Dragan Skrbić Elected President of the Balkan Gaming Federation

Dragan Skrbić, President of the Serbian gaming association AGOS, was elected on September 30, 2026 in Bucharest as the first President of the Balkan Gaming Federation (BGF). His deputies will be Filip Jelavić, secretary general of the Croatian HUPIS, and Sorin Georgescu, president of the Romanian ROMSLOT and vice president of FEDBET.

The establishment of the BGF began in March 2026 in Belgrade, when national associations from Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia signed a Memorandum of Cooperation.

The initiative was launched jointly with the participation of AGOS from Serbia and SOHIDB from Bulgaria, and in the following months the seven associations worked on the governance model and common positions of the future organization. Croatia was designated as the legal seat of the BGF, and a working group led by Filip Jelavic prepared the Statute and the institutional framework.

The election of the leadership was part of a two-day program in Bucharest, which also put a strong emphasis on the relationship between BGF and EUROMAT. On September 29, representatives of the national associations of the Federation held a working dinner with the EUROMAT Board. The following day, Jason Frost, President of EUROMAT, attended the election of the BGF leadership, and the subsequent discussions were dedicated to the possibilities for a closer partnership between the two organisations.

The connection with EUROMAT has been part of the BGF’s concept since its inception. The aim is for the national associations from the Balkans to have their own regional structure and a unified voice, linked to representation at the European level, while the Federation retains its status, governance and identity.

The talks in Bucharest developed this concept towards a closer link between the two organisations, with the BGF establishing itself as a regional Balkan cluster within the EUROMAT framework. Thus, the BGF can concentrate the problems, expertise and positions of the Balkan markets and link them more directly to the European dialogue, while EUROMAT gains a more structured link to a region that unites both European Union countries and Western Balkan markets.

There is a solid institutional basis for this. Four of the seven associations in the BGF, AOGGAB, AGOS, ROMSLOT and HUPIS, are also members of EUROMAT, and the region has a direct presence in the European organisation through Károly Buzász from ROMSLOT and Filip Jelavích from HUPIS.