Euromat study says Europe’s illegal online gambling market hit €12bn in 2025

Europe’s illegal online gambling market generated an estimated €12bn in net revenue in 2025, according to research commissioned by the European Gaming and Amusement Federation, Euromat. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the headline is simple: unlicensed volume is still large enough to matter, and the regulated market is competing not just on product, but on how much friction it puts in front of customers.

1. The study, conducted by Regulus Partners and Helios on behalf of Euromat, says unregulated activity now accounts for around 25% of the online gambling market examined by the researchers. It covered 28 European online gambling markets, including the United Kingdom and a broad selection of European Union jurisdictions.
2. Euromat says the estimated value of illegal online gambling across the markets covered has tripled since 2019. That is not presented as an official regulatory statistic, but as an industry-commissioned research estimate based on the methodology used by the researchers.
3. The researchers looked at digital marketing activity, website traffic, and wider economic and regulatory developments affecting gambling markets across Europe. Their point is that unlicensed operators are no longer just small or short-lived sites; some now have recognisable brands, established customer bases, and significant online visibility.
4. The report frames the issue around channelisation, meaning how effectively a regulated system keeps gambling activity within licensed operators subject to national rules, taxation, and consumer protection requirements. If channelisation slips, governments collect less tax, regulators see less, and consumers using unlicensed services fall outside the safeguards attached to authorised operators.
5. Euromat’s research also points to “consumer friction” as one reason users may move toward unregulated websites. The examples it gives include restrictions affecting product availability, promotional visibility, pricing, and the way customers are required to interact with licensed gambling businesses. Affordability checks are specifically mentioned as one of the measures under scrutiny, with design and implementation varying by jurisdiction.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is that regulation does not operate in a vacuum. If compliance demands become more restrictive or harder to navigate for customers, some traffic tends to look for less supervised rails. That is the uncomfortable part of the channelisation story: merchant quality, user experience, and regulatory design all end up influencing where payment volume goes.