Thursday, 28th May 2026 – Main Event
Welcome to Smart Bash 2026 – Conference Day
Our main event features a full day of expert-led seminars, panel discussions and focused industry conversations. Designed for serious bettors and professionals, the 2026 programme explores the realities of modern betting, from market dynamics and data-led strategy to regulation, psychology and exchange ecosystems.
Thursday 28th May
Conference Day
thursday's Speakers
World Cup Trading Room
Presenter: Aidan Barry
Nick Goff
Nick is a professional bettor specialising in football but with a strong interest in many other sports. His approach combines data, statistical modelling and market analysis to price events and identify inefficiencies in global betting markets, turning both qualitative and quantitative insights into practical betting strategies and market edges.
Mark O'Haire
Mark has racked up over 15 years of experience in the gambling industry, beginning with a marketing role with a leading European oddsmaker that worked closely with the trading teams before pivoting towards a freelance career as a betting analyst, tipster and semi-professional football punter across the last decade. During that time, Mark has been an ever-present member of the award-winning Matchbook Football Podcast, sharing insights, theory and data-led selections covering everything from the World Cup to the Scandinavian second-tiers.We will be publishing detailed background information and industry credentials for this speaker shortly.
Mark Langdon
Mark Langdon is Group Sports Director at Spotlight Sports Group, with more than 25 years’ experience in sports journalism and betting content. He began his career at the Racing Post in 1998 and has held a wide range of roles across the sports desk, including Football Editor, where he established himself as a leading voice in football betting. Mark has played a key role in shaping sports betting strategy across both B2C and B2B audiences, with a focus on producing high-quality, engaging content that delivers value to punters. In his current role, he oversees sports content operations across the group, combining editorial leadership with commercial strategy.
Alongside his industry work, Mark is a respected football pundit, appearing regularly as a contributor to the Guardian Football Weekly podcast and on talkSPORT.
From Rails to Retail: The State of Play
Presenter: Simon Nott
Stephen Darbyshire
Stephen goes to the races around 150 days of the year punting, up and down the length of the country. He has become known to viewers of Races Now with his idiosyncratic style for his daily selections, YouTube videos and betting ring reports with “friends of the channel”.
Kevin Myles
On course bookmaker Kevin Myles has recently launched a service where off course punters can bet into his book from home. Kevin has always been in the bookmaking game but things really took off for him when he jacked in the day job to become a professional in-running punter before investing in on-course pitches where he now operates.
Ben Keith
Ben is the owner and founder of Star Sports bookmakers who have grown from an operation taking bets from a kitchen table above a bookies to a major on and off course concern taking arguable some of the biggest bets in the industry and recently launched Star Sports in Australia.
James Lovell
James Lovell and his brother David are now best known as founders of on and off course bookmakers DragonBet but their roots go much deeper. They were born of the betting ring, their innovative bookmaking father, the late John Lovell was the first to introduce computers into the betting ring, then with his sons launched an in-running suite before his tragic death in a road traffic accident. James and his brother have continued in his footsteps in bookmaking and betting.
Betting Stories w. Ginger Newman (book for Injured Jockey Fund)
Moderator: Simon Nott
Simon Nott is a seasoned freelance journalist and media creator specializing in horse racing and betting. Renowned for his #BettingPeople interview series with Star Sports, he also contributes betting ring reports and columns to various publications, including Racing Ahead magazine.
Ginger Newman
Alan ‘Ginger’ Newman. Alan is an ex on-course bookmaker who has spent his life involved in bookmaking and gambling, he has already authored a book ‘It’s Not What You Know’ and is here to discuss his new literary offering which has forewords written by two of the biggest names in racing, Alan is one of the best connected men in the game and surely has as many books in him again.
SBC Podcast: Sharp Talk - Pete Ling & Friends
Moderator: Pete Ling
Owner and founder of the Smart Betting Club, a reviewer and assessor of tipster services and guide on how to make betting as profitable as possible.
Jeevan Jeyaratnam
Jeevan has 21 years of experience in sports betting, joining the odds-compilation-focused Super Soccer in 2005, after starting out with William Hill. After learning the ropes at Super Soccer he took over the management of the Super Soccer Oddsfeed business. In 2017, Jeevan helped orchestrate the sale of Super Soccer Oddsfeed to its JV partner Abelson Sports; he continues to be an integral part of the business’s continued success.
Phil Smith
Ex-pro Betfair trader & outright accumulator tipster -Phil Smith is a premium online football betting tipster focusing on antepost markets and accumulators.
Varun Sudhakar
Varun is an experienced operator within the betting industry, with various roles across several continents at the likes of Fanduel where he was CTO. As co-founder and CEO at Betdex, Varun is at the cutting edge of a new era, with technology and cultural trends helping to pool betting liquidity across the world.
Prediction Markets vs Exchange: Same Thing?
Moderator: Jesse May
Chief Strategy Officer, Matchbook – Jesse May is a renowned American poker commentator, author, and former professional player, widely celebrated as the voice of the iconic British television series Late Night Poker. He has lead strategy at Matchbook for over 10 years.
Zack Panos
Max Silver
Eduardo Araujo
Olof Steinus
Future Odds: The Evolution of Betting
Harry Stewart-Moore
Harry is a partner at the law firm Child & Child, with a speciality in cases related to the betting industry. Harry regularly acts for some of the leading names in the gambling world in both High Court proceedings and before various sports regulatory panels.
Chris Fawcett
Michael Cannon
Geoff Banks
Geoff Banks is the owner of Geoff Banks Online trading as geoffbanks.bet. Son of the flamboyant Scots racetrack bookmaker John Banks, grew up steeped in the industry from shops to track to online
A straight talking, operator with a reputation for laying a bet. vocal critic of regulatory overreach and public health activism, he’s become the voice of the independent in a market increasingly dominated by big corporations.
Damien Fearn
Entrepreneur in the iGaming industry. Currently pushing boundaries with the innovative Tipstrr.com platform, showing that sports betting can be a viable form of investment.
Outside of the Tipstrr start-up, I’m an experienced performance analyst with a demonstrated history of working in both the professional sports and iGaming industries. I’m a consultant to various sports betting syndicates across the world and have worked as a sports analyst consultant with some of the top universities in the country.
