The co-founder of Stake, an operator of online sports betting sites that accept cryptocurrency, says they are near to purchasing a company in the United States.
“Stake is actually making a very big move into the U.S. market with a large acquisition that's upcoming,” Ed Craven said during an interview published Saturday by the gaming news show Gamer Update.
Craven didn’t provide any additional detail about the target of this potential M&A, but it would come as the legal sports betting world has seen some recent mergers and acquisition activity, namely, the bid by Fanatics for PointsBet.
DraftKings has since made a rival proposal to acquire the U.S. business of PointsBet, although the latter’s board of directors still recommends shareholders side with Fanatics for now.
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But a U.S. acquisition would be a big move in general for Stake, which is known for its crypto connections and high-profile partnerships, such as with Drake and the UFC. The Financial Times reported in March that Stake has become the world’s seventh-largest gambling group by revenue since launching in 2017, surpassing competitors such as DraftKings.
The bookmaker is headquartered in Australia, licensed in Curaçao, and accepts action in the so-called “grey market” of online gambling, which is partly what prompted Craven’s M&A-related comments.
Amazon.com Inc.-owned Twitch said last year that it was banning the streaming of Stake on its platform. This was part of a broader crackdown by Twitch on casino gambling websites that were “unlicensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that offer consumer protections like deposit limits, waiting periods, and age verification systems.”
Had a really great chat about @KickStreaming with @JakeSucky & @hun2r last night.
— Eddie (@StakeEddie) June 25, 2023
Looking forward to hopefully doing it again soon!
If you missed it, watch the full discussion here: https://t.co/56uYpfXyr6
Craven co-founded a rival streaming site, Kick, which launched earlier this year and recently scored a coup by luring away one of Twitch's most popular streamers. Craven said during his Gamer Update appearance that there is still gambling happening on all social media platforms and “some very unfair comments” about what is and is not acceptable.
The FT reported Stake has applied for licenses in Australia and the Canadian province of Ontario. Whether and when it will obtain those licenses or any of those held by a U.S.-based company it may acquire remains to be seen.
“We look forward to hopefully being able to work back on Twitch under their guidelines, but… I'm not sure whether they're going to follow through with this whole concept of what's regulated versus unregulated,” Craven said. “Once we meet their regulations, what will happen?”
