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Poland’s illegal-domain blockade left offshore holding three-quarters of demand
Poland spent three weeks squeezing payments to illegal gambling domains, and the licensed side lost the most.
BLIK, Poland’s mobile payment system, began checking transfers against the Finance Ministry’s illegal-gambling register and blocking the matches at authorisation on Sept 1. Polish iGaming demand fell by roughly 40% in the first week of the block and stayed down until the weekend of Sept 19–20.
The loss was not shared evenly. Licensed brands gave up 62.1% of their weekly Blask Index between the last week of August and Sept 7–13, while the offshore brands the register targets gave up 34.8% over the same stretch. Offshore’s share of Polish search demand moved from 53.1% in the last week of August to 76.2% over Sept 14–20.
The rebound repeated the pattern rather than breaking it. Demand recovered 29.6% week-on-week over Sept 14–20 on the back of offshore casino brands — Vulkan Vegas and NV casino carried most of it, with SpinBetter and Yep Casino multiplying from small bases. The licensed bookmakers that an Ekstraklasa round would normally lift stayed where they were: STSbet gained 13.3% and Fortuna 0.6%, and both remain far below their late-August levels.
The CEB split shows how little that demand converts today: offshore brands took 27.4% of Poland’s August CEB (projected revenue) while already holding about half of the country’s search interest. Three weeks into a payment block aimed at illegal domains, the register’s targets hold a larger share of Polish demand than they did before it started. Whether cutting the payment rail eventually narrows their revenue rather than their traffic is the open question for the Finance Ministry.