In terms of online casino brands few are bigger than Stake. It is, quite possibly, the largest such brand in the world – and it was started by two independent entrepreneurs who got their start making gambling games in online videogame RuneScape. Today Stake takes more than $1 billion in monthly deposits. It has more than $4 billion in yearly revenue and 54% market share in the crypto casino space. So how did this happen – and how did Ed Craven do it?
The story behind Stake’s success involves innovation in technology, design and marketing – and a relentless drive to use its revenues to remain at the top of the market. But also a lot of controversy around its business models and marketing strategies.
Runescape and Prime Dice Started it All
Ed Craven was born near Melbourne, Australia, in 1995, In interviews Craven has claimed he won a $6000 bingo prize on a cruise with his family at age 12, which sparked his lifelong interest in the gambling business.
In his teenage years Craven was into the online roleplaying game RuneScape, which has its own virtual economy. Through the game he met his future business partner and eventual co-founder of Stake, Bijan Tehrani. The pair bonded over their interest in gambling, and set up a platform for Runescape players to bet in-game on in-game character duels. Then they used third-party sites to cash out the in-game currency.
This was, of course, all against the RuneScape developer’s rules – and they were promptly banned. But not before making $100,000 each. The pair’s next venture was into actual online gambling, where they used their other big interest at the time – cryptocurrency.
The Company was an Innovator in the Crypto Casino Space
Back in 2013, Bitcoin was worth about $20. There were few uses for it at the time, and it was nowhere near mainstream adoption. However, a basic dice gambling game called Satoshi Dice became very popular – and Craven and Tehrani decided to build their own.
The result was Primedice – and $1 million worth of BTC bet within the first week. Margins were low, but even at 1% that was some significant money at the time for a pair of teenagers. That success eventually led them to start a full crypto casino in 2016.
(Side note: there is some controversy around this founding even, as Craven and Tehrani were sued by their old school friend who claimed he gave them the idea to start a crypto casino, although the pair deny this and the lawsuit has been concluded.)
Regardless of what actually happened, Stake was not an overnight success. However, the Bitcoin community ethos behind their steady work on and improvements on Primedice carried over into taking on board customer feedback at Stake. It also helped that Bitcoin really took off around this time. The value went from around $1000 in 2016 to a peak of $6300 in 2018. By 2021, Stake was valued at $1 billion.
That rocketed interest in cryptocurrencies, and online uses for them. And it made Stake enough money to reinvest into what was then rather innovative marketing tactics – and that soon became a big part of the model going forward.
Market Domination and the Establishment of Kick
Today, Stake is arguably the biggest and most widely known name in online gambling. They have an F1 team. The sponsor Premier League football teams. It owns a massively popular video streaming platform. Although revenues are reportedly slightly down this year, due to increased regulatory pressures on the offshore crypto model in many markets, they’re still set to make upwards of $4 billion in revenue across the year.
As an example of their domination in the space, consider the Stake bonus page with the terms unpacked in full at Covers.com. The amount of depth players demand from these resources, that go into every detail of a bonus and other aspects of casino’s operation, shows just how seriously bettors take the market – and how much attention Stake still has in a competitive sector.
While bonuses are a part of their model – that’s old school in comparison to the social media tactics Stake has used to get its branding almost everywhere. It was the pioneer of paying famous streamers like xQc and Adin Ross to gamble on their site, and it was also responsible for controversial but successful $100 million deal with rap superstar Drake.
And when there was pushback on this model? Stake innovated again. Dominant live stream operator Twitch, owned by Amazon banned gambling streams – so Stake founded Kick.
This controversial move many thought would not work. However, by paying popular streamers massive amounts to move to them exclusively, and by playing fast and loose with the content rules to stoke social media virality, Kick has also been a success for Craven and Tehrani – with 4.5 billion hours viewed in 2025. Not quite Twitch (20 billion) or YouTube (52 billion) levels, but still very respectable.
Despite many controversies along the way – including recently leaving the UK market completely after an investigation into its promotional work with an adult actress – Craven has firmly cemented Stake as one of global gambling’s biggest brands, and made billions for himself while he was at it.
