The Stake Marketing Phenomenon

Hi, BHW!

Recently I made some research on how the crypto casino Stake became a global brand and one of the most recognizable brands in the iGaming and Web3 worlds. My research consists of five parts; there may be more, but for now, there are five. Since there’s a lot of information, I’ll be publishing it in stages. Today, we’ll start with the origins, specifically the years 2013–2017. We’ll explore how two guys built a $2.6 billion gambling empire from scratch.

The Backstory Nobody Talks About
Founders Ed Craven and Bijan Terani met as teenagers while playing RuneScape. They set up an unofficial in-game betting operation, for which they were banned. Most people would have stopped there. But not them. That was the first step for these two into betting and iGaming.

PrimeDice. 2013.
The next project of this duo was PrimeDice — a simple Bitcoin dice game. It was one of the first “provably fair” platforms where players could mathematically verify the result of every roll. The casino generates a hash of the server seed BEFORE the bet is placed. After the game, players can verify and prove that the result is not rigged. In 2013, this was a revolutionary advantage for the crypto community, which valued trustless verification.

Key facts about PrimeDice:
- PrimeDice followed in the footsteps of SatoshiDice (the first BTC gambling site, launched in 2012), but processed bets instantly on its own servers — without waiting for confirmation on the blockchain
- On BitcoinTalk (the leading crypto forum at the time), a thread about PrimeDice had been active since May 2013 (in the “Gambling” section)
- Over a million dollars in bets on the first day of launch
- Real-time chat on platform — players communicated in real time, which fostered a sense of community and unity.

Why this matters: By the time Stake launched in 2017, the founders already had a base of loyal cryptocurrency gamblers that had been built up over four years. They were also well-known and had a reputation on the leading cryptocurrency forum, BitcoinTalk. Stake did not start from scratch; they already had a “strong foundation.”

Easygo (2016)
In 2016, Craven and Terani founded Easygo, their own online casino game development studio in Melbourne. The startup capital was funded by profits from Primedice.

Launch of Stake (August 2017)
Stake launched in August 2017 under a Curacao license. Terani announced the platform on BitcoinTalk, calling it “the future of gambling.” The product’s unique selling proposition from the very beginning:
- Complete absence of KYC — no identity verification
- Instant deposits and withdrawals in cryptocurrency
- Provable fairness — every gambler can verify the authenticity of the bet result; everything is on the blockchain
- Unlimited betting — no geographical restrictions, no limits.
- Initially, only their own games from the “Originals” series (Dice, Crash, Mines, Plinko)


In 2017, there were practically no such casinos. The product itself solved a specific problem for the crypto audience, the ability to play quickly, anonymously, without limits, and with provable fairness. They didn’t launch a casino; they launched a product created by crypto specialists for the crypto community. After many years of work to build trust within the very community they were targeting.

Part 2 will cover traffic acquisition channels.

The Stake Marketing Phenomenon. Part 2 of 5

It’s 2017. EasyGo is up and running, and Stake has officially entered the market. Now focus should be on driving traffic to a new crypto product. Stake used a lot of traffic channels, but ,most of them were FREE or not cost a lot.

• crypto forums. Stake followed PrimeDice’s and created a threads on popular crypto forums
• signature campaigns. They created on forums signature ad campaign, when users placed a Stake ad signature under their posts — like we have here. It was paid from STAKE to users in BTC. This generated thousands of brand impressions daily across EVERY section of the forum.
• promotions. $50K weekly challenge, BTC giveaways, biggest multiplier contests, rake races – Stake created A lot of activieties on the platform for users
• Reddit. Announcements and engagement across crypto subreddits
• Existing PrimeDice user base. Thousands of loyal crypto gamblers from PrimeDice, effectively migrated to the new platform. Stakke was promoted on the PrimeDice website
• Micro-streamers on Twitch. Stake go into micro influencers on Twich, they buy first gaming/gambling streamers
• Banner ads on crypto sites. Via Coinzilla, Stake ran banners and native ads on DexTools, Etherscan, BscScan, and similar platforms.
• Affiliate program. A lot of users promoted Stake aff program, because they had revshare. People. crypto guys were looking for Stake links to have an opportunity to promote it
• Community as marketing

1. Rain: Stake give money to active chat memebers. They also needed to make bets. A bot randomly dropped crypto to active users, who play slots, make bets and are active in chat
2. Live chat: players communicated in real time chat on the platfor. For those years it was something news and totally different from all casinos.
3. Giveaways: random BTC drops for active chat participants.
4. Rake races: weekly competitions for the highest betting volume, with a prize pool.

• Tip system: players could send crypto to each other directly via the chat.
• The 2017 BTC bull run. A lot of crypto guys become rich in those times, first or even second crypto millioners come into this world! And they wanted to SPEND thos money, so crypto casino good be good place. And they also knew about it, because Stake was everywhere, where crypto guys were – forums, tools. reddit
• Founder’s personal brand. Ed Craven acted like a gambling streamer, not a CEO — he played on Twich, play slots and make bets, gave money through stream viewers, engaged in chats. He posted on Twitter about his streams, share Stake promos and and actively ran his account, so he become very popular and recognizable in crypto X community

Result by end of 2018: 100,000+ monthly players. November 2019: sportsbook launch — product expansion.

that $2.6B number is wild when you factor in how early they were moving in crypto gambling, like 2013-2014 was basically the wild west before any serious licensing frameworks existed. the angle i dont see people covering enough is the affiliate side of how stake blew up, ran a crypto gambling offer through admaven back in 2021 and the CPAs were insane because the category had basically zero mainstream ad inventory competing against it. curious if your research touches on how their affiliate program structured commissions in those early years because that infrastructure usually tells you more about a brand's growth strategy than any influencer deal does.

RunItBackROI said:

that $2.6B number is wild when you factor in how early they were moving in crypto gambling, like 2013-2014 was basically the wild west before any serious licensing frameworks existed. the angle i dont see people covering enough is the affiliate side of how stake blew up, ran a crypto gambling offer through admaven back in 2021 and the CPAs were insane because the category had basically zero mainstream ad inventory competing against it. curious if your research touches on how their affiliate program structured commissions in those early years because that infrastructure usually tells you more about a brand's growth strategy than any influencer deal does.

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No, I have not found any stats about their CPA offers, do you know the rate? I knew, that stake do not promote their affiliate program on forums and etc, it is interesting!

The Stake Marketing Phenomenon. Part 3 of 5

We finished previous text with Stake launching its sportsbook in late 2019, which gave them the opportunity to bring MORE traffic and scale their marketing activities and attract a new audience.

In the spring of 2020, when COVID hit the world, all of us went into lockdown. Twitch’s audience grew from 1.26 million (2019) to 2.12 million (2020). The number of active streamers rose from 3.3 million to 8.5 million. People were stuck at home and looking for entertainment.

It was the best moment for STAKE to start their full scale marketing campaigns! And they done it, brand began its large-scale collaborations with streamers on Twitch and YouTube: xQc, Adin Ross, Trainwreckstv, SteveWillDoIt, Roshtein, Xposed.

In addition to its massive push on Twitch, Stake also launched an army of “clippers".
People edited clips/shortsvideos from famous streamers’ live broadcasts and posted them on T`ikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Stake paid $500–800 per million views; every “big win” turned into viral CONTENT and advertising that bypassed the platforms’ restrictions on gambling ads.

By 2021, Stake was highly profitable and ready to invest in BIG sponsorships. 2021 is considered the “start” of major offline sponsorships:
- February 2021: Partnership with UFC champion Israel Adesanya (brand ambassador)
- March: Stake became the official betting partner of the UFC in Latin America and Asia
- May: Partnership with UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou
- July: First football sponsorship. Stake logo on Watford FC jerseys in the Premier League
- December: Entry into the UK market.

If you think 2021 was Stake’s biggest “success” – you’re wrong. In fact, the “BOOST” came in 2022, when Stake experienced its greatest expansion and its greatest crisis at the same time.

The Stake Marketing Phenomenon. Part 4 of 5

In previous posts, we take a look how Stake’s “rise” to popularity, but I wanto show you guys, how exacrtly Stake become world wide brand. How in just a 2 years they become number 1 crypto casino all over the world. And till nowadays, nobody cant change then on the first place of crypto gamlbing

2022 Timeline:
March: Partnership with Drake, probalby the biggest advertising deal in gambling history. Millions of people watched the artist’s streams, where he bet hundreds of thousands of dollars, video-called his fans, and gave money to stake audience. Than in april Stake come with first sponsorship in Japan, after that Jose Aldo (UFC fighter with brasil roots) become Stake ambasador.
In June 2022 Stake become Everton title sponsor, logo of crypto casino on the T-shirts of players. July – launch stake on US, made it like sweepstakes casino. In August they entered into the Indian market: partnerships with Mumbai City FC and Hyderabad FC

September 2022 become one of the hardest months for brand. Twitch ban ALL unlicensed US casinos. Starting October 18 gambling views on Twitch dropped by 75–97% almost instantly

Twitch was the big traffic source for Stake, and so as not to lose the “goose that lays the golden eggs,” Stake decided to create its own! In December 2022, Stake launched KICK—a streaming service where streamers keep 95% of the revenue (compared to 50% on Twitch). The platform received 200,000 sign-ups in the first 24 hours and over 1 million in 69 days

2023 was another year of rapid growth for Stake. Stake signed a sponsorship deal with the Alfa Romeo F1 Team, which became the “Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake.” In countries where gambling advertising is banned, the team competed as the “Kick Sauber F1 Team”—the Stake logo was replaced with the Kick logo. This allowed the company to maintain its reach and views while promoting its secondary product.

Top streamers migrated to Kick: Adin Ross, Trainwreckstv, xQc, Tfue, Amouranth, Roshtein, Nickmercs

2023 finished very well for Stake. In part 5 we will take a look from 2023 till nowadays

Solid topic — casino traffic quality has shifted a lot recently with payment processor crackdowns affecting which GEOs convert cleanly. The gap between raw clicks and actual FTDs has widened for most paid channels. What's your current cost-per-FTD benchmark and which channels are you seeing the best quality from?

igamingftd said:

Solid topic — casino traffic quality has shifted a lot recently with payment processor crackdowns affecting which GEOs convert cleanly. The gap between raw clicks and actual FTDs has widened for most paid channels. What's your current cost-per-FTD benchmark and which channels are you seeing the best quality from?

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Good question, but I can not give an answer. If you take a look at Stake/Rainbet strategy, I think the best traffic source for them is clipper army, streamers and viral video on social media. I see a lot of rainbet ads because people make viral video with casino logo or play poker on rainbet website during video)


The Stake Marketing Phenomenon. Part 5 of 5

So, here we are, ready to analyze Stake’s recent years. You can find all previous parts above in feed!

2024 marked a year of major collaborations for Stake. In January they Purchase italian iGaming company to entry into the Italian market
- February: Title sponsor of F1: “Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber” for the 2024–2025 seasons.
- Partnership with Racing and Sports Technology for horse racing betting
- In the middle of 2024: x4 growth in 2 years. 253 billion bets on the platform VS 65 billion in 2022
- End of 2024: Partnership with content aggregators on Twitter/X. Accounts with large impressions ADD stake logo to almost all posts. Musk blocked them in December 2024, but it didn’t help. Users created and shared hundreds and thousands of pieces of content where the Stake logo was EVERYWHERE. It gaves A LOT of new users and people who saw Stake logo for the first time.

By the end of 2024, Stake’s revenue had reached $4.7 billion. 2025 was a bit tougher for Stake. In February Stake leave UK market. March, Strategic pivot. Shifting from an exclusively crypto platform to accepting 70% of transactions in fiat currency. Stake transforms from a crypto casino into a global operator
Late in 2025, Stake CMO Sarin shared that they have big plans for Italy, Denmark, Brazil, Colombia, Peru. And In 2026 they bought license for Denmark and also sign a year sponsorship deal with the Danish cyber team Astralis (Counter-Strike). They also sponsoring Team Vitality — the 2025 Major champions.

Now guys, you have all Stakes road! From Prime dice till Danish license