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Update: Since the publication of this article, Esports Insider appears to have been reindexed in Google’s search results. However, the site currently seems to have removed its casino-related content, suggesting a strategic shift in response to the earlier deindexing. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide further updates as more information becomes available.
The editorial team at iGamingToday has previously written about how the industry has been waiting for a clearer signal from Google — some form of enforcement of the company’s own guidelines. For many, the last couple of years have almost felt like the wild west. Now, however, it may look like something bigger is happening — or at the very least that we may be seeing the first signs of it.
If confirmed, this could be one of the most visible actions taken against a parasite SEO network in recent years.
What we may be witnessing is one of the most powerful and intrusive actions Google can take: complete or near-complete removal of search visibility.
Over the weekend, the website EsportsInsider.com appears to have disappeared from Google’s search results. While it cannot be completely ruled out that this is caused by a temporary indexing issue, most signals currently point towards a deliberate action from Google. Early observations also suggest that several additional assets connected to the same network may have been affected, although not all sites appear to be impacted.
According to Ahrefs, the website had an estimated traffic of close to 650,000 visitors. The real traffic may, however, be significantly higher. EsportsInsider has also had strong visibility in news related to esports and gaming, an area where we know third-party tools like Ahrefs often struggle to fully capture traffic levels.
EsportsInsider.com was founded in 2016 by Sam Cooke and Rasmus Sojmark as part of the London-based media and events company Esports Insider. Originally focused on covering the business side of esports, the publication later changed ownership and its editorial focus shifted significantly.
Following the sale, the site increasingly expanded into SEO-driven content targeting high-value iGaming queries. Over the past 12 months, EsportsInsider.com has emerged as one of the larger SEO affiliate sites in the iGaming space, gaining visibility across a wide range of casino and betting-related search terms.
At the time of writing, the site does not appear even when searching directly for “EsportsInsider” in Google. However, pages from the domain can still be found using the “site:esportsinsider.com” search operator. This suggests that while the domain may still be indexed, it has lost a significant amount of its visibility in search results.
In many cases, this type of behavior can indicate a strong ranking suppression rather than a complete deindexing, something that has occasionally been observed when Google takes manual or algorithmic action against websites.
The website is owned — as far as the editorial team understands — by one of the larger companies within the affiliate space, a company that has grown significantly over the past two years.
Manual action
The most likely scenario is that Google has issued a manual action against the website.
This is something the iGaming industry has seen relatively little of over the past two years, even though certain voices within the SEO community have repeatedly pointed to several sites they believed should receive such actions.
Google itself describes manual actions as follows:
“Google issues a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google’s spam policies. Most manual actions address attempts to manipulate our search index. Most issues reported here will result in pages or sites being ranked lower or omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user.
If your site is affected by a manual action, we will notify you in the Manual Actions report and in the Search Console message center.”
A manual action does not necessarily have to be permanent. In order to have it lifted, the website owner must correct the issues that Google believes violate its policies and then submit a reconsideration request.
Are they shedding any tears?
Probably not.
For many larger affiliate companies, scenarios like this are often part of a calculated strategy. Losing individual assets can simply be a cost of doing business.
The editorial team knows that the company controls several strong assets, and some of these have already taken over rankings that previously belonged to EsportsInsider. This also illustrates how well-planned the strategy is — even if it is far from popular with everyone in the industry.
The core of the strategy lies in building and controlling multiple strong assets within the same vertical. When one asset disappears or loses rankings, others are ready to take its place. In practice, this creates a constant pipeline of sites that can absorb traffic and rankings when older assets fall.
What has made this strategy particularly effective over the past couple of years is that the company has managed to launch new assets faster than they have lost them. As a result, the overall footprint in search results has continued to grow despite occasional setbacks.
In other words, while individual websites may disappear from search results, the broader strategy ensures that the company’s overall visibility often remains largely intact.
More assets appear affected
Since the first observations were made, it also appears that several additional assets connected to the same network may have been affected. Some sites that previously ranked strongly are currently showing reduced visibility or are no longer appearing in Google’s search results.
At the same time, not all assets within the network appear to be impacted, and several sites continue to rank as normal.
It is still too early to confirm whether this is part of a broader enforcement action from Google or a series of individual actions. However, the situation suggests that the EsportsInsider case may not be an isolated incident.
If this trend continues, it could indicate that Google is targeting parts of a broader network rather than a single site.
Could more actions follow?
That may be the biggest question right now.
Several of this affiliate’s assets have previously been mentioned on LinkedIn and in podcasts, and it is hardly a secret within the industry which websites the company controls.
This means it cannot be ruled out that additional websites could be targeted if Google has decided to go after this type of setup.
Whether this is the beginning of broader enforcement from Google — or simply a series of isolated events — remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that many in the SEO and affiliate industry are now watching closely to see what happens next.
Why are we not naming the company?
Although the editorial team has a fairly clear understanding of who is behind several of these websites, ownership structures in setups like this are often complex and fragmented. This makes it difficult to establish with complete certainty which legal entities formally control each individual site.
For that reason, we have chosen not to name the company directly. That said, most people who follow the industry closely will likely have a good idea of who we are referring to.
