SPiCE International 2026 in Cebu: Online Took Over the Philippines, Then the Rules Tightened

SPiCE International opens in Cebu on November 12, 1 week from today, and it lands in a strange year for the Philippine market. In 2025, online gaming became the country's biggest gambling segment for the first time. Over the same months, the regulator, the central bank and the Senate all moved to rein it in, and PAGCOR now wants every company that markets for its licensees to be accredited.

The 3rd edition of the Eventus International conference and expo takes place at Shangri-La Mactan, and the organiser says 20% of its audience are affiliates. Below: the programme, the passes and the code that takes 10% off, the 20 speakers, and what an affiliate sending traffic to the Philippines should know before the trip. I went through PAGCOR's documents for that part.

SPiCE International 2026 at a glance

2 business days in a resort hotel, aimed at people who buy and sell gaming products in Asia. The organiser calls it "Asia's iGaming product knowledge and market-access event": less general commentary, more "what operators are buying" and how suppliers enter markets in the region.

• Dates: November 12-13, 2026; registration from 12:00 on day 1 and 09:00 on day 2
• Venue: Shangri-La Mactan, Cebu, the Philippines
• Organiser: Eventus International; the SPiCE series started with SPiCE India in 2018
• Format: conference and expo, awards evening on day 1, farewell drinks on day 2
• Audience, by the organiser: 35% operators, 25% suppliers, 20% affiliates, 10% payments, 10% regulators; "90% of our audience are decision-makers"
• Chair: Jonas Diego, senior gaming consultant, on both days
• Attendance: no headcount published

The programme: products on day 1, players and capital on day 2

The session topics below are from Eventus's November 2 announcement. The event page shows only the time blocks, and the full agenda is sent on request.

For an affiliate, day 2 is the day. The creator economy and winning players in regulated markets are the 2 sessions closest to acquisition, and in the Philippines both topics now come with new rules attached (more on that below). Day 1 is for product people and for the awards evening, where the operators you'd want to work with will be in one room.

The awards are a map of who's who. The Operator of the Year shortlist: Casino Plus, City of Dreams Manila, Jade Entertainment and Gaming Technologies, NUSTAR Resort, Okada Manila and OKbet Casino. Winners are announced on the evening of November 12.

Startups can still apply for the pitch. Every accepted startup gets a presentation slot and 2 full-access passes, the top 3 pitch live, and the winner gets a free 3x3 m exhibitor space at a 2027 Eventus event. Eventus gives November 10 as the final deadline; applications go to johane@eventus-international.com.

Passes and the SPiCE1WEEK10 code

All 3 passes cover both days, and there's no free pass. The event page says "all tickets are 'paid' entry passes", and the early-bird prices are gone.

SPiCE1WEEK10 is the organiser's own final-week code, not ours. Eventus published it on November 5: "delegates can book at a 10% discount for a limited time". There's no end date, and the announcement doesn't say whether it works with the alumni price. Enter it at checkout on the registration page.

If you want the evening networking, take Premium. Networking drinks are listed in Premium and VIP, not in Standard, and on November 12 they run alongside the awards ceremony. If you buy Standard, ask Eventus whether you can attend the ceremony itself.

Who is speaking: 20 names

The line-up is local and operator-heavy: Manila resorts, an affiliate marketing company, payment and IT firms. As the event page lists it on November 5:

• Operators: Evan Spytma (CEO, Casino Plus), Joe Pisano (CEO, Jade Group of Companies), Rhaymond Torres (Specialist - Casino Regulatory Compliance, Okada Manila), Spandan Mahanta (Director - Product Design; the event page lists the company as "Confidential", Eventus's November 2 announcement says City of Dreams Manila)
• Affiliate marketing and growth: Chris Johnson (Chief Marketing Officer, AFFILI PH), Michael Jay Valiente (Community & Growth Management)
• Suppliers and media rights: Crystal Nadal (Head of Business Development, Asia, Tom Horn Gaming), Danny Too (Vice President - Sales) and Amandine Vu (Product Manager), MediaPro
• Payments, data and IT: Akili Polee (CEO, DeFiX/Gwallet), Krishna Tanwani (Founder & CEO, Analytiks Inc.), Chrischelle Marayag (Head of Data, Novas Limited), Mikka Felisilda (Executive and IT Operations Lead, Virtual Cloud Group), Renalie Flores (CEO, Nal's IT Services)
• Law and investment: Anna Katrina Rodriguez (Founder, Rodriguez Law), Christopher Christian Flores (General Manager, Venturra Ventures Inc.), Jared Valarao (Managing Director, Lakandula Holdings)
• Consultants: Jonas Diego (chair), Bhavesh Parthi and John Ross Calderon, all senior gaming consultants

On the floor, 2 companies sell traffic. Bidroid, the networking drinks co-sponsor, describes itself as an AI-powered performance marketing agency working on "a risk-free Pay-for-Results Flat CPA model". OnGo, an exhibitor, sells ads on in-car tablets in a fleet of 750+ vehicles across the Philippines. The rest of the sponsors are suppliers and operators: DSTGAMING (main entrance), QTech Games (stage), MediaPro and Casino Plus.

The Philippine market in 2026: online is the biggest segment, and the most regulated

In 2025, online overtook casinos. The industry's gross gaming revenue reached P396.14 billion, up 6.39%. The electronic and online segment (eGames, eBingo, bingo grantees and poker) brought in P201.12 billion, up 30.04%, while licensed casinos fell 9.58% to P182.50 billion. PAGCOR chairman Alejandro Tengco: "Online gaming is no longer a supplementary segment but has now become the leading driver of overall GGR growth."

2026 looks different. In the first half, PAGCOR's own revenue from eGames, eBingo and bingo grantees fell 41.85% to P18.60 billion. Tengco put it down to "geopolitical tensions in the Middle East". Presenting the 2025 numbers in April, he'd named the other factor: online growth came despite a slump in the third quarter of 2025 after the de-linking of e-wallets, which disrupted player access and payment channels.

Here's what changed for anyone marketing gambling in the Philippines:

The influencer case is the one an affiliate should read twice. Tengco told a House hearing that PAGCOR fined the online gaming company behind a giveaway of 100 high-end phones, promoted by influencer Ivana Alawi, P1 million and ordered it to stop the promotion. Contestants had to "like" the gambling platform's social media page to qualify. A repeat, Tengco said, means a heavier fine and possibly suspension and cancellation of the licence. Separately, he said the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center had filed "12 or 15 cases" against endorsers and influencers of illegal sites.

The ad ban is still a bill. Escudero's proposal gives operators a 1-year transition and sets fines from up to P200,000 and 1 year in prison for a first offence to up to P500,000, 3 years and licence revocation for a third. I found no report that it has passed a committee, let alone the Senate.

PAGCOR accreditation: the rule that matters most for affiliates

PAGCOR licensees may now use only accredited B2B providers, and marketing is one of the categories. The Regulatory Framework for the Accreditation of Gaming Affiliates and Support Service Providers (Revision 1) took effect on October 2, 2025. As Arden Consult, a gaming regulatory consultancy, summarises it, licensees and accredited platform operators must "engage only accredited B2B providers for any games, systems, or services".

Accreditation is built for a local company, not a solo affiliate. Only SEC-registered corporations can apply, and the application form for a marketing provider asks for the SEC registration, the latest general information sheet and a list of clients. The costs, from PAGCOR's fee schedule as of July 2, 2026:

So far, 6 companies have it, and 5 haven't started. PAGCOR's list of accredited support service providers as of October 29, 2026 has 6 names under Marketing / Promotional Service: Cyberstar Technologies, Endless Motion Marketing & Consultancy, Global Kairo Innovations, Hearts & Science Philippines, JKS Tech Solutions and Philweb Corporation. All but JKS Tech Solutions are marked "have yet to commence commercial operations".

I can't tell you from the documents how PAGCOR treats a foreign CPA affiliate. The framework speaks of providers contracted by licensees, and it has a distributor route for foreign game providers, but I found no line on an overseas site owner paid per player. Until PAGCOR says otherwise, the safe reading is that a licensed brand paying you for Philippine players needs you, or the agency you work through, to be on that list. That's the first question to ask every operator you meet in Cebu: how do you contract affiliates under the accreditation rules, and through whom?

Is SPiCE International worth it for a media buyer?

More than most Eventus events, if you work Southeast Asia. The organiser counts 1 in 5 attendees as affiliates, PAGCOR-licensed operators are on stage and on the awards list, and 2 traffic sellers are on the floor. It's a good fit if you send traffic to Philippine brands, run an agency that's weighing accreditation, or want introductions to Manila operators without flying to a bigger expo.

It's not the place for grey traffic. Everything on stage is about licensed, regulated business, and the regulator's own enforcement now reaches influencers and their sponsors. If you buy pops and push for offers without a PAGCOR licence, the conversations in Cebu won't help you, and the rules described above work against you.