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Week’s headline

This week’s iGaming momentum split cleanly between structural policy re-pricing and headline-driven sports cycles. Colombia led the upside as the VAT base shift reset first-time economics and pulled users into operator comparisons, while Venezuela showed how quickly political-risk news can spill into betting-adjacent curiosity when prediction markets become a mainstream controversy.

In parallel, Switzerland, India, and Vietnam reinforced the calendar effect: Wengen’s Lauberhorn weekend, a live ODI decider in India, and ASEAN Cup 2026 scheduling updates all translated mainstream attention into short-burst odds browsing and fast operator shopping. These were classic “event gravity” markets — high-intensity, time-boxed discovery rather than durable demand expansion.

On the downside, Slovenia was the mirror image: an event hangover collapse once early-January winter sports momentum cleared, with no replacement hook inside the week. Uganda added a suppression layer — election-week disruption compressed casual discovery. Montenegro and El Salvador simply drifted lower in the absence of any new trigger.

Top gainers

1. Colombia +40.1% — The VAT base shift implemented on Jan 2 (from taxing player deposits to taxing GGR) effectively removed the upfront “deposit haircut” that had been suppressing acquisition intent. 
2. Venezuela +14.5% — Political-risk attention spiked after the Maduro capture story turned into a prediction-markets scandal. A Polymarket trader reportedly cleared ~$400,000 by betting Maduro would be out of office, and the timing triggered loud insider-trading scrutiny across mainstream media.
3. Switzerland +14.2% — Lauberhorn World Cup weekend at Wengen (Jan 16–18) concentrated mainstream Swiss sports attention. Marco Odermatt landed a record fourth straight Wengen downhill win on Jan 17, keeping the event in national headlines through Sunday’s slalom finale. 
4. India +9.2% — India–New Zealand ODI series kept cricket attention pinned through the week. Rajkot’s 2nd ODI (Jan 14) set up a live decider, then Indore’s finale (Jan 18) delivered a series-clinching result and headline performances. 
5. Vietnam +7.7% — ASEAN Cup 2026 scheduling newsflow restarted national-team attention midweek. The official draw in Jakarta (Jan 15) confirmed Vietnam’s Group A slate, and the finalized group-stage match schedule (Jan 16) put exact dates on Vietnam’s title-defense path.

Top decliners

1. Slovenia –61.8% — Week 2’s ski-led attention fully mean-reverted once Kranjska Gora (Jan 3–4) cleared the cycle. With no comparable cause inside Jan 12–18, brand-search volume reverted to baseline and discovery flows thinned fast, as Slovenia’s next major winter hooks (Rogla snowboard Jan 31; Ljubno ski jumping Feb 10–11) sit outside the week.
2. Uganda –34.4% — Election-week disruption hit the acquisition funnel. Internet shutdowns and service restrictions (starting Jan 13) compressed casual browsing windows, while vote-day tension shifted attention from “entertainment intent” to verification/news intent. 
3. Nepal –33.9% — No clear in-week trigger emerged during Jan 12–18, so the drop looks like post-shock inertia. The best fit remains the early-January risk narrative: the central bank/FIU Strategic Analysis Report flagged hundreds of suspicious virtual-asset transactions over five years, explicitly linking crypto activity to online gambling. 
4. Montenegro –32.5% — No clear country-specific trigger surfaced during Jan 12–18. 
5. El Salvador –30.1% — No clear country-specific trigger surfaced during Jan 12–18.

Market spotlight: Slovenia | –61.8%

Slovenia printed the week’s steepest downside move, sliding –61.8% WoW as the early-January winter-sports halo fully washed out. The prior period was artificially inflated by a dense Alpine headline window, but Jan 12–18 delivered no equivalent national hook. The market reverted hard once the “sports anchor” moved on.

Week 2’s lift was driven by event-led, odds-adjacent intent. People searching around broadcasts, results, and standout performances — behavior that reliably converts into short, high-intensity sportsbook browsing. The downside is structural fragility: when the narrative ends, discovery drops. Slovenia lost demand not because sentiment turned negative, but because the reason to search disappeared.

This is a classic event hangover: a market that trades on calendar moments, not persistent casino browsing depth. Without a fresh local headline to pin attention, users stop exploring brands, operator shopping compresses, and acquisition traffic thins back to baseline. The next meaningful rebound typically requires another high-signal sports moment — otherwise the channel stays quiet and spend efficiency deteriorates quickly.

Regional snapshot

Europe

Europe split cleanly into event gravity winners and post-event losers, with Switzerland up (+14.2%) and Slovenia down (–61.8%) on the same winter-sports calendar mechanics. Spain’s decline (–21.2%) fits a familiar pattern: cup headlines didn’t replace the prior week’s peak-intent density, so casual acquisition cooled. Belgium (–27.6%) and Montenegro (–32.5%) stayed weak, reinforcing that mid-size markets can drop quickly when the attention engine shifts elsewhere.

More on European trends: Spain, Germany, France, and 7 other markets — in our new Europe’s iGaming pulse report.

Middle East

Regional attention was muted in the dataset, but the calendar still matters. Saudi-hosted Supercopa visibility ended just before the window, while local football continues to generate routine betting intent. With fewer “single-event shocks”, performance tends to be driven by ongoing league cadence and offer competitiveness rather than headlines. The region is therefore less spiky, but it punishes slow funnel execution because intent is steady and competitive. 

Africa

Africa printed two opposing engines: Senegal gained (+6.7%) on the AFCON climax, while Uganda collapsed under enforcement-linked friction and operator disruption. Kenya (+7.3%) and Tanzania (+7%) rose modestly, consistent with spillover from continental football attention rather than a single local trigger. 

Asia-Pacific

India (+9.2%) and Vietnam (+7.7%) outperformed on national-team scheduling/newsflow, showing textbook sports-calendar lift with large-base follow-through. Nepal’s decline (–33.9%) is the opposite pattern: a sharp drop without a clean public trigger, consistent with friction narratives or access risk compressing casual discovery. The region is therefore not “up or down” — it’s event-led dispersion.

Next week watchlist

Switzerland — Post-Lauberhorn comedown

Switzerland should cool as Lauberhorn/Wengen weekend attention clears and ski-driven discovery mean-reverts. The prior spike was race-day, headline-led intent that typically converts into short bursts of odds browsing, not durable brand interest. 

Senegal — Post-AFCON final normalization

Senegal is likely to normalize after peak AFCON matchweek intensity drops off. Once the live “score/streaming/lineups” cycle ends, casual betting curiosity fades and operator shopping compresses. 

Colombia — Operator re-pricing after tax change

Colombia stays sensitive to promo economics as operators react to the tax-base reset with offer and messaging adjustments. If bonuses and acquisition incentives scale, discovery can extend into deeper brand comparison rather than plateau. 

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.

Week’s headline

This week’s iGaming momentum was shaped by a clear divide between event-driven attention and suppression forces tied to enforcement, regulation, and seasonality. Slovenia emerged as the standout growth market, where back-to-back events created sustained momentum across the reporting period.

At the opposite end, Laos and Denmark illustrated how quickly demand contracts when sporting narratives are replaced by fraud enforcement, compliance discourse, and winter fixture droughts. Across Southeast Asia and Northern Europe, these dynamics compressed casual, entertainment-led search behavior.

Turkey and Egypt reinforced the broader pattern: football-centric attention continues to act as a powerful acquisition catalyst, while betting-related investigations and legality narratives increasingly influence how — and whether — users move from search into conversion. Together, sport visibility and enforcement salience functioned as the two primary levers driving week-on-week volatility in search-led iGaming interest.

Top gainers

1. Slovenia +113.5% — Residual attention from Kranjska Gora Alpine Ski tournament (Jan 3-4) carried into the reporting week, amplified by Ljubno Ski Jumping World Cup (Jan 9-11): national hero Nika Prevc swept both events at home (30th & 31st career wins), 8,500 fans in attendance, historic Prevc siblings milestone. Pre-Olympic fever compounding.
2. Turkey +34% — TFF betting probe dragged mainstream football attention into “illegal betting” narratives, expanding generic betting-term queries and accelerating short-cycle discovery behavior.
3. Saudi Arabia +24.9% — Spanish Super Cup (Supercopa de España) in Jeddah, El Clásico final: Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid (Jan 11). Mbappé, Vinícius, Yamal, Lewandowski, Raphinha (brace) — global star power driving odds-adjacent search spike.
4. Egypt +19.7% — AFCON’s knockout-stage drama continued to concentrate user attention around matchdays, producing sharp, time-bound spikes in betting interest and accelerating engagement as elimination pressure raised stakes and attention levels.
5. Peru +10.4% — official draw for the Liga 1 2026 season generated pre-season buzz, betting market positioning on Universitario (defending champs), Alianza Lima, Sporting Cristal. Season starts Jan 30, fixture reveal typically triggers odds searches and futures betting activity.

Top decliners

1. Laos -35.9% — Regional scam-network crackdown spillover. Chen Zhi extradition (Cambodia → China, Jan 7) dominated headlines as “biggest cyber-scam kingpin arrest” — linked to Golden Triangle operations. Bangkok Post confirms Thailand coordinating with Laos on scam relocations + intelligence indicating operations shifting to Laos. Enforcement salience likely suppressing gambling-intent queries.
2. Denmark -32.3% — Danish Superliga winter break (early Dec – mid-Feb) — zero domestic league fixtures during Jan 5-11. Background regulatory noise: new advertising rules phased rollout began 2026 (whistle-to-whistle ban, under-25 restrictions). Combination of fixture drought + post-holiday regulatory reopening may explain shift toward compliance/news intent.
3. Singapore -32.2% — Storm Elli (Germany) + Storm Goretti (UK) triggered mass European football cancellations Jan 9-11. Singapore Pools announcements page flooded with abandonment/refund notices, including Bundesliga, Eredivisie, English EFL and FA Cup fixtures.
4. Netherlands -29.3% — Snow-driven fixture chaos delayed match certainty, removing the standard weekend discovery layer (fixtures → previews → odds) and compressing betting-driven search volume.
5. Bulgaria -29.2% — Drop reflects the January 1 regulatory reset: eurozone accession (mandatory dual pricing, payment system overhauls, enhanced AML integration) combined with a GGR tax hike from 20% to 25%. Search intent shifted from betting to compliance queries as operators navigate the transition — compounded by Parva Liga’s winter break eliminating domestic football content.

Market spotlight: Slovenia | +113.5%

Slovenia posted the week’s most explosive growth — more than doubling search intent as back-to-back FIS World Cup events transformed the Alpine nation into the center of global winter sports attention.

The surge began January 3–4 in Kranjska Gora, where the women’s Alpine Ski World Cup delivered a storybook upset. Switzerland’s Camille Rast dethroned Mikaela Shiffrin in the slalom, snapping the American’s dominance and generating headlines across European sports media. 

Four days later, the spotlight shifted to Ljubno ob Savinji for the women’s ski jumping World Cup (January 9–11), where Nika Prevc delivered a masterclass. The national hero won both individual competitions to claim her 30th and 31st career World Cup victories. The 8,500-strong crowd witnessed history: Nika and her brother Domen became the first siblings in ski jumping history to simultaneously lead the men’s and women’s overall World Cup standings.

The Prevc dynasty narrative adds another dimension: family storylines (Nika joins brothers Peter, Domen, and Cene on the World Cup circuit) cross over into mainstream media, pulling casual audiences toward betting markets they might otherwise ignore. With the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics now less than a month out, Slovenia’s January performance may preview sustained pre-Games interest in Alpine and Nordic disciplines.

Regional snapshot

Europe

Europe broadly softened during the week, underscoring how fragile betting-driven discovery becomes when fixture certainty breaks down. Slovenia’s outsized spike demonstrates that demand can still be “manufactured” by nationally resonant sporting moments, even during winter breaks, but this remains the exception rather than the rule.

Across Northern and Western Europe, weather-related postponements and winter league pauses continue to disrupt the standard discovery chain, pushing user intent toward administrative, news, and compliance-related queries.

Middle East

The primary global catalyst of the week — the Spanish Super Cup final in Jeddah — has now played out, and its short-cycle impact on search-driven betting interest is beginning to fade. However, the region is not entering a demand vacuum. Regular domestic league action resumes during the week, led by the Saudi Pro League. 

Local competition continues to generate steady baseline interest through recognizable star power and a consistent match calendar — most notably via figures such as Cristiano Ronaldo. Near term, this implies a shift from event-driven spikes to more stable, repeatable acquisition flows.

Africa

AFCON 2025 remains underway and continues to be the single most important driver of betting interest across the continent. The tournament still concentrates user attention around matchdays, producing synchronized surges in interest.

For operators, it remains the most predictable acquisition window, characterized by high mobile share and strong sensitivity to load speed, localized payments, and live betting availability.

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific remains highly sensitive to enforcement and regulatory narratives, with Laos’ sharp decline illustrating how quickly acquisition collapses when headlines shift from sport to fraud, scams, and illegal gambling operations. 

Cross-border law enforcement activity continues to crowd out recreational betting intent, replacing it with risk-averse, informational search behavior.

Next week’s watchlist

Africa

AFCON 2025 enters its decisive phase, with only the semifinals and final remaining. Tournament momentum is now highly concentrated, amplifying national-level betting interest in countries still in contention — Morocco (host nation), Senegal, Egypt, and Nigeria.

In these markets, expect heightened pre-match and in-play activity driven by patriotic narratives, knockout pressure, and condensed match schedules. For operators, this creates short but extremely high-intent acquisition windows, with sharp spikes around lineups, goals, and live markets as national attention peaks.

Northern Europe

Severe winter conditions remain a material risk factor. Snowstorms Elli and Goretti continue to disrupt travel and infrastructure, increasing the probability of football postponements, abandoned fixtures, and reduced certainty across broader sports calendars.

The likely impact is further suppression of betting-driven discovery, as users shift from match-focused intent toward administrative updates, cancellations, and refund-related queries. Volatility should be expected to persist as long as fixture reliability remains compromised, with delayed rather than immediate rebounds once matches are rescheduled.

Turkey

Betting-related scrutiny remains in active circulation following the Turkish Football Federation’s decision to refer more than 200 coaches and agents as part of an ongoing betting investigation. The expanding scope of the probe keeps “illegal betting” narratives embedded in mainstream sports coverage, extending their lifecycle beyond a single news spike.

As a result, Turkey is likely to see continued elevated search interest around generic betting terms, legality questions, and football-adjacent odds queries. This environment typically inflates top-of-funnel traffic, but with mixed conversion quality as users oscillate between curiosity-driven discovery and news-only intent.