone else, also in payments, left with the idea that payments have become a growth lever, that every market needs local methods and local rules, and that the best conversations were about partnerships rather than vendors.
Marketing is changing. One marketing company summed it up in three points: ad rules are getting stricter, AI is changing how ads are made, and creators are driving affiliate growth.
A paradox. The nicest observation came from someone who followed the event from home: why is a fully digital industry so attached to huge face-to-face conferences? That person’s answer is simple: the real currency in iGaming is trust, and you build it by looking your partner in the eye.
Friends and partners
Beyond the halls and the stands, I was very happy to meet friends of many years and very good business partners, such as Florin Simovici of Traffic Manager, Chris Youngs of Paxum, Natalie Panon of MojoHost and others.
What stayed with me
From my first visit to SiGMA, four things stayed with me: the scale of the nine full halls, the extremely interesting stands of the iGaming companies, the smart combination of events gathered under one roof and the joy of seeing people I care about again.
For anyone who wants to see it first-hand, the organisers have announced that the 2027 Rome edition moves to May. Comfortable shoes remain mandatory.