Crypto Casino Made $2.6B in Gaming Revenue Last Year

Stake reportedly pays Canadian rapper Drake, who frequently gambles in bitcoin, $100 million per year to endorse the crypto-friendly casino

article-image

Moe-Shot Photo Stock/Shutterstock, modified by Blockworks

share

Some folk view crypto trading as gambling more than investing. Two ambitious entrepreneurs made the most of it by starting crypto casino Stake in 2017.

Stake has since sprung up to become the seventh-largest gambling group in the world by revenue, per the Financial Times, which cited data from strategic advisory firm Regulus Partners. 

DraftKings, one of the most prominent sports betting firms, lags behind. Stake generated nearly $2.6 billion in gross gaming revenue last year alone, the Financial Times reported.

That’s up from 1.8 billion Australian dollars ($1.2 billion) in 2021 and a big jump from just $105 million in the year prior.

Stake’s founders, 27-year-old Ed Craven and 28-year-old Bijan Tehrani, were childhood friends who met on online roleplaying game RuneScape, per the FT. They teamed up to create a crypto dice gambling platform Primedice when they were around 20. Craven is now considered Australia’s youngest billionaire.

Primedice ultimately became the foundation of Stake’s beginnings, with the new venture offering video poker, casino games and sports betting. It accepts both fiat and cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, dogecoin and bitcoin cash, among others.

The site attracted several “high-rollers” — people willing to spend on gambling lavishly — due to big-budget marketing meant to tame the stigma tied to both crypto and gambling, according to Craven. A goal was to reassure customers that the founders wouldn’t run off with their money, a somewhat common occurrence in some areas of the crypto market at the time.

Canadian rapper Drake signed a $100 million-per-year endorsement deal with Stake.com in 2022, the FT said, citing two people familiar with the matter. Drake has reportedly won $38 million by gambling bitcoin on the platform. Blockworks has reached out for comment.

The crypto casino also has the support of some big names, including sponsorship deals with Premier League club Everton and Alfa Romeo’s F1 team. 

Other major online gambling sites focus on tightly regulated markets, but the bulk of Stake’s regular users (which the FT reported as 600,000) hail from more loose jurisdictions across Southeast Asian countries, Japan and Brazil.

Stake reportedly has minor gambling operations, not involving crypto, in the US and UK.

It hasn’t been all rosy, though. Former business associate Christopher Freeman, who worked on Primedice, sued Craven and his co-founder for $400 million last month, arguing they secretly betrayed him by misleading him about the nature of their next venture.

Crypto might still be in the throes of crypto winter. But at least in Stake’s case, there’s no bear market for gambling.


Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.

Tags

    Upcoming Events

    HYATT REGENCY SALT LAKE CITY

    TUES, OCT. 8, 2024

    Guided by the expertise of Blockworks Research Analysts team, this one day event will feature senior leaders, entrepreneurs, and developers from across the crypto industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an immersive experience to explore the latest trends, […]

    Salt Lake City, UT

    WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

    Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

    recent research

    hivemapper.jpeg

    Research

    We believe crypto market participants overlook Hivemapper’s fundamental potential due to a poor understanding of both the niche map data market and Hivemapper’s positioning relative to incumbents. Hivemapper’s token model catalyzes both a cost and product advantage via unmatched map freshness and near real-time accuracy, which is its wedge into a market characterized by stale data and high data collection costs. Its current and potential future product suite may represent one of the strongest possibilities for PMF in crypto today.

    article-image

    The Fidelity Ethereum Fund, like other proposed ETH ETFs, seeks to stake a portion of its assets, according to the firm’s Wednesday registration statement

    article-image

    The DAO first voted on enabling SAFE transfers over a year ago

    article-image

    The final Bitcoin halving, where the mining reward becomes smaller than one satoshi, is expected to occur in 2140

    article-image

    The Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced back-to-back lawsuits against KuCoin Tuesday

    article-image

    Judge Failla found that Coinbase didn’t operate as an unregistered broker in offering its wallet service

    article-image

    A fund by Laser Digital offers investors exposure to the Polygon network, while a new 21Shares ETP focuses on staking rewards from Toncoin