Beyond Borders: How Parasite SEO and Domain Repurposing Are Quietly Reshaping Global iGaming Markets

Google is actively fighting a surge of “Parasite SEO” — a form of site reputation abuse where bad actors exploit the ranking power of trusted domains to promote deceptive or irrelevant content. In a November 2025 statement, Google’s Chief Scientist for Search, Pandu Nayak, described the practice as a direct threat to users and search quality, noting that publishers are often paid to host content designed purely to manipulate rankings. 

At the same time, the European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into Google’s anti-spam policy, with publishers claiming that stricter enforcement harms their revenue. The Commission argues that Google’s measures may unfairly demote legitimate publishers, raising concerns about compliance under the Digital Markets Act. 

Caught between Google’s crackdown and rising regulatory pressure is a thriving grey economy of SEO manipulation — and nowhere is the impact more visible than in the global online gambling industry.

Sweden: A Case Study in High-Value “Shadow SEO”

Sweden has emerged as one of the clearest examples of how parasitic SEO is being leveraged to exploit highly lucrative search terms — primarily:

• “casinon utan svensk licens” (casinos without Swedish license)
• “MGA-casinon utan svensk licens” (MGA casinos without Swedish license)

Swedish players — restricted by strict local regulations, deposit limits, Spelpaus, and advertising rules — frequently turn to Google in search of offshore alternatives. This makes the Swedish market an irresistible target for domain hijackers and SEO operators.

A recent investigation by Casinomag.se traced a pattern of expired, abandoned, or dead websites that were quietly reactivated and used to rank for these high-intent keywords, including:

• former NGOs
• research institutions
• ex-startup tech domains
• shuttered cafés and restaurants
• discontinued blockchain projects from multinational corporations

Domains such as TheConvergingWorld.org, GFAR.net, Gestoos.com, Fayzes.com, TradeLens.com, and DottiesCoffeeLounge.com were all part of this pattern — repurposed temporarily to capture Swedish gambling traffic before being redirected, wiped, or repositioned again.

This strategy yields immediate SEO gains because these domains carry legacy authority, often including:

• government links
• university citations
• media coverage
• global NGO references

For gambling affiliates targeting Swedish users, this authority can bypass months — even years — of legitimate SEO work.

The UK: The Same Playbook, Different Keywords

While Sweden provides one of the cleanest datasets thanks to its sharply defined “licensed” vs “unlicensed” search environment, the problem is not Swedish at all — it is global.

The UK, for example, shows identical patterns around the extremely competitive keyword:

• “Non Gamstop Casinos”

And just as in Sweden, completely unrelated domains are being used to hijack this traffic.

One of the clearest examples:
CuckoosBakery.co.uk, once a real bakery, currently ranks #1 in the UK for “Non Gamstop Casinos” — despite having zero historical connection to iGaming.

This mirrors the Swedish cases almost perfectly:

• A reputable past business
• Genuine local backlinks
• Strong domain age
• No gambling history
• Domain expires or is neglected
• SEO operators step in
• Gambling content suddenly appears
• High ranking achieved

The pattern is so consistent across markets that it appears to be a standardized, global tactic — not a series of isolated actions.

A Borderless Strategy: No Geographic Limits, No Market Boundaries

The examples from Sweden and the UK illustrate something critical:

There are no geographical limits to parasite SEO or domain repurposing.

Domains from:

• the UK
• Spain
• India
• the United States
• Sweden
• Italy
• Malta
• the Netherlands

…have all been used to target offshore gambling traffic in completely different jurisdictions.

Some domains originally had nothing to do with gambling — they belonged to:

• NGOs fighting climate change
• academic institutions
• government-funded research programmes
• supply-chain blockchain pilots
• local restaurants or bakeries
• machine equipment retailers

Others were once part of multinational tech ecosystems — such as TradeLens, the IBM–Maersk blockchain initiative — before becoming casino SEO vessels.

Google vs. the EU: A Regulatory Tug-of-War

This global pattern is occurring at the exact moment Google is trying to tighten its enforcement against site reputation abuse, while the EU suggests that these rules themselves may violate competition principles.

The tension is clear:

Google’s position

• Parasitic SEO degrades search quality.
• Strong anti-spam policies protect users.
• Publishers hosting low-quality third-party content must be penalized.

EU Commission’s position

• Anti-spam policies may harm legitimate publishers.
• Google’s enforcement may be too aggressive.
• News media and EU digital industries risk revenue loss.

Caught in the middle are:

• legitimate affiliates
• operators
• regulators
• and the users themselves

who contend with an increasingly unstable search environment.

For the iGaming Industry, the Stakes Are Higher Than Ever

1. Ranking volatility is now artificially influenced by external, non-gambling domains.

2. User trust is undermined when benign domains suddenly become gambling gateways.

3. Affiliates competing legitimately are outranked by hijacked authority.

4. Regulators lose visibility into how unlicensed operators reach players.

5. Enforcement becomes nearly impossible when domains redirect or disappear within weeks.

Parasitic SEO is not simply a search-engine problem — it is becoming a regulatory, commercial, and consumer-protection problem.

Conclusion: The Globalization of Parasitic SEO

The Swedish market reveals the mechanics with extraordinary clarity due to its defined regulatory boundaries and high-value keyword structure (“casinon utan svensk licens” and “MGA-casinon utan svensk licens”).

The UK confirms the same behaviour with “Non Gamstop Casinos.”

The underlying strategy — domain repurposing for unlicensed casino traffic — is spreading across markets with no geographic constraints and no clear regulatory ownership.

As Google tightens its policies and the EU challenges the scope of those policies, the iGaming industry finds itself navigating a global SEO landscape where old domains never die — they simply come back wearing new identities.