Russia’s digital censors are without a doubt the hardest working people in the online gambling sector.

Russia’s telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor blocked nearly 14,500 unauthorized online gambling domains in the month of August, bringing the year-to-date total of blocked domains to over 76k, a 269% rise over the number of blocked domains in all of 2017.

Russia prohibits all online gambling except sports betting, and has to date issued 15 online sports betting licenses to Russian firms. According to July website traffic reports, Fonbet continues to lead the pack, reporting 10.1m visits, well ahead of runner-up 1xBet at 8.3m visits, while third-place finisher Liga Stavok was well back at 4.9m.

Russian-licensed sites are believed to capture about 60% of domestic online betting action but they face hurdles that their internationally licensed competitors – the ones Roskomnadzor strives so faithfully to sandbag – do not.