A recent analysis by Blask shows that offshore gambling brands significantly raised their share of online gambling search demand in France, jumping from 67.5% to 83.9% between September and October 2026. This shift occurred during a period when overall search interest in gambling more than doubled, allowing licensed operators to capture only a minimal share of the surge in interest.
Blask’s research focused on two specific 14-day periods: from September 7 to September 20 and from September 29 to October 12. During these periods, daily search activity across the French gambling market saw an increase of over 100%, especially peaking in early October.
This surge coincided with widespread demonstrations and public sector unrest across France. Protests originated with school blockades in late September and persisted into October. Notably, search interest in gambling started to wane by mid-October, before the protests intensified on the 17th and 24th.
The most notable change was the increasing share of search interest by offshore operators versus licensed ones. Offshore brands captured an additional 16.4 percentage points of French gambling search interest, achieving a total of 83.9% of the Blask Index during the second analysis period. Although licensed operators did see about a 25% growth in their absolute search demand, this growth remained below the levels seen in August.
The discrepancy can be understood through France's regulatory framework. The national gambling regulator, Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), allows licensed online sports betting, horse racing, and poker, but prohibits online casino games. Consequently, consumer demand for online casino products has shifted towards offshore operators who cater to this need.
Two brands notably contributed to the increase in search demand: Leon saw over a tenfold rise in its daily Blask Index, and gtBet made its debut in Blask’s data for the French market on September 29. However, the growth was not confined to these two brands; even without gtBet's input, the overall demand in the French gambling segment nearly doubled, indicating substantial growth among various offshore casino brands.
This trend did not dissipate after the initial October surge. While there was a decline in overall search interest toward the end of the month, offshore operators sustained a larger share of French gambling demand compared to the levels before the surge.
The findings reveal that the autumn spike in online gambling interest has predominantly favored operators outside France's regulated market, while licensed betting and poker brands, despite witnessing some growth, did not manage to capture a corresponding share of the increased search activity.
The Blask Index is an established measure of relative online search demand, analyzing average daily search interest for two distinct 14-day periods. The reported figures reflect proportions of the Blask Index rather than actual gambling revenue, player numbers, or market share.
