Stake (online casino)

Not to be confused with Stake (platform).

Stake is a Curaçaoan cryptocurrency-based online casino operated by Medium Rare NV, a company incorporated in Curaçao that holds an online casino licence.^[3][4] A company with offices in Serbia, Australia, and Cyprus, Stake has staff globally.^[5]

Stake

Industry	Gambling
Founded	2017 (2017)
Headquarters	Curaçao
Key people	Mladen Vučković (CEO)[1]
Revenue	US$2.6 billion (2022)[2]
Website	stake.com

History

In 2016, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani established Easygo, a company that developed games for online casinos.^[3] The two co-created Stake, which was launched in 2017.^[3] In December 2021, Stake expanded to the United Kingdom (UK) through a partnership with TGP Europe.^[6]

On 1 August 2022, Stake.us was launched as a separate site for U.S. residents.^[7][8] In June 2023, a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed a $580 million lawsuit against Stake due to jurisdictional issues. The plaintiff, Christopher Freeman, an early associate of Craven and Tehrani, claimed that he had been excluded from the business and misled using illegal tactics.^[9][10] On 4 September, 2023, over US$41 million was stolen from one of Stake's Ethereum wallets in a hacking incident.^[11] The Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed the attack to North Korea's Lazarus Group.^[12]

In December 2024, Stake released a native application for the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, making it the first online casino available on the platform.^[13]

In February 2025, Stake announced that the company was giving up its UK gambling licence after complaints that a social media advertisement featuring porn actress Bonnie Blue and the company's logo was using sexual content to attract young customers. The company's UK business closed on 11 March.^[14][15]

Offerings

Stake offers traditional casino games (such as slots, blackjack and roulette) and sports betting.^[3][16] It offers video streams with live dealers.^[3]

Users at Stake generally transact in cryptocurrencies rather than traditional currencies for their betting accounts.^[3] Account balances can be withdrawn in the equivalent value of cryptocurrency and then deposited back into the user's personal cryptocurrency wallet.^[3] Users of Stake's UK site deal only in fiat currency.^[6]

Advertising and sponsorship

Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas in their Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber cars at the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix.

Logo of Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Stake has had sponsorship deals with various musicians,^[17] sportspeople,^[18][19][20] teams,^{[21][22][23][24][25]} and events^[26][27] across many sports.

Stake garnered publicity in 2022 via advertising deals with streaming personalities such as Trainwreckstv, xQc, and Drake, under which they were provided with credit to gamble during streams on Twitch. The surge in gambling streams tied to these deals and others led to scrutiny, resulting in Twitch announcing in September 2022 that it would prohibit streams of online slots, roulette and dice games on services that are not licensed to operate in the United States or "other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection"—a ban that would include Stake.^[7][28][29] Craven and Tehrani subsequently launched a competing livestreaming service known as Kick as a sister company, which would differentiate itself by promising higher revenue splits to streamers than Twitch, and looser content guidelines—especially in regards to gambling streams.^[29]

Both Stake and Kick are sponsors of the Sauber Motorsport team in Formula One. The cars' livery alternates between Stake and Kick-branded designs, with the latter usually used in countries where Stake cannot be advertised due to local laws.^[30][31]

In February 2024, Stake expanded its involvement in Formula 1 by rebranding the Sauber team as the "Stake F1 Team." The launch event took place at London's Guildhall, where the new C44 car featuring green and black livery was presented.^[32][33]

A Stake watermark, like those placed under X content.

In late-2024, it was reported that Stake had partnered with a number of content aggregator accounts on X, which repost viral images and videos taken from other users (sometimes in a plagiarized form), and are edited to include an additional watermark advertising Stake. The UK Advertising Standards Authority stated in October 2024 that it had been made aware of the advertising and was monitoring it. The ads may be a violation of X's terms of service for paid partnerships, while they may run afoul of advertising codes restricting the marketing of gambling products where minors may be present. The watermarks have been satirized as an internet meme by social media users, including posts that include excessive numbers of Stake logos for comedic effect, or similar posts with logos for other companies.^[34][35][7]