If there is a poll regarding what the most popular online casino and sportsbook is for people under the age of thirty, worldwide, we do not doubt that Stake.com will surely win, and by a landslide. SEMrush notes that this website is the number one gambling hub on the Web, if we go by its traffic statistics, which state that this website currently records over 121 million visits per month. SimilarWeb also ranks it as number one for gambling, and per the brand’s released data, in September 2024, it saw 1,238,958,285 bets placed in its casino section. Stats do not lie. So, to say that Stake is killing it would be an understatement. Furthermore, this gambling platform’s growth appears not to be slowing down any time soon, as it keeps expanding its user pool and it keeps striking new ambassador/sponsorship deals with top athletes and sports/eSports teams.
Established in 2017, Stake has carved out a niche for itself as the powerhouse in the crypto gaming and betting sectors. It has recently branched off into social gambling in an attempt to corner the US market before it officially launches there as well, when conditions are ripe. Naturally, it has done this by doing a terrific job of capturing the crypto gambling fan base, primarily via high-profile partnerships and by embracing innovative approaches that have grown the brand and attained a loyal audience.
Of course, this has not come without challenges, and below we go into how Stake.com achieved its prominence and some of the key obstacles it has faced along the way.
Why Did Stake Leverage Cryptos So Well
In 2017, when Stake appeared on the scene, the online gambling industry pulled in annual revenues of around $30 billion, with $11.8 billion coming from remote sports betting and casino gambling apiece, and the rest from Internet lotteries. At that period, there were not many high-profile crypto casinos and sportsbooks because Bitcoin was not super established, and most casual gamblers did not trust hubs that offered digital coin wagering because many of the platforms that supplied this service operated without a license. Around 2014, regulated crypto-gambling sites popped up, so this section of the market was not as saturated nor very developed.
Hence, one may say that Stake entered the sphere at the right time. And, in all honesty, it offered a much higher-level product than the majority of its top competitors at that moment. Now, estimates put the sector’s 2024 revenues at $97 billion, with the number of crypto casinos/sportsbooks hitting the several thousands. Although, it should get noted many of these die within their first year, and some barely have a few hundred active members.
Stake.com founders recognized the potential sizeable incoming demand for decentralized transactions in the mid-2010s. They also grasped the importance of building a website that would look slick, offer loads of features, and have a community appeal. Therefore, they focused on these elements first, and then came the marketing side of things, an area in which Stake’s team excelled.
How Sponsorships Expanded Stake’s Reach
It goes without saying that one of the pillars of Stake.com’s rise to fame has been marketing, aggressive marketing. The brand teamed up with the UFC at the start of 2021, and then EPL clubs Watford FC and Everton FC, exposing itself to a mainstream UK and global audience. Football is the world’s most popular sport, and these EPL partnerships offered Stake visibility across multiple demographics. Its dive into eSports did the same, linking it with people who are more likely to be curious about exploring crypto gambling. Today, Stake works with multiple top MMA fighters, eSports teams, and race car drivers.
That said, Stake.com’s collaboration with streamers, no doubt, can be credited as the defining part of its team’s marketing and growth tactic. That especially holds for the COVID-19 pandemic timeframe, a period that brought an unprecedented boom in online entertainment. For obvious reasons. It was then that Stake surged through stay-at-home mandates and by its managers recognizing that live streaming offered a direct and highly engaging way to reach potential users.
Post 2020, Stake has gotten in bed with known streamers like Trainwreckstv, Roshtein, and Adin Ross, among others. It was a time when most famous Twitch streamers appeared to have deals with this site. That was clever on Stake’s part, as it was a way to reach targeted demographics, which are people who are comfortable with digital payments. Live streams also allow viewers to engage with content creators in real time. For gambling, this goes a long way in creating an immersive experience. The avenue also gave parties interested in getting into this pastime a chance to ask questions and see the gameplay unfold live. That added an element of transparency to this form of entertainment.
Moreover, streamers, who are essentially social media influencers, all have loyal communities of their own. These communities are prone to doing what these influencers advise, which is prime for effective marketing.
The Launch of Kick and Its Purpose
Twitch, formerly the gaming section of Justin.tv, became a massively handy tool in growing Stake, and in 2022, founded Kick.com, a streaming platform with more flexible gambling policies around showing gambling content. Kick provided an environment where creators could promote Stake freely without facing Twitch-like anti-gambling guidelines. That allowed Kick streamers to create varied gambling-related content, reaching audiences interested in online crypto gaming/sports betting.
Such possibilities attracted high-profile streamers to migrate from Twitch to Kick and become exclusive to the platform, which helped Kick gain traction worldwide. For Stake, this meant having a dedicated site that would promote their services consistently without the risk of takedown. Plus, it offered the chance for this brand to build its ecosystem, ensuring it would have a reliable pipeline for new users.
Building a Strong Community & Adding Variety
The Stake live chat, on-site forums, social media profiles, and VIP rewards have done their part in letting users feel like they are a part of a community. It is this emphasis on community engagement that has aided in users growing attached to Stake, with the same applying to the frequent promotions, tournaments, and giveaways this site runs, which also give its gamblers a sense of exclusivity in being a part of its user base.
It also must get said that Stake.com has invested in developing unique games that stand out. It is one of the rare gambling websites to feature top-notch stable live streams and have a streamlined user interface with smooth functionality. Stake also constantly looks to evolove and change things up, as evidenced by its social US-centric arm.
Stake’s partnerships in highly regulated markets, such as its Sauber F1 team, have led to scrutiny. That was expected in jurisdictions with stringent anti-ad-gambling rules. But that has not stopped Stake from exploring everything legally possible to expand internationally and marketing itself in pretty much all regions of the globe through various avenues. The platform continuously improves its services and expands its offerings. It also has shown a great willingness to adopt user feedback and modify its product to meet modern demand. Hence, it will probably maintain its position as a sphere leader for years to come.
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