A new feature from Blask is the Categories tab on country pages. The idea behind it is to track the direct demand in terms of verticals and not by operators. What this means is that Blask captures direct category search intent – interest in a game type or activity rather than in a specific operator brand.
France Puts Lottery Far Ahead of Other Verticals
An illustrative case study would be that of France. According to Blask, in its 12-month view covering April 2025 to March 2026, lottery accounted for 78% of France’s total gambling search interest. Online casino came second with 10%, followed by online betting, live dealer, and online poker at about 4% each.
This contrast runs counter to a frequent practice within the gambling sector in viewing the demand of a country’s gambling market solely in terms of the demand for a sportsbook. In France, for instance, the greatest number of searches occurs in another category. Blask associates this trend with preexisting local conventions in lottery games, particularly keno.
Another factor making the French case distinct is what lies beyond the legal online offering. Online casino still accounted for about 10% of France’s total gambling search interest in Blask’s dataset, despite not being part of the country’s licensed online offer.
Other Markets Show Why a Single Model Fails
The same dataset demonstrates a different picture in other locations. Online betting accounts for about 52% of gambling search demand in Brazil, with lottery accounting for 25% and fantasy being about 11%. The biggest proportion is represented by lottery, amounting to 35% in India, followed by live dealer being 29%, while online casino, betting, and fantasy are about 10% each. Fantasy sports games account for an average of 37% in Italy over 12 months, whereas Switzerland has the highest share of online casinos among the five markets compared by Blask, representing 38%.
The value of the report isn’t simply that it ranks countries, but that it adds useful context. Blask’s ranking system ignores branded searches and instead focuses on category interest, making it much easier to identify where interest is really high. This doesn’t answer any questions about conversion or revenues, but it does make it easier for operators and affiliates to better understand how demand is distributed before any marketing spending skews that data.
Market structure should not be inferred from industry habit, and France shows why. Even in an active gambling market, the dominant category may differ sharply from standard sportsbook-first assumptions. In France, Blask’s data suggests lottery remains the main centre of category-level search demand.
