Google autocomplete steers German bettors offshore as unlicensed brands take 66% of search 

Google autocompletes betting queries with keywords related to illegal operators.

Typing “wetten” (bets) makes Google suggest betting without LUGAS and without OASIS. “wetten o” (bets o) was enough to show “wetten ohne lugas limit” (bets without a LUGAS limit) and “wetten ohne oasis mit paypal” (bets without OASIS, with PayPal). 

LUGAS is the deposit-limit system on licensed German sites.

OASIS is the national self-exclusion registry. 

Those searches lead to operators without a German licence. Paid ads for unlicensed gambling left German search pages after Google’s 25 September 2024 rule. Organic results and autocomplete remain the open path. 

Andreas Ditsche of iGaming.com Group told RND that only about 23% of the 40 most-used gambling queries were clearly aimed at legal offers.

Blask’s licence split on brand search sits on that same path:

Licensed brands held most of the search mix through winter 2025–26. The lines crossed in July. By August 2026 offshore brands took 66.3% of Blask Index — a wider unlicensed share than in August 2025.

CEB did not flip with search:

Licensed operators held 52.8% of CEB in August 2026. The unlicensed book is back near half after a winter squeeze that had taken onshore CEB to 66.8% in April. 

Autocomplete is pointing at a market that already spends most of its brand search on unlicensed names.

Featured materials

• Germany’s gambling rules come under pressure as offshore demand outpaces local market growth
• Germany iGaming brand rankings 2026: Tipico leads as GlüStV limits keep offshore casinos in the top three
• Poland’s illegal-domain blockade left offshore holding three-quarters of demand