Stake (online casino)

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 mislead 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 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.^[13]

Stake offers traditional casino games (such as slots, blackjack and roulette) and sports betting.^[3][14] 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transact in cryptocurrencies rather than traditional currencies for their betting accounts.^[3] Account balances can be withdrawn in the equivalent value of cryptocurrency and then deposited back into the user's personal cryptocurrency wallet.^[3] Users of Stake's UK site deal only in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]

Stake has had sponsorship deals with various musicians,^[15] sportspeople,^[16][17][18] teams,^{[19][20][21][22][23]} organisations,^[24] leagues and matches^[25] 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][26][27] 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.^[27] In Formula One, Stake logos on the Sauber team's livery were replaced with those of Kick during selected races, particularly those held in countries where Stake could not be advertised due to local laws.^[28][29]

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.^[30][31][7]