Merchant Risk Council Vegas

Why Merchant Risk Council Vegas matters for B2B marketing leaders

A 60K booth at the Bellagio. Three AEs flown in. The Director Demand Gen at a Series B chargeback management vendor described the bet: “MRC Vegas is where US fraud and risk leaders set their H2 vendor list. If we are not in front of those buyers in March, we are calling them in October when budget is gone.” The 381-row publicly-sourceable list for the Vegas edition is the largest US merchant-side fraud and risk buying conference. Almost every attendee is a senior fraud, risk, or payments leader at a US online merchant or PSP, and the spring timing pulls them into active vendor evaluation for the H2 implementation window.

If your ICP is a Head of Fraud, a VP Risk, a Director Payments, or a Senior Fraud Strategist at a US online merchant (Walmart eCommerce, Target eCommerce, Best Buy, Wayfair, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Costco eCommerce, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Gap, Nike, Lululemon, ASOS US, plus the major D2C cluster), this is the densest US merchant-side fraud buying window on the calendar.

Vendelux and Bizzabo will list it as a 381-row Vegas fraud conference. They will not tell you that the chargeback management track is the highest-traffic session, that the Tuesday afternoon merchant-only roundtables are where the budget conversations actually happen, or that the Wednesday evening receptions at the Bellagio’s lounges are where Tier-1 US merchants make vendor decisions.

Who attends Merchant Risk Council Vegas

The 381-row publicly-sourceable list breaks into clusters:

• US Tier-1 retail Heads of Fraud and Risk (Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Costco, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Gap, JCPenney, Kohl’s): roughly 14-18% of the room. The highest-use cluster for fraud, chargeback management, and tokenization vendors.
• US D2C and digital-native senior fraud (Warby Parker, Allbirds, Glossier, Gymshark US, Shein US, Temu US): 8-12%.
• US travel and booking-platform fraud leaders (Expedia US, Booking US, Hopper, Tripadvisor): 6-10%.
• US food-delivery and mobility senior risk (DoorDash, Instacart, Uber Eats US, Grubhub, Lyft, Uber): 6-10%.
• US PSP and processor product leaders (Stripe, Adyen US, Worldpay US, Fiserv, FIS, Global Payments, JPMorgan Payments): 8-12%. Partnership conversations more than direct buyer conversations.
• US marketplace senior risk (eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Mercari US, StockX): 5-8%.
• Vendor and consulting attendance: high. Filter aggressively at sourcing.

For a Series A or Series B fraud, chargeback, or payments orchestration vendor with a US motion, the working list at MRC Vegas is closer to 100-160 named contacts across 60-100 named accounts. The 38 enriched contacts in the 2025 sample reflect a tightly filtered ICP overlay; broader US-merchant TAL filtering pushes the working list higher.

The five-stage pipeline applied to Merchant Risk Council Vegas

MRC Vegas rewards calendar discipline and US-regulator-anchored sequencing. The spring timing means buyers are in active H2 evaluation.

Source. Pull the published roster six weeks out. Cross-reference against your US merchant TAL: the top 40 US retailers by online card volume, the major D2C and digital-native brands, the travel and booking platforms, the food-delivery and mobility cluster, plus the major PSPs. The 381-row publicly-sourceable list ICP-matched against a typical US merchant TAL produces 100-160 working contacts.

Enrich. Score on three axes: seniority (Head-of and above for retailers; VP and above for platforms), regulator exposure (Reg E activity, FedNow rollout, recent CFPB actions on chargeback handling), and active-vendor signal (recent fraud RFPs, public statements about chargeback management, recent fraud or risk leadership hires). Apollo coverage on US merchant fraud contacts runs around 88-93%.

Sequence. Two cadences. Tier-1 retail Heads of Fraud and Risk: a 4-touch sequence anchored to a US-specific regulator anchor (Reg E, FedNow rollout impact on dispute timelines, CFPB activity on chargeback handling) and a peer-retailer reference. D2C and digital-native senior fraud: a 5-touch sequence with promo-code-fraud, account-takeover, and DTC-specific framing. Both cadences should reference one regulator anchor and one peer reference.

Capture. The Bellagio MRC Vegas exhibit hall has around 50-70 sponsor booths plus a sponsor lounge plus reserved meeting rooms. Use a mobile capture flow that maps every scan and voice note to your Salesforce or HubSpot Campaign Member the same business day. MRC Vegas produces 110-220 booth scans across two days for a typical 10x10 sponsor footprint, plus 15-30 pre-booked private meetings.

Attribute. Tag every Campaign Member with the MRC Vegas campaign and a merchant-type custom field (US Retail, D2C, Travel, Food/Mobility, Marketplace). Run a Salesforce report 48 hours after floor close that segments sourced pipeline by merchant type. US merchant fraud deals close on 6-12 month cycles; plan the attribution review at 60, 180, and 365 days.

Booth and meeting strategy for Merchant Risk Council Vegas

For B2B SaaS vendors selling fraud, chargeback management, payments orchestration, or merchant onboarding into US merchants:

• Booth size: 10x10 is the standard. 20x20 placements exist near the main session entry and produce more booth traffic.
• Location: Pay for placement near the chargeback management track room or the merchant-only roundtable area. The lounge sponsorships near the morning coffee zone are where senior Heads of Fraud spend their breaks.
• Staffing: 2 AEs per shift, 1 senior fraud or solutions engineer, 1 senior leader (CRO, VP Sales, or Founder) at the booth during peak hours. US Tier-1 retail Heads of Fraud expect to talk to people with budget authority before they engage seriously.
• Side meetings: The Bellagio’s lounges and the Strip steakhouses are the unofficial sponsor dinner spots. Book an 8-10 person dinner Tuesday or Wednesday night with your top US retail and D2C targets. CUT, Lago, or one of the on-property restaurants.

Recommended exhibitor tier: a 10x10 booth plus a track sponsorship plus a sponsor dinner typically runs 50-90K all-in for the three-day program, before staffing and travel.

How Luminik runs the MRC Vegas motion

MRC Vegas is a US merchant fraud buying show. The five-stage pipeline (source, enrich, sequence, capture, attribute) runs identically to the fraud and payments motion documented in our Money20/20 case study, with the US merchant calibration above.

We run the same five-stage motion as documented in our case studies. See the Fintech industry playbook for the underlying motion and the for-marketing-leaders page for the budget-defense framing.

Run on the Salesforce, Apollo, and HubSpot accounts you already pay for.

FAQ

How many attendees does Merchant Risk Council Vegas actually have?

Our publicly-sourceable list for the 2025 program at the Bellagio is 381 rows. ICP density for B2B SaaS vendors selling fraud, chargeback, or payments orchestration tooling into US merchants runs around 16% of the room (Payments industry default), with the US merchant concentration on this list skewing higher.

When should I start sourcing for MRC Vegas?

Six weeks out. The published attendee directory typically goes live around then. By T-minus three weeks, US Tier-1 retail Heads of Fraud calendars are full.

What is the typical exhibitor cost?

A 10x10 booth with track sponsorship runs around 30-50K base. All-in costs including a sponsor dinner, staffing, and travel run 50-90K for the three-day program.

How does MRC Vegas compare to MRC London?

MRC Vegas is the larger US flagship: 381 rows on the publicly-sourceable list, US merchant-heavy, Reg E and FedNow regulator anchors. MRC London is European: SCA-and-PSD2 and DORA anchored, UK and EU retailer-heavy. For a vendor with a US motion, MRC Vegas produces denser US merchant buyer conversations per dollar than the European edition.

Should I run separate sequences for Tier-1 retail vs D2C?

Yes. US Tier-1 retail Heads of Fraud respond to chargeback-economics and Reg E framing. D2C and digital-native senior fraud respond to promo-code-fraud, account-takeover, and DTC-specific framing. Two sequence templates minimum.

Is the merchant-only roundtable worth attending?

Yes for the buyers; vendors are usually excluded from the merchant-only sessions. The signal vendors get is which topics merchants spend time on (chargeback economics, account-takeover, FedNow timelines). Use that signal to calibrate your booth-side conversations and your post-event sequences.

How do I write MRC Vegas attribution back to Salesforce?

Tag every Campaign Member with the MRC Vegas campaign and a merchant-type custom field. Run reports at 48 hours, 60, 180, and 365 days. US merchant fraud deals close on 6-12 month cycles; the attribution model needs to track first-touch through close.