Blask data shows the offshore segment gained revenue share in Latvia, the Netherlands, the UK and Croatia, though by very different margins.
Several European countries increased regulatory pressure on gambling operators in the first half of 2026. Some raised the taxes operators pay, others restricted how they can advertise. According to Blask data, channelization — the share of a market that stays with licensed brands — weakened in every one of them.
Blask metrics:
Blask Index — real-time measure of market demand volume for iGaming brands in a given country, based on normalized search data.
BAP (Brand’s Accumulated Power) — a brand’s percentage share of total market demand in a specific country and period.
CEB (Competitive Earning Baseline) — projected revenue a brand should realistically capture given its market presence, expressed in USD as a min/avg/max range.
Higher taxes, a bigger offshore slice
Latvia and the Netherlands raised gambling taxes on 1 January 2026. In Latvia, the rate for iGaming rose from 12% to 15% of Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR). The total demand in the country held up as the Blask Index in June 2026 was about 3% higher than in December 2025. But the increase was carried by offshore operators, while licensed brands lost share of demand.
Money followed the same pattern. The offshore share of projected revenue (CEB) grew by 2.2 percentage points from December 2025 to June 2026.
In the Netherlands, the 2026 tax rate hike was the second step of a total increase from 30.5% to 37.8% (from January 2025 the rate was 34.2%). The total iGaming demand in the country fell sharply in the first two months of 2026, then recovered. With that recovery, the offshore share of the Blask Index rose from 13.2% in February to 15.3% in June.
The share of unlicensed brands in CEB also slightly increased in the first half of 2026. By June, it almost reached 38%.
The UK also raised the iGaming tax rate in 2026. From 1 April, Remote Gaming Duty increased by 19 pp, up to 40%. The offshore share of demand rose with it, reached its high in May and then dropped back to pre-hike levels.
The CEB split in the UK was far more in favour of the offshore segment. Although the tax rate was increased only for the online casino segment, it significantly worsened the onshore sector economy.
An ad ban that squeezed the smaller brands
In Croatia, the tax regime in 2026 was stable, but licensed operators experienced a different kind of regulatory pressure. From 1 January 2026, gambling ads in the country are banned between 6:00 and 23:00 on the internet, television, radio and in electronic publications. Print and outdoor ads are banned completely, and celebrities and influencers cannot appear in gambling promotions.
The market lost demand almost every month from the start of the year. Blask Index in June 2026 was about 23% lower than in December 2025. Licensed brands carried all of that decline — onshore demand fell by 24%, while offshore demand grew by 35%. As a result, the offshore share of the Blask Index rose from 2.5% to 4.5%.
The total market CEB barely moved. However, the offshore share of projected revenue grew by 0.6 pp.
Although onshore brands lost share of demand right from the start of the year, the top five brands in the country, all licensed, gained it in January. Their combined BAP rose from 81.4% to 83.7%. But later it returned almost to December levels.
The top two brands were the ones that gained the most. The combined BAP of SuperSport and Hrvatska Lutrija increased from 52.6% in December to 57.5% in January. By June it fell slightly, to 54.6%, but the overall gain was 2 pp.
That means that all other onshore brands in the country lost 4 pp of demand share in June compared to December. Their combined BAP decreased from 44.9% to 40.9%, which indicates that this segment was the most affected by the new advertising rules.
Bottom line
Tax rates for iGaming rose in three European markets in 2026, advertising was cut in the fourth, and in all of them the offshore share of projected revenue grew. In Croatia, the licensed market also became more concentrated, as the two biggest brands gained share and the smaller ones lost it.
Offshore brands ended with more of the revenue
About Blask
Blask is an AI-powered platform for iGaming and gambling market analytics. The company turns fragmented open-source signals into real-time insight on brand visibility, player demand, and baseline revenue metrics, helping teams move first, spend smarter, and reduce risk across global markets.
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Originally published in the NYCE Marketplace section on Yogonet on August 20, 2026.