Stake's Ed Craven: “The rise of Stake has been heavily based around our ability to really push boundaries”

It was a proud moment for Ed Craven (pictured right) and Bijan Tehrani, co-founders of crypto-first gambling giant Stake, as they stood at the front of a packed crowd in London’s historic Guildhall on 5 February to watch the unveiling of Stake F1 Team’s brand new C44 Sauber car sporting bright green and black livery, with the Stake logo emblazoned across the side of the bodywork.

After dipping its toes in the world of F1 with a co-title sponsorship of the Sauber team alongside Alfa Romeo last year, Stake has now taken over as exclusive title partner for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. In countries where gambling advertising is prohibited, the team will switch to the Kick Sauber name instead since streaming platform Kick, backed by Stake’s co-founders, owns the chassis naming rights.

The lavish ceremony saw the façade of the Guildhall lit up with green banners featuring the “Unleashed” mantra, which team representative for the Stake F1 Team Alessandro Alunni Bravi told media on the night is translated into all the team’s assets, from the colour scheme to a new team identity.

For Australia’s youngest billionaire, Craven, seeing the Stake brand on the side of an F1 car was a far cry from when the operator first launched back in 2017. In an intimate roundtable discussion with gaming media for the first time, the 28-year-old co-founder shared how the company has grown since then. “When Stake started, the demographics and the market that we were aiming for was much, much smaller. It was a very niche industry, but it’s grown a lot. With that our ambitions grew every year. We started setting the bar a little bit higher and more things came to reality,” he said.

On the future for Stake in regulated markets, Craven disclosed during the roundtable that the company roadmap includes expansion into those jurisdictions and that the operator is working with local regulators to make this a reality in as many countries as possible. “We are constantly working towards trying to make sure the website and app are accessible to as many people as possible. We don’t want to be in situations where we have to make the product unavailable.”

EGR: How did Stake’s involvement with F1 first come about?

Ed Craven (EC): We really started to notice about three years ago how global the F1 sporting event had become; it was reaching every continent, almost every country. And that, to us, was really powerful messaging that you can get across for a company like Stake which operates in a very global capacity. We started exploring options and tried to figure out how we could best get involved. We looked at it as a way to try to position ourselves as close to the F1 as possible.

EGR: Last year, Stake was the co-title sponsor but now it’s the exclusive title partner. How will that help boost your brand awareness and what do you hope to achieve through the F1 partnership?

EC: We viewed last year as sort of a learning curve, a way to enter the sport very quietly and understand a little bit more about exactly how it works. But this year, it completely changes the game – it has become the Stake F1 Team and that puts us front and centre. We really want to get behind the team and help it to get to new levels that were previously maybe a little bit more difficult to reach. This is not just a sponsorship; it’s much more of a partnership and much more of a true investment into the success of the team. And, subsequently, the exposure for us will be a lot higher as well.

EGR: Canadian rapper Drake is one of your brand ambassadors. How do you see that relationship developing?

EC: The story behind Drake has always been a really great one and we’ve maintained an incredible relationship with him. The best part about the story is that Drake was a customer on the website before we signed any agreement with him. He loved the product. It took a bit of time, but we managed to come to a commercial agreement as well, which hopefully has benefited both parties.

But we treat that same mentality with all the ambassadors we work with. If you sign an agreement and just be done with it, and expect them to look out for the product, it won’t work. It’s all about maintaining those really solid relationships, looking after them not only as an ambassador but hopefully as a customer as well. I feel that’s exactly how it’s worked with Drake, and we continue to have a really healthy relationship. He was also involved with the launch of the Stake F1 Team. He helped us get that across the line, which was actually a favour on his part because he was just really glad to be part of the team. We hope to replicate that same deal structure and relationships with other people who also enjoy our products.

EGR: Regulus Partners published a chart in 2022 of the biggest gambling companies in the world and Stake was seventh in terms of GGR. Can you explain more about the scale of Stake, how big it has become in a short space of time and how you’ve achieved that?

EC: I guess that statistic was based around revenues. What defines the largest brands is much more than just revenues. There’s also the number of active users. I don’t think revenues is the sole way of defining that we are the seventh largest site. I think that would be an unfair metric.

But the rise of Stake has been heavily based around our ability to really push boundaries. I think the industry itself had been a little bit slow to adapt to the way the internet and this sector was heading, and we found gaps in terms of not just marketing but also product and how we could look after our customers. That was always the way we positioned ourselves.

A lot of other operators have been trying to maximise profitability on turnover, ie the money that they’re taking in their revenues, but we’re doing the opposite. So, while you do look at really high revenues, our margins on that are typically much, much lower than other traditional operators. We look at that as a good thing because it definitely enhances customer loyalty and that’s one of the most important metrics for us.

EGR: Could you tell us more about the acquisition of Betfair Colombia, and what your expansion plans are for Latam?

EC: Just like any other operator, we look at Latin America as having a lot of potential. It is rapidly regulating; the landscape is changing. For a long time, there weren’t as many guidelines in place as there are today. We’re looking forward to being able to aggressively enter as many markets there as possible and Colombia was a great opportunity. As Betfair was exiting, we were looking to enter, so it just came across as a natural fit. So far, it’s been really successful, and we will continue to replicate that model across a lot of other Latin American countries.