India iGaming Top 20: September 2026 Brand Rankings

India's September 2026 iGaming ranking shows international brands continuing to compete with locally focused operators for online visibility, with influencer marketing, cricket partnerships and affiliate acquisition playing prominent roles.

The Top 20 ranking is based primarily on Ahrefs data, with Google Trends used as an additional comparison of brand interest in the country.

The market operates against a difficult regulatory backdrop. India now prohibits online money games, while authorities continue targeting illegal gambling platforms through website restrictions, financial investigations and enforcement actions.

Stake Uses Music and Sports Influencers in India

Stake remains one of the most visible international gambling brands targeting Indian audiences.

Its local marketing has included collaborations with Indian musician Karan Aujla, who has around 15.2 million Instagram followers, alongside integrations involving sports creators Rishiwar Singh, Akhil Ratra and Aditya Dube.

The strategy combines Stake's global brand recognition with personalities whose audiences are concentrated in India.

Dafabet has taken a more sports-media-focused approach through DafaNews. The brand works with former Indian cricketer and commentator Veda Krishnamurthy, who has around 877,000 Instagram followers, and sports journalist Mayanti Langer, with approximately 873,000.

BC.GAME is also using cricket as a route into the regional audience. The operator is an official partner of Deccan Gladiators, the Abu Dhabi T10 cricket franchise.

The activity illustrates the importance of cricket-related marketing for international gambling brands seeking visibility among Indian consumers.

Yolo247 Climbs to 13th Place

Local brand Yolo247 moved into 13th position in the September ranking.

The operator is an official partner of Desert Vipers, the UAE professional cricket franchise competing in the International League T20.

GullyBet ranks 16th and follows a different acquisition strategy. Its marketing activity is more heavily concentrated on the Indian market, including cooperation with betting tipsters and other acquisition channels on Telegram.

The presence of locally focused platforms alongside large international brands shows that search visibility in India is not determined solely by global scale.

Local acquisition networks, cricket partnerships and regional content can also generate meaningful brand demand.

India Steps Up Enforcement Against Online Gambling

The ranking comes as India continues tightening enforcement around real-money online gambling.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming framework prohibits online money games, including their advertising, promotion and related payment processing.

Authorities have continued investigations into platforms and payment networks suspected of supporting illegal gambling activity.

In August, enforcement actions connected with illegal online gaming and betting included searches and asset seizures as authorities investigated networks accused of processing gambling transactions and moving funds through multiple entities.

The financial side of the market is also attracting greater scrutiny.

A 14-month investigation by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence identified approximately INR 70,000 crore, or around $7.4 billion, in transactions connected with an illegal betting ecosystem during one financial year.

The investigation examined payment structures that allegedly used intermediary merchants and multiple accounts to obscure the destination and movement of gambling-related funds.

DGGI Wants More Payment Data

Following its investigation, DGGI proposed expanding the information collected by banks and payment providers.

One recommendation would require payment systems to record the website that directed a customer to a transaction. This could make it easier for authorities to connect individual payments with gambling platforms even when intermediary merchants are involved.

DGGI has also proposed requiring companies registered for GST to disclose all associated bank accounts, helping investigators build a more complete picture of where payments are received, transferred and layered.

For gambling operators, these measures would increase the difficulty of relying on payment structures that separate the consumer-facing website from the merchant receiving the transaction.

India therefore remains a large source of online gambling demand while becoming an increasingly difficult market for operators to access.

The September rankings show that international and local brands continue competing for consumer attention, but search visibility now sits alongside growing enforcement pressure on advertising, payments and the underlying gambling platforms themselves.

The main ranking uses Ahrefs data based on combined search volume across related keywords. Google Trends provides a separate comparison of brand interest. Differences between the two datasets are expected because they use different methodologies, making the combined view more useful than either ranking in isolation.