Operators holding a French licence gained little from an autumn spike in player interest, most of which went to brands licensed elsewhere, in a market that still excludes online casino games.
Brands classified by Blask as offshore accounted for 83.9% of online gambling search demand in France between 29 September and 12 October 2026, up from 67.5% in the two weeks to 20 September, according to new data from the iGaming analytics company.
How the October surge played out
Blask compared average daily search interest across two 14-day windows: 7 to 20 September and 29 September to 12 October 2026. Overall daily search demand across the French gambling market more than doubled between the two, with the strongest activity recorded in early October.
Blask said the increase coincided with a period of nationwide demonstrations and public-sector unrest in France, which began with school blockades in late September. Search interest was already falling by the time further demonstrations took place on 17 and 24 October.
Over the same period, the share of the Blask Index held by brands that Blask categorises as offshore rose by 16.4 percentage points. ANJ-licensed operators grew their absolute search demand by about 25%, but their activity remained below August levels.
Two brands drove half of the increase
Blask attributed roughly half of the rise to two brands:
- Leon, which saw its daily Blask Index rise more than tenfold
- gtBet, which first appeared in Blask’s French market data on 29 September
The growth was not confined to those two names. With gtBet excluded, French gambling search demand still nearly doubled, which Blask said reflected broader growth across numerous offshore casino brands.
Although overall interest eased towards the end of October, brands in Blask’s offshore category kept a larger share of demand than before the surge.
Regulatory context
The split reflects the shape of France’s regulated market. The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) licenses online sports betting, horse-race betting and poker, while casino games and online slots are not authorised on the French market, according to the regulator. Blask said this directs French consumer demand for online casino products towards operators licensed in other jurisdictions. The licensed market itself is growing slowly: we earlier reported that French gambling growth slowed to 0.5% in the first half of 2026, carried by online.
The French figures in this report also fit a wider seasonal pattern: in 2025, Blask data identified October as the global peak of iGaming activity.
Methodology
The Blask Index measures relative online search demand, and the shares reported are proportions of the index rather than gambling revenue, player numbers or financial market share. Blask’s published methodology states that the index is built on the Share of Search approach and is not a measure of GGR, website traffic or raw Google Trends data.
Blask’s full analysis of French gambling search demand, published on 28 October 2026, includes the underlying charts.
