Nek, that's a hell of a lot of questions for one post to answer; I am going to tackle them one by one as best I can and as simply as possible; if you want any more detail on any points, please ask.
For reference, my business is Kickboxing and has been my entire life, pretty much.
Firstly, I'm not sure the UFC could really be called a sanctioning body in the strictest sense of the word; in my eyes they are a promotion within a sport that doesn't have a proper sanctioning body, or at least not a national/global one.
"What are the major promotions and major sanctioning bodies?"
This varies from country to country. Globally, Glory is the only signifiant Kickboxing promotion; that is, one that has TV deals across the world and the finances to attract the very best fighters and who's titles are truly legitimate. It is still to reach the heights, in my opinion, of K-1's glory years but I think it may get there over the next few years.
There are many, many regulatory bodies for Kickboxing in Europe, let alone the World. At a guess, I would think there are over 20 in the UK alone. Most call themselves global bodies but are in fact just one man in an office somewhere in the UK or Italy (the major founders of kickboxing orgs). Each of these bodies will issue their own titles at regional, national, continental and global level. Some just award titles; others award coaching qualifications and grades too. Others will attempt to issue guidelines that its members should follow (think health nd safety or child protection etc). Often this will depend purely on the political and salesmanship skills of the man in charge.
The thing is though that every single one of these groups has no real authority; the reason for this is that if a member decides they do not wish to comply with anything at all, they can just up sticks and move to a new group or even just start their own.
Here in the UK, the government has never been able to bring martial arts under the government's sporting body "Sport England", that would bring all members into line with accepted practices and standards and prevent the constant splintering of bodies into small, everyone has titles, nonsense. Every time they have tried with the Olympic sports of Karate and TKD it has ended in disaster with fraud etc bringing about the downfall of the over-arching umbrella org. So non Olympic sports have simply no chance of ever being properly regulated.
Without one body regulating Kickboxing, the sport cannot grow beyond it's low level.
The biggest European sanctioning-only bodies are currently ISKA, who sanction Glory and have done a great job of legitimising themselves further with this connection (although they are now beholden to Glory and the relationship could end at any moment) and WAKO. Both groups have been around a long time and do not really get involved in anything beyond competitions and titles etc.
As for promotions, there are hundreds of small kickboxing shows happening every weekend across Europe, with the biggest being in Holland I would suspect.
Kickboxing is still hugely popular in Europe, way more so than MMA.
However, you need to be aware of the differences in Kickboxing styles as well, of which there are three, American Rules, Dutch/K-1 Rules and Thai Rules.
Both American kickboxing rules and Dutch Kickboxing rules are derived from Karate originally.
American Rules was a development of Full Contact Karate, which was absolutely huge back in the 70s/80s in the USA. Its no leg kick, no elbows, no clinch rule set was designed purely for TV audience. The stars of this era are still well regarded names; Chuck Norris, Benny The Jet, Jeff Smith etc. The fights were spectacular and really exciting.
American rules is still hugely popular in the UK and Ireland and Italy, with large participation across Europe to this day. You can recognise these guys by their separate Boots and Shin guards, their long trousers and flashy techniques.
Dutch Rules Kickboxing also derived from Karate, Kyukoshin style (which is an amazing, brutal sport). Dutch Rules is my personal favourite type of combat sport. It is often referred to these days as "K-1 style". K1 style emphasises devastating punches from a modified stance and brutal power kicks. There are minimal clinches and no elbows. K-1 style is not very popular in the UK but is definitely the pre-eminent style of Kickboxing on the mainland & eastern Europe and in Japan and Oceania. The Dutch are the global masters of this style and the names of the top Dutch fighters will always be considered legends of Kickboxing (Hoost, Hari, Aerts, Bonjasky etc etc etc).
The issue with Dutch Kickboxing is that it is interwoven very tightly with organised crime in Holland; as a result, it's quite a shady business over there. These connections always make growing and legitimising a sport very difficult.
Thai Rules Kickboxing is best left to the second part of your questions.
For reference, my business is Kickboxing and has been my entire life, pretty much.
Firstly, I'm not sure the UFC could really be called a sanctioning body in the strictest sense of the word; in my eyes they are a promotion within a sport that doesn't have a proper sanctioning body, or at least not a national/global one.
"What are the major promotions and major sanctioning bodies?"
This varies from country to country. Globally, Glory is the only signifiant Kickboxing promotion; that is, one that has TV deals across the world and the finances to attract the very best fighters and who's titles are truly legitimate. It is still to reach the heights, in my opinion, of K-1's glory years but I think it may get there over the next few years.
There are many, many regulatory bodies for Kickboxing in Europe, let alone the World. At a guess, I would think there are over 20 in the UK alone. Most call themselves global bodies but are in fact just one man in an office somewhere in the UK or Italy (the major founders of kickboxing orgs). Each of these bodies will issue their own titles at regional, national, continental and global level. Some just award titles; others award coaching qualifications and grades too. Others will attempt to issue guidelines that its members should follow (think health nd safety or child protection etc). Often this will depend purely on the political and salesmanship skills of the man in charge.
The thing is though that every single one of these groups has no real authority; the reason for this is that if a member decides they do not wish to comply with anything at all, they can just up sticks and move to a new group or even just start their own.
Here in the UK, the government has never been able to bring martial arts under the government's sporting body "Sport England", that would bring all members into line with accepted practices and standards and prevent the constant splintering of bodies into small, everyone has titles, nonsense. Every time they have tried with the Olympic sports of Karate and TKD it has ended in disaster with fraud etc bringing about the downfall of the over-arching umbrella org. So non Olympic sports have simply no chance of ever being properly regulated.
Without one body regulating Kickboxing, the sport cannot grow beyond it's low level.
The biggest European sanctioning-only bodies are currently ISKA, who sanction Glory and have done a great job of legitimising themselves further with this connection (although they are now beholden to Glory and the relationship could end at any moment) and WAKO. Both groups have been around a long time and do not really get involved in anything beyond competitions and titles etc.
As for promotions, there are hundreds of small kickboxing shows happening every weekend across Europe, with the biggest being in Holland I would suspect.
Kickboxing is still hugely popular in Europe, way more so than MMA.
However, you need to be aware of the differences in Kickboxing styles as well, of which there are three, American Rules, Dutch/K-1 Rules and Thai Rules.
Both American kickboxing rules and Dutch Kickboxing rules are derived from Karate originally.
American Rules was a development of Full Contact Karate, which was absolutely huge back in the 70s/80s in the USA. Its no leg kick, no elbows, no clinch rule set was designed purely for TV audience. The stars of this era are still well regarded names; Chuck Norris, Benny The Jet, Jeff Smith etc. The fights were spectacular and really exciting.
American rules is still hugely popular in the UK and Ireland and Italy, with large participation across Europe to this day. You can recognise these guys by their separate Boots and Shin guards, their long trousers and flashy techniques.
Dutch Rules Kickboxing also derived from Karate, Kyukoshin style (which is an amazing, brutal sport). Dutch Rules is my personal favourite type of combat sport. It is often referred to these days as "K-1 style". K1 style emphasises devastating punches from a modified stance and brutal power kicks. There are minimal clinches and no elbows. K-1 style is not very popular in the UK but is definitely the pre-eminent style of Kickboxing on the mainland & eastern Europe and in Japan and Oceania. The Dutch are the global masters of this style and the names of the top Dutch fighters will always be considered legends of Kickboxing (Hoost, Hari, Aerts, Bonjasky etc etc etc).
The issue with Dutch Kickboxing is that it is interwoven very tightly with organised crime in Holland; as a result, it's quite a shady business over there. These connections always make growing and legitimising a sport very difficult.
Thai Rules Kickboxing is best left to the second part of your questions.