Europe’s illegal online gambling market generated an estimated €12 billion (US$14.1 billion) in net revenue during 2025, according to research commissioned by Euromat, the trade body for Europe’s land-based gaming and entertainment sector.
The study puts the black market at around 25% of Europe’s online gambling sector and says it has tripled in size since 2019.
Advisory firm Regulus Partners and web traffic consultancy Helios carried out the analysis across 28 European markets, covering the EU27 excluding Malta and Luxembourg, plus the UK, Serbia and Montenegro. The researchers combined web traffic and digital marketing data with macroeconomic and regulatory analysis, drawing on more than 1,000 person hours of forensic work.
Regulatory friction named as the main driver
Filip Jelavić, owner and project lead at Helios, said the research set out to measure the size and characteristics of the illegal market and to establish what has driven its expansion over the past six years.
It’s clear that online gambling black markets don’t happen by accident but instead are the result of government policies that create consumer friction.
Jelavić pointed to a combination of factors on the regulated side of the market.
In such an environment the key drivers are a combination of limited choice based on regulation and state monopolies, low visibility, distortions of price or value, as well as interventionist measures such as affordability checks.
He added that a small number of illegal operators have reached enough scale to build recognisable brands and take meaningful market share, rather than operating as a long tail of small sites.
The argument lands in the middle of live policy debates in several markets. Dutch politicians remain split over the next round of gambling reform, including deposit limits and a proposed minimum age of 21 for online play, with the licensed sector warning that tighter rules push players to unlicensed sites.
Crypto gambling and the licensing gap
The researchers identified cryptocurrency gambling as a significant factor in the offshore market’s growth.
The traffic analysis that we’ve undertaken shows that the rapid growth of cryptocurrencies has been key to building many of these businesses in terms of product differentiation and regulatory workarounds.
Jelavić said few regulated European markets currently provide a legal route for gambling with cryptocurrencies, which leaves that demand to unlicensed sites. Crypto payments have spread through the wider sector in the meantime, with operators such as 1win adding USDC deposits and withdrawals on Solana.
He also warned that consumer protection rules can work against their own purpose.
Consumer protection policies are key but become counter-productive if they succeed in driving players into the black-market. The more engaged and higher value customers who seek black markets out are often the most vulnerable to harm or exploitation.
Enforcement pressure builds
Regulators, trade bodies and licensed operators across Europe have moved against offshore sites over the past year.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) warned last month that black market betting on the Premier League was on course to reach £1 billion (€1.15 billion) in wagers next season. In the Netherlands, state lottery Nederlandse Loterij has brought legal action against three unlicensed operators in recent months for targeting Dutch players.
Site blocking is also spreading beyond the established markets. Armenia will block unlicensed gambling sites from 2027 under changes to its gambling law.
Euromat takes the findings to policymakers
Euromat President Jason Frost said the research would support the association’s discussions with policymakers and law enforcement agencies.
The illegal black market is a major concern for everybody who recognises the importance of a progressive and fairly regulated leisure and entertainment economy.
Frost said offshore operators hold a cost advantage over licensed competitors because they avoid gambling taxes and regulatory compliance costs. Euromat said it will use the study as the basis for a wider programme of engagement with European governments and enforcement bodies.
That engagement runs against the direction of current policy in most of the markets covered. Affordability checks, deposit caps and advertising restrictions are being extended rather than eased across the EU27 and the UK, and the research asks governments to treat those measures as a cause of the €12 billion rather than a defence against it. It also puts Euromat’s land-based members on the same side of the argument as the licensed online operators they compete with.
Source: Euromat
