iGaming market weekly report | Feb 23–Mar 1, 2026

Week 9 was defined by calendar-driven event gravity layered on top of sharp mean-reversion. The leaders were discrete, high-salience triggers that lifted market-wide search baselines: two lottery moments (Singapore’s Toto Hong Bao; Switzerland’s EuroMillions), a tournament headline (Romania’s PGL Cluj-Napoca), a clean market-entry signal (Greentube’s first Slovenian launch), and a continental football catalyst (Independiente Medellín advancing in Copa Libertadores).

On the downside, the board split cleanly between suppression shocks and calendar compression. Chad sold off on a security disruption, Venezuela compressed under dominant political headlines, while multiple Muslim-majority markets printed early-Ramadan softness — Malaysia and Pakistan both declined in the first full week after Ramadan began (Feb 19), and Morocco followed the same pattern off its Feb 18 start.

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Top gainers

Singapore +78.8% — A sharp snapback after the prior week’s –15.5% decline. The Feb 27 Toto Hong Bao draw carried a $9.4M jackpot headline, lifting authorised lottery search interest across the market.

Romania +59.5% — The biggest European upside move, flipping from last week’s –21.5% decline into a high-volatility recovery. The week followed Romania’s hosting of a major PGL event in Cluj-Napoca, keeping Romania in an internationally visible competitive-gaming news cycle.

Slovenia +44.3% — Greentube (Book of Ra and other hits) announced its first Slovenian launch via a partnership with Casino.si on Feb 25, putting a fresh iGaming brand-entry headline into the country’s news cycle.

Switzerland +39.6% — A lottery-driven calendar lift: the Feb 27 EuroMillions draw carried a €159m jackpot headline, raising gambling-related search salience domestically.

Colombia +38.3% — Event gravity from Copa Libertadores: Independiente Medellín advanced on Feb 25 after eliminating Liverpool (Uruguay), keeping Colombian club football in a high-salience international window during the reporting week.

Top decliners

Venezuela –44.6% — No clear iGaming-specific trigger surfaced inside the reporting window, but the national attention set was dominated by high-salience political headlines, including an announcement by opposition leader María Corina Machado about returning to Venezuela.

Chad –36.4% — A clear security shock hit during the week as Chad closed its border with Sudan after fighters spilled into its territory, a disruption that tends to compress consumer-commercial signals broadly.

Malaysia –33.0% — The decline followed directly after the prior week’s +13.9% gainer, and it also landed immediately after Ramadan began (Feb 19).

Pakistan –30.9% — Despite a headline T20 World Cup inflection match in-window (England beating Pakistan on Feb 24), the country’s acquisition-intent signal still fell sharply; Ramadan began on Feb 19, and the decline printed in the first full week of that calendar reset.

Morocco –28.1% — Ramadan began in Morocco in mid-February (Feb 18), and the decline landed in the first full week after that start point.

Market spotlight: Singapore | +78.8%

Singapore printed the week’s largest move at +78.8% WoW, reversing hard after the prior week’s –15.5% decline. The timing clustered around a single in-window calendar catalyst rather than a multi-day build.

The most obvious mechanism was lottery event gravity: Singapore Pools’ Toto Hong Bao draw ran on Feb 27 with a $9.4M jackpot headline, a high-salience authorised gambling moment that can lift the market’s overall lottery-and-gambling search baseline. This looks like a snapback amplified by a one-off calendar event, so the next read is whether Week 10 holds above baseline once the draw clears.

Regional snapshot

Europe

Europe dominated the upside: Romania (+59.5%), Slovenia (+44.3%), and Switzerland (+39.6%) filled three of the top five gainers with three different catalysts — Romania rebounded after last week’s –21.5% on the back of a major PGL event in Cluj-Napoca, Slovenia lifted on a clean iGaming headline as Greentube announced its first launch via Casino.si (Feb 25), and Switzerland caught a lottery calendar tailwind from a €159m EuroMillions jackpot (Feb 27).

Asia-Pacific

APAC was sharply split: Singapore led the entire board at +78.8% on a snapback from last week’s –15.5%, amplified by the Feb 27 Toto Hong Bao draw. In contrast, Malaysia (–33.0%) and Pakistan (–30.9%) both printed deep declines in the first full week after Ramadan began (Feb 19) — Malaysia retracing after last week’s +13.9% gainer, and Pakistan sliding despite a headline T20 World Cup result (England beating Pakistan on Feb 24).

Africa

Africa flipped from last week’s positive presence (Ethiopia was prior week’s top gainer at +18.3%) to downside pressure, led by Chad (–36.4%) and Morocco (–28.1%). Both declines aligned with suppression-style contexts — security disruption for Chad and a Ramadan calendar effect for Morocco — rather than identifiable gambling-policy moves.

Next week watchlist

Switzerland

Engadin Skimarathon runs into early March, culminating in the marquee race on Sunday (Mar 8) keeping Switzerland in a sustained sports-attention window.

Islamic markets

Ramadan remains in effect across Muslim-majority markets, and Week 10 should keep a mild downside bias as the calendar effect continues to compress baseline acquisition-intent search volumes, especially where no major sports or policy catalyst replaces it.

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.