iGaming market weekly report | Feb 9–15, 2026

Week’s headline

Cricket tournament gravity set the tone. The live ICC Men’s T20 World Cup created a clean upside axis, with Sri Lanka (+73%) and India (+42.5%) leading the board as match-driven national attention concentrated during the week’s fixtures.

Turkey (–21.3%) appeared again as an enforcement-led market: ongoing pressure on offshore gambling continues to compress demand, keeping the country in the digest for a sixth straight week on the way down rather than on a calendar bounce.

Europe, meanwhile, showed a separate event cycle. A group of markets moved higher on Milano–Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics coverage, with Czech Republic (+18.9%) and Poland (+16.1%) among the clearest winners.

Top gainers

1. Sri Lanka +73% — The national cricket team’s ICC T20 World Cup campaign drove the spike, with Sri Lanka beating Oman on February 12. The win concentrated national sports attention and lifted iGaming search activity sharply off a low base.
2. India +42.5% — The Feb 15 T20 India–Pakistan match was the week’s clearest single-event catalyst. India’s win amplified coverage well beyond the subcontinent, and the rivalry’s outsized media footprint kept search activity elevated through the weekend.
3. Singapore +30.4% — A technical bounce after last week’s decline, with search activity mean-reverting toward baseline. No specific event or policy trigger surfaced during the period — the move reads as natural recovery from a prior dip rather than new demand.
4. Czech Republic +18.9% — The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan–Cortina drove a concentrated spike in national sports attention. The country won four medals during the period, while the men’s ice hockey team played three group-stage matches between Feb 12–15.
5. Poland +16.1% — The Winter Olympics lifted national sports attention, with Polish athletes competing across multiple disciplines throughout the week. Ski jumper Kacper Tomasiak’s bronze on the normal hill (Feb 14) and speed skater Vladimir Semirunniy’s silver in the 10,000 m (Feb 13) kept Poland visible in Olympic coverage

Top decliners

1. Ireland –24.1% — Despite Six Nations Round 2 on Feb 14, the broader market still faded, which points to mean-reversion outside the rugby spike (i.e., one tentpole wasn’t enough to hold the whole baseline).
2. Turkey –21.3% — Active suppression, sixth consecutive report where Turkey appears in the digest. The government’s campaign against offshore gambling escalated further: MASAK (Financial crimes investigation board) gained expanded powers over financial operations, while state banks removed direct iGaming deposit sections from digital banking channels.
3. Austria –17.6% — Despite strong Austrian medal performances at the Winter Olympics (12 medals including 4 golds by Feb 15), Blask Index still declined. The drop likely reflects mean-reversion from the prior week’s elevated baseline rather than any suppression signal.
4. Ethiopia –16.5% — No clear country-specific trigger surfaced during Feb 9–15. 
5. El Salvador –16.0% — No clear country-specific trigger surfaced during Feb 9–15. 

Market spotlight: Sri Lanka | +73%

Sri Lanka printed the week’s biggest move at +73% WoW. This is best framed as an event-led spike, not a structural shift, because the uplift sits inside an active ICC Men’s T20 World Cup week and materially outpaced most markets.

Sri Lanka’s national team is actively participating in the tournament, and cricket is a mass-market sport domestically, so World Cup matchdays tend to pull disproportionate national attention. During Feb 9–15, Sri Lanka also had in-week World Cup action — the ICC match report on their Feb 12 game vs Oman covered the result and reinforces that the market was inside live tournament cadence.

Regional snapshot

Europe

Europe moved as a single Olympics-led cluster: Czech Republic (+18.9%), Poland (+16.1%), and Slovakia (+13%) all lifted on the same winter-sports headline cycle tied to Milano Cortina 2026. The Games schedule confirmed the in-window Olympics timing (Feb 6–22, 2026), supporting a shared “event gravity” driver rather than three separate local catalysts.

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific was cricket-led. Sri Lanka (+73.0%) and India (+42.5%) rose in line with the live ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cycle during Feb 9–15: Sri Lanka had in-week tournament action, and India peaked into the India–Pakistan match on Feb 15. 

Next week watchlist

India 

T20 World Cup continues, India vs Netherlands on Feb 18. Expect another cricket-led uplift as the tournament remains live and India stays in the spotlight heading into a scheduled matchday. 

Sri Lanka 

T20 World Cup schedules: Sri Lanka vs Australia on Feb 16 and Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe on Feb 19. Two in-week matchdays keep Sri Lanka inside the tournament headline cycle, which typically sustains above-baseline attention during active weeks. 

Turkey 

Enforcement actions against offshore/illegal gambling remain active. With the crackdown narrative still producing fresh touchpoints, Turkey is set up to appear in the digest for a 7th straight week as a suppression-layer market rather than a calendar-driven one.

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.