One of the gaming industry’s premier conferences returns to New York next week looking to build off of sold out events from the past several years.
NEXT Summit New York brings together more than 1,000 gaming industry leaders, investors and media personalities to Manhattan each spring. Organizer Next.Io considers this annual event as an opportunity to shape the industry’s future.
More information on NEXT Summit 2025
Beginning with a pre-registration and networking event March 11, the conference concludes March 13. The event, which centers at Convene Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan, will feature speakers and panels from the gaming industry’s biggest names.
That includes American Gaming Association President Bill Miller; Underdog CEO Jeremy Levine; Betr Founder Joey Levy; Acies Investments Co-Founder Chris Grove; Sharp Alpha Advisors Partner Lloyd Danzig; Princeton Public Affairs Group Partner Bill Pascrell III; and Bally’s Corp. Chair Soo Kim.
The conference also features some of the most prominent personalities in sports and media.
A year after featuring ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, NEXT will welcome Smith’s colleague Mike Greenberg, host of the channel’s Get Up and Sunday NFL Countdown. CNBC’s Contessa Brewer and sports betting personality Ariel Epstein, the “Prop Queen,” are also set to speak at the event.
These big names complement the hundreds of attendees from many of the gaming industry’s most notable gaming platforms, tech providers, affiliates and start-up companies.
That includes Aristocrat; BetMGM; Caesars; DraftKings, FanDuel; Penn Entertainment; Prize Picks; and dozens more.
NEXT has also featured some of the top insights and the rapidly growing gaming start-up industry. This is capped by The Starties, an industry award show that recognizes the next wave of companies directing gaming’s future.
These panelists and attendees complement a busy multi-day conference that also features multiple networking sessions, post-panel happy hour events and an optional morning running meet-up. Attendees can also attend special sessions ahead of the main conference event on March 11 focusing on either gaming startups or social casinos.
Major topics
These events are focused on addressing many of the concerns and growth opportunities for gaming in the U.S. and across the world.
Panels will include discussions on online casino gaming legalization; federal policy changes; AI opportunities for businesses; traditional media’s relationship with legalized sports betting; and investment and M&A trends.
The conference also features parallel tracks on both March 12 and March 13.
The Wednesday discussions will include panels focused on investments, responsible gambling and personal development, respectively. Thursday’s tracks include a series of panels focused on tribal gaming and a separate option for marketing-focused discussions.
In-person opportunities
NEXT stresses its marquee U.S. event as an opportunity for inter-personal relationship building.
The massive – and growing - U.S. gambling industry generates billions of dollars in revenue annually, sparking a host of conferences across the country looking to bring these corporate, regulatory and media leaders together. Many of the bigger conferences are at larger convention centers and include dozens of booths spread across hundreds of thousands of square feet.
Instead, NEXT has looked to stand out from the large-scale conventions with a more narrowly focused event designed to help these leaders across a wide range of verticals collaborate.
Europe-based Next.Io, formally i Gaming Next, also hosts an annual conference in Valletta, Malta that is among the best-known gaming industry conferences in the world.
