Crypto Casino Stake Rakes In $2.6B Gaming Revenue In 2022
Two Australian entrepreneurs have turned their crypto gambling platform, Stake, into the seventh-largest gambling group in the world by revenue. According to data from strategic advisory firm Regulus Partners, Stake generated nearly $2.6 billion in gross gaming revenue last year, up from $1.2 billion in 2020 and just $105 million in 2019.
Last year alone, Australian gambling site Stake generated nearly $2.6 billion in revenue, according to FT. It accepts fiat and cryptos, including BTC ETH DOGE BCH and others. There has been data that a large part of USDT payments come from this website. https://t.co/AlQciV7xRp
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 29, 2023
RuneScape to Billionaire: The Story of Stake’s Founders
Stake’s founders, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, met while playing online game RuneScape and started the crypto dice gambling platform Primedice. Primedice ultimately became the foundation of Stake’s beginnings, with the new venture offering video poker, casino games, and sports betting. The site accepts both fiat and cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, dogecoin, and bitcoin cash, among others.
The platform, which attracted several high-rollers, has taken steps to tame the stigma tied to both crypto and gambling through big-budget marketing campaigns aimed at reassuring 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.
Drake’s $38M Wins, Premier League and F1 Deals
Stake’s success has led to sponsorship deals with Premier League club Everton and Alfa Romeo’s F1 team, among others. Canadian rapper Drake also reportedly signed a $100 million-per-year endorsement deal with Stake in 2022 and has won $38 million by gambling bitcoin on the platform.
However, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Stake. Christopher Freeman, a former business associate who worked on Primedice, sued Craven and Tehrani for $400 million last month, arguing they secretly betrayed him by misleading him about the nature of their next venture.
Growing User Base
While some view crypto trading as gambling more than investing, Stake’s success suggests that there is a growing market for cryptocurrency-based gambling platforms. Stake’s regular users, reportedly around 600,000, hail from Southeast Asian countries, Japan, and Brazil, which have more loose regulations compared to other regions.
Stake has also expanded its operations beyond crypto, with minor gambling operations in the US and UK. The success of Stake highlights the potential for crypto-based gambling platforms and the willingness of some users to embrace them.
