Excellence recognized
Small but mighty iGaming studio Peter & Sons has scooped two major European games design awards at a glittering gala event that saw a mix of Davids and Goliaths take home big wins.
called Peter & Sons up to the podium twice
Celebrity soccer TV presenter/podcaster Alison Bender called Peter & Sons up to the podium twice at the SBC Awards Europe event in Malta last week.
Peter & Sons took to LinkedIn on Friday to state the twin wins represented “two very special victories” for the Armenia-based firm:
The pick of the pair for Peter & Sons was the Game Studio of the Year award, which it won for the small category, with Gibraltar iGaming giant Pragmatic Play winning the large category, and Hacksaw Gaming the medium.
For players, the highlight of the 36 awards handed out by Bender came in the Game Developer section, which narrowed down on slots creation excellence.
Pushing the envelope
Peter & Sons’ second win on Thursday night was for Best Game Soundtrack, which the firm stated was for its “Spotify project.”
The slot that won the accolade was Barbarossa: Dragon Empire, the latest release in the studio’s Barbarossa series, which already includes Barbarossa Revenge and Barbarossa Double Max. The series also has its own 2026 playlist on Spotify.
Peter & Sons’ LinkedIn post paid tribute to the studio team, stating the twin awards were “for every sound, every animation, every line of math, every deal closed, every stand built, every message sent.”
not only kept pace with change, but adapted quickly”
SBC CEO Rasmus Sojmark remarked that iGaming firms continued to raise the bar every year. For 2026, Sojmark said, the winners were “the people, teams, and products that have not only kept pace with change, but adapted quickly and continued to push that bar even higher.”
One of those bar-pushers was TaDa Gaming, which won the highly prized Game Feature/Mechanic of the Year award for its trailblazing Win Card gamification tool.
The Taiwan-based firm said Win Card was known in the iGaming trade as TaDa’s “secret weapon” and enables players to either store or instantly activate their bonuses for increased engagement via “progression and earned advancement.” The winning mechanic works across all the firms’ slots, from those developed with celebrity streamers such as Fortune Yuri 500, to last week’s new release, the high-volatility, 5,000x win potential slot Mr Null’s Wicked Wardrobe.
Best games
The cream of game design also rose to the top at SBC Awards Europe, with Swedish iGaming studio Play’n GO taking top spot for Game of the Year for its Reactoonz 100 slot. This is part of Play’n GO’s bestselling toonz series, championed by the evergreen Gargantoonz, its 2026 SBC Game of the Year.
max win potential of up to 75,000x
Second place in Game of the Year went to Evoplay Entertainment and its Uncrossable Rush title, a slot powered by SlotCatalogue’s CrossyRun mechanic featuring adjustable volatility and an eye-watering max win potential of up to 75,000x.
Meanwhile, less than a month after the UK Gambling Commission quietly lifted its national ban on Warsaw, Poland-headquartered Spribe, the gaming studio’s Aviator won first place for Best Crash Game.
In the Game Design & Art Direction category at the awards, Creedroomz took first place with The Road to Eldorado, while Massive Gaming’s Slot Mart: Three Little Pigs was second.
BGaming claimed first place in the Casino Supplier of the Year category with Evolution runner-up, while EveryMatrix won the Platform Provider of the Year award.
