iGaming market weekly report | Dec 29, 2025 – Jan 4, 2026

Weekly shifts in player attention across global iGaming markets, tracked through week-over-week (WoW) changes in Blask Index.

Week’s headline

Al-Ahli’s upset of Al-Nassr drove Saudi Arabia +39%, while Singapore’s $6.2M TOTO jackpot kept APAC lottery-led. In Africa, AFCON knockout rounds sustained regional momentum.

Note: WoW changes reflect Blask Index data; catalysts cited only when publicly documented during Dec 29, 2025 – Jan 4, 2026.

Top gainers

1. Saudi Arabia +39.2% — A five-goal Saudi Pro League thriller saw Al-Ahli hand Al-Nassr their first league defeat of the season.
2. Singapore +28.1% — Three winners split a $6.2M TOTO New Year jackpot.
3. Benin +25.7% — The national team’s AFCON campaign fueled betting activity, with the Cheetahs securing a knockout stage berth after beating Botswana and facing Senegal in the group finale.
4. Laos +15.6%
5. Thailand +15.5% — New Year Muay Thai fight cards at iconic Bangkok venues kept betting volumes elevated during the holiday period.

Top decliners

1. Nepal -38.6% — Activity fell as the central bank’s Strategic Analysis Report flagged hundreds of suspicious virtual asset transactions over five years, explicitly linking crypto to online gambling.
2. Czech Republic -27.7% — Post-holiday normalization after +19.8% Christmas week surge.
3. Moldova -21.8% — The State Tax Service announced intensified operational controls in January, including attention to illicit online commerce and services.
4. Switzerland -20.1%.
5. Ecuador -19.4% — President Noboa declared a fresh 60-day state of emergency on January 1 across nine provinces, citing escalating gang violence.

Market spotlight: Saudi Arabia | +39.2%

Saudi Arabia surged +39% WoW as the Saudi Pro League delivered a marquee clash: Ivan Toney’s brace helped Al-Ahli hand Al-Nassr their first league defeat of the season. Cristiano Ronaldo’s milestone narrative — publicly targeting 1000 career goals — continued to amplify mainstream attention on the league.

Star-driven fixtures reliably become media hooks. When a match crosses into general-interest conversation, operators see improved marketing efficiency — conversion rates rise because user intent is already warmed by mainstream coverage. Product mix also shifts toward player-centric props (first goalscorer, anytime scorer), where liquidity and pricing governance become critical.

Regional snapshot

Europe

Europe showed a classic winter-break split — markets with limited domestic fixtures (e.g., Czech Republic) underperformed, attention likely shifted toward international football and non-sports verticals. The forward signal is the restart timetable: expect demand to re-accumulate as domestic leagues return.

Africa

AFCON remained the dominant driver of consumer intent. The key dynamic is tournament survival — once a national team exits, search attention typically decays quickly unless local lotteries or domestic leagues provide a backstop.

Next week’s watchlist (Jan 5-11)

1. AFCON quarterfinals (Jan 9–10) — The tournament enters its knockout peak with marquee matchups including Senegal vs Mali and hosts Morocco facing Cameroon. Expect elevated search activity across participating nations.
2. Colombia — Geopolitical tensions with the US remain elevated. Monitor for sudden sentiment shifts that could affect consumer confidence and discretionary spending, including gambling.

Methodology note

Blask Index tracks real-time iGaming player interest via AI-analyzed Google search data, updated hourly and filtered to remove low-intent noise (scams, complaints). WoW% measures momentum: positive indicates growing attention; negative indicates declining attention.