Blask Weekly Digest: Brazil’s iGaming demand down -96%

Blask weekly digest for 19–25 October shows Bolivia led the weekly gainers at +21.8%, followed by Guatemala (+20.8%) and Tajikistan (+19.5%). Alberta recorded the largest decline at -30.1%, followed by Mali (-24.9%) and South Korea (-24.8%). The full top-five gainers and decliners chart is attached. Top 5 gainers and decliners of the week A month after Brazil’s betting ban, iGaming demand is down 96%, Blask data shows Brazil’s Blask Index averaged 288,000 a day in the week of Oct 19–25, 96% below its Sept 1–24 average of 7.26 million. That earlier period ended the day before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Provisional Measure 1,394, which bans fixed-odds betting and online games nationwide. The drop did not turn into offshore growth. Demand for offshore brands averaged 288,000 a day last week, 9% below its pre-ban level of 317,000. At 288,000 a day, Brazil’s Blask Index is back where it was in spring 2019, when it averaged 286,000 a day in April. That was more than five years before the regulated market opened in January 2025. From then until the ban, the monthly average never fell below 5.8 million a day. The decline came in stages. The index jumped to 8.05 million on Sept 26, the day after the measure was signed, then fell to 1.3 million by Oct 1. In the first week after licensed sites went offline on Oct 6, demand for licensed brands averaged 846,000 a day, down 88% from 6.9 million before the ban. Blask Index data for licensed brands in Brazil ends on Oct 12. From Oct 13, the country total covers offshore brands only. Offshore brands saw a short rise and then a fall. Their combined demand climbed 22% to 385,000 a day during Oct 6–11, the first week without licensed sites, and then dropped below the pre-ban level. Within that group, demand concentrated. The largest offshore brand grew 5.3 times from its September average and now accounts for 29% of all tracked demand in Brazil. Two smaller brands grew roughly fourfold. The brand that led the offshore segment before the ban lost 70%. Before the ban, licensed brands held about 96% of Brazil’s Blask Index and offshore brands about 4%. The licensed share has gone, and offshore brands are left with a smaller version of the volume they had before. The ban is not final. As a provisional measure, MP 1,394 took effect immediately but needs approval from Congress, where the first review deadline is Nov 23. Blask Index is a real-time measure of market demand volume for iGaming brands in a given country, based on normalized search data. The figures show search interest in tracked brands. They do not cover deposits or revenue, and they do not cover channels that bypass search, such as direct links, mirror domains shared in messaging apps, or brands Blask does not track in Brazil. Whether Brazilian bettors stopped betting or moved somewhere search data cannot see is still an open question. Football puts Colombia and El Salvador among the week’s top iGaming gainers Colombia’s Blask Index rose 13.3% in the week of Oct 19–25, the largest weekly increase among 133 countries tracked by Blask. El Salvador ranked third with 7.7%. In El Salvador, the week’s two highest days fell on the two days of Concacaf Central American Cup first-leg matches involving Salvadoran clubs. El Salvador’s index rose to 290,868 for the week, up from 270,187. On Oct 20, Alianza lost 2–1 to Honduras’ Marathón in San Pedro Sula in the first leg of the play-in. Firpo drew 0–0 with Costa Rica’s Saprissa in San Salvador in the other first leg. Daily demand on Oct 20 and 21 averaged 53,300, 60% above the 33,200 average of the week’s other three weekdays. The second legs are on Oct 27 in San Salvador and Oct 28 in Costa Rica. The two winners take the last two places in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup. Colombia’s index reached 3.86 million for the week, up from 3.41 million, and 26.5% above its average for the previous six weeks. The highest day was Sunday, Oct 25, at 775,545, when matchday 16 of the Liga BetPlay Clausura included Atlético Nacional’s 2–1 win over Independiente Medellín in the Medellín derby. That Sunday was only 2% above the previous one, though. Most of the weekly gain came on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, each 31–38% above the same day a week earlier. Bolivia did not grow week over week. Its index fell 2.3%, to 225,381. The week’s highest day was Tuesday, Oct 20, at 41,506, when the Copa Paceña quarterfinals began. That was 61% above Monday. The quarterfinal second legs are scheduled for Nov 2–5. Blask Index is a real-time measure of market demand volume for iGaming brands in a given country, based on normalized search data. Weekly figures compare Monday to Sunday (UTC) totals. The country ranking covers 133 countries with a weekly index of at least 10,000 in the base week. A match on the same day as a spike shows timing, not cause. FanDuel ends Bovada’s 32-month reign as global iGaming CEB leader, Blask data shows FanDuel has overtaken Bovada in Blask’s global ranking of gambling brands by Customer Engagement Benchmark (CEB), ending a run at the top that began in February 2024. The shift follows a year of changing monthly leadership among FanDuel, Bet365 and Bovada. According to Blask’s latest analysis, FanDuel finished the October 2025–September 2026 period with a 12-month cumulative CEB 4.4% higher than Bovada’s, marking its first appearance at the top of the all-brands ranking. Top 10 brands by CEB The change is significant given how rarely the ranking’s top position has changed hands. Since Blask’s historical records began in 2018, only four operators — Sky Bet, Bet365, Bovada and now FanDuel — have held the leading position. Three brands competed for the lead over the past year Despite FanDuel’s victory in the rolling annual ranking, the monthly figures reveal a much less predictable competitive landscape. FanDuel recorded the highest monthly CEB in six of the 12 months examined. Bet365 led for four consecutive months, from May through August 2026, while Bovada topped the ranking in October and December 2025. The summer period was particularly challenging for FanDuel. Between April and August 2026, its monthly CEB declined by 12%, allowing Bet365 to maintain its lead for four straight months. However, September reversed that trend. FanDuel’s monthly CEB increased by 13%, putting the brand 8.6% ahead of Bet365 by the end of the month. This recovery helped FanDuel secure the highest cumulative CEB for the 12-month period, despite Bet365’s sustained summer performance. The shift had been building since early 2025 FanDuel’s rise above Bovada was not the result of a single exceptional month. Of the 68 months between February 2021 and September 2026, FanDuel exceeded Bovada’s monthly CEB on 12 occasions. Notably, every one of those instances occurred from January 2025 onward. This suggests that the change in the annual ranking reflects a more recent shift in the competitive balance rather than an isolated September performance. Bovada’s stronger results in late 2025 continued to support its rolling 12-month total, meaning FanDuel had to overcome that historical advantage before moving into first place. A smaller geographic footprint, but a higher CEB One of the most notable findings is the difference in geographic coverage between the two brands. FanDuel achieved its leading position with a presence in just three countries in the dataset, compared with Bovada’s 10. The brands also followed opposite year-on-year trajectories in September 2026. FanDuel’s CEB increased by 6% compared with September 2025, while Bovada’s declined by 12%. The contrast illustrates that a broader geographic footprint does not necessarily translate into a higher cumulative CEB. Although monthly leadership remains competitive, FanDuel’s move into first place represents a significant change in the global ranking after more than two and a half years of Bovada dominance. Methodology: The analysis uses Blask’s Customer Engagement Benchmark (CEB), an estimate of customer engagement and acquisition potential expressed in US dollars. The annual comparison covers the rolling 12-month period from October 2025 through September 2026. CEB is a modeled metric and should not be interpreted as operators’ reported revenue or GGR. Crown Coins defies US sweepstakes casino slowdown as rivals lose momentum in Q3 2026 US sweepstakes casino demand weakened between July and September 2026, but the downturn was far from evenly distributed. New data from Blask shows Crown Coins continuing to gain ground while most of its largest competitors recorded declining demand. The US sweepstakes casino market entered the third quarter of 2026 at a seasonal high before losing momentum toward September, according to Blask Index data. The decline was particularly visible among the industry’s ten largest brands, which experienced a sharper pullback than operators outside the top 10. Despite the slowdown, overall demand for sweepstakes casinos remained above the level recorded during the same quarter in 2025. Both years followed a similar seasonal pattern, with July marking the strongest month and activity weakening toward the end of September. Crown Coins extends its lead as competitors retreat Crown Coins emerged as the quarter’s strongest performer, consolidating the leadership position it first secured in June 2026 after overtaking Chumba Casino. While overall market demand contracted from July to September, Crown Coins moved in the opposite direction, registering growth and widening its advantage over the rest of the sector. Chumba Casino remained the second-largest brand by Blask Index throughout the quarter. Its share of total sweepstakes casino demand held relatively steady, suggesting that the widening gap between the two leading operators was driven primarily by Crown Coins’ expansion rather than a disproportionate loss of market position by Chumba. The divergence highlights an increasingly uneven competitive landscape, in which the leading operator continued to strengthen its position despite a broader seasonal decline. LuckyLand Slots records the sharpest decline among leading brands One of the most significant changes in the quarterly rankings involved LuckyLand Slots. The VGW-owned brand experienced the largest drop in demand among the top ten sweepstakes casinos as its operations were gradually discontinued between August 3 and September 14, 2026. Blask Index data recorded declining demand in both August and September, coinciding with the phased shutdown. The brand’s exit contributed to the changing competitive landscape during a period when most major sweepstakes operators were already experiencing weaker demand. Only two top-ten brands increased demand Beyond Crown Coins, Modo was the only other operator among the ten leading sweepstakes casinos to finish September with a higher Blask Index than in July. The remaining eight brands ended the quarter below their opening-month levels. This pattern suggests that the third-quarter slowdown was concentrated among established market leaders rather than distributed equally across the entire competitive landscape. At the same time, the market’s stronger performance compared with Q3 2025 indicates that the July-to-September decline should not necessarily be interpreted as a longer-term contraction. The defining trend of Q3 2026 was therefore not simply weaker demand, but growing divergence between operators: Crown Coins strengthened its leadership, Modo maintained positive momentum, and much of the top ten lost ground. Methodology: The analysis is based on Blask Index, Blask’s measure of online brand demand, for sweepstakes casino operators in the United States. The reporting period covers July 1–September 30, 2026. Changes in Blask Index reflect movements in estimated online demand and should not be interpreted as changes in operator revenue, active player counts or GGR.