GREF 2026 Conference Heads to Sofia for Regulator Talks
European gambling regulators will gather in Sofia from 1-3 June for the GREF annual conference, focusing on cross-border cooperation, emerging trends and shared supervisory challenges.
The Gambling Regulators European Forum will hold its 2026 annual conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 1-3 June, bringing together gambling regulators from across Europe for three days of policy discussion and knowledge exchange.
The event is hosted with support from Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency, which oversees the country’s gambling sector. GREF said the conference will give regulators a forum to share supervisory experience and discuss key developments shaping Europe’s gambling markets.
Sessions will cover regulatory challenges, emerging trends and opportunities for cross-border cooperation. While gambling regulation in Europe remains largely country-specific, issues such as illegal online gambling, data sharing, advertising standards and consumer protection increasingly demand coordination between national authorities.
GREF positions the annual conference as a platform for building a more joined-up regulatory approach across European jurisdictions. The organisation functions as a cooperation forum rather than a rule-making body, meaning Sofia will not produce binding decisions, but the discussions can influence enforcement priorities, supervisory standards and future policy alignment between member authorities.
TGJ Take
GREF conferences are a useful signal of where European regulators are aligning. Sofia will not produce new rules, but the agenda topics matter. When regulators share enforcement practices at this level, cross-border compliance gaps become harder to defend and easier to act on collectively. For multi-market operators and suppliers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: local licences remain the baseline, but regulatory expectations are converging faster than formal harmonisation would suggest.
