The iGaming landscape changed, moving away from the preceding week when CIS and Baltic nations took the lead, with many of the week’s biggest winners witnessing a significant regression.
Russia faced a decrease of 7.8% after showing a 134% rise, while Lithuania declined by 9.1% after increasing by 50.2% from the previous week. The same goes for Tajikistan, Slovakia and Latvia, which experienced declines after having enjoyed the previous week’s rising trend.
Competition that was scheduled acted as the main source of growth. Switzerland led the market with its increase of 40.3% facilitated by Super League Matchday 4 and Colombia rose by 27.9% being back in the Liga BetPlay after the suspension due to the August 10 earthquake. Ukraine experienced a 12.8% decline as the situation there was still monitored by Cosmobet.
Top 5 Gainers of the Week
Switzerland (+40.3%)
Switzerland was the leader in terms of growth this week due to Super League Matchday 4 which took place on August 22–23. The match where Young Boys defeated Vaduz with the score of 4–2 attracted public attention to the domestic events and put the club on the top of the table. An active domestic schedule and a very important battle for the league table positions this season provided high interest in betting forecasting.
Sierra Leone +(38.1%)
Sierra Leone has gained from the larger restart of the European football season. This also stimulated different betting activities across multiple West African countries. The percentage rise is partially caused by a low previous week figure, especially in a country where betting shops are vey significant.
Colombia (+27.9%)
Liga BetPlay 2026-II resumed its activities after being shut down for a week because of the earthquake, which occurred on the 10th of August. The matches during 22nd-23rd of August included several major games, such as Santa Fe vs América de Cali, Nacional vs Fortaleza and Medellin vs Cúcuta.
The return of the domestic football stimulation provided a significant source of bets and ensured positive results for the Colombian weekly figures.
Senegal (+25.7%)
Senegal announced the schedule of Ligue 1 for the 2026-27 season on the 22nd of August. This coincided with the restart of the European club football and enabled to raise the betting interest in the West African market.
Sweden (+24.7%)
Sweden managed to recover from the last week fall of 11.4%. Allsvenskan Matchday 20 took place on the 17th-18th of August, with Malmö FF, AIK and Hammarby in action.
Top 5 Decliners of the Week
Ukraine (-12.8%)
Ukraine maintained its downward trend due to increased scrutiny of Cosmobet and reports about alleged ownership structures linked to Russia. The already challenging situation in the market, which is suffering from war-related restrictions on gambling, has aggravated owing to the regulatory focus on the operator.
Uzbekistan (-11%)
After a spike which accompanied the release of the first betting licenses to Olimpbet and Aurum Vale on July 31, the market corrected. The latest drop can be attributed to the market’s adaptation to the entry of licensed operators while players still largely prefer offshore betting services.
Lithuania (-9.1%)
Lithuania’s decline of 9.1% follows a gain of over 50% in the previous week. The decline has taken place despite positive fundamentals of the market as the first half of 2026 reported gross gaming revenue of EUR 153.6 million, increasing by 16.8% compared to the previous year. The weekly dynamics seem to reflect a momentum correction rather than the market’s weakening performance.
Tajikistan (-8.6%)
Tajikistan corrected from its previous report which showed a 37.8% surge in the previous period.
Russia (-7.8%)
Russia’s decline of 7.8% follows the previous week’s surge of 134%, so the current movement mostly represents a mean-reversion phenomenon.
Market Spotlight: Switzerland (+40.3%)
In the past week, Switzerland has minted the highest return with a jump of +40.3%, coinciding with Super League Matchday 4.
The calendar on August 22-23 has featured game after game of domestic fixtures, where Young Boys played a 4-2 game to win and ranked first in the table with 10 points from 4 matches. The number of major domestic games aroused interest in betting, as the 2026/27 season entered a significant early phase.
The regulated nature of the market makes the domestic sports particularly important for licensed companies. Online sports betting is carried out in a licensed way while access to the offshore gambling is possible only through the use of DNS blocking.
The increased interest is likely to last into the next reporting period in light of the match Young Boys-Basel scheduled for 29 August, a large event in the 2026-2027 season.
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.