In August 2026, bwin became the #1 iGaming brand by user demand in Spain and in Belgium. For Spain, it was the first change of leader in many years: Bet365 fell to 2nd position after holding 1st place since at least January 2016 (the earliest month of Blask’s data for the country). Switzerland saw a similar break, as Swisslos lost the top spot for the first time in over 5 years of Blask records.
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.
Where leaders changed
User demand for iGaming fell in most markets worldwide in August compared with July. Blask Index increased in only 49 of the 139 countries currently tracked by Blask.
Only 3 of those growing markets ended the month with a new #1 brand. Among the 90 markets where demand fell, the leader changed in 11. In 4 of those 11, the new top brand’s own Blask Index also declined. In France and Iceland, even new leaders’ BAP also fell: Betclic and Epicbet reached #1 despite losing both demand and share, as the previous leaders dropped harder.
The number of iGaming brands leading more than one country increased from 12 in July to 13 in August as bwin joined that group, moving from zero markets in July to two in August — Spain and Belgium.
The end of a long reign
Bet365 was the leading operator in Spain by Blask Index for at least a decade. Until April 2018 it accounted for over half of the country’s total iGaming demand. Later the brand’s share was around 45% with occasional and limited spikes and dips, but in March 2023 it started to fade.
Yet, Bet365 kept 1st place by a margin that never fell below 9 percentage points. In August 2026 that suddenly broke.
Spain is one of the 64 countries where the top 10 brand names did not change in August compared with July. Inside the list, though, some moves were rather sharp. Betfair jumped from 8th to 3rd position as its Blask Index rose 114.3%, making it the fastest-growing brand in the country (among operators with at least 0.5% BAP). Winamax moved in the opposite direction, falling from 5th to 10th place after a 59.3% decline — the largest drop in Spain among meaningful brands.
The Spanish iGaming market is currently in a downtrend. Its Blask Index in August was 12.5% lower than in September 2025, its highest level in the past 24 months. In August user demand in the country fell 1.8%, following a 5.4% decline in July. The market nevertheless moved from 31st to 28th place globally as some other markets performed worse.
Bottom line
In August, the top iGaming brand by user demand changed in 14 countries. In some, a new leader took first place despite falling demand — and in France and Iceland, with a smaller share of the market as well. In Spain and Switzerland, a brand that had led for years lost that position: Swisslos and Bet365. Bet365 had ranked first in Spain for over a decade, holding a large share of national demand, until bwin finally overtook it.
