Billionaire Ed Craven promoting casino site Stake.com in Australia despite being banned

Melbourne-based Ed Craven is not even 30-years-old and is already a billionaire. But the mogul’s online casino is shrouded in controversy.

Billionaire gambling mogul Ed Craven is promoting his banned online casino Stake.com, which offers markets on the NRL and AFL, on a website available to Australians.

The Coffs Harbour raised businessman, who is now based in Melbourne, has been using Kick, which his company also owns, to encourage people to punt on his unlicensed slot machines.

Kick has been at the centre of controversy after it broadcast a sex worker being kept against her will in a hotel room in Brisbane last year, which led to a police arrest.

Mr Craven has been spending his Saturday nights filming himself playing Stake.com and broadcasting it on Kick, which his company set up after gambling was banned on a similar streaming site owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

“The great thing about Stake when it comes to the VIP benefits is due to the fact that there’s such a high volume,” he said on a video broadcast this month.

“Stake operates on what’s called a very low margin, the bonuses Stake gives out versus the expected value on the gambling is incredibly low. Most casinos would not be able to function on that allows us to give back as much as we do.”

Stake founders Bijan Tehrani and Edward Craven unveil Stake's new F1 car. Picture: Supplied

Mr Craven also broadcast himself playing virtual casino card games and slot machines while responding to comments from people in a chat room watching him play.

“Stop throwing shit.. you motherf*****,” Mr Craven said when dealt a bad hand.

“I’m getting poo thrown at me right now, this is a bit rude.”

Stake.com, which started seven years ago, has been banned in Australia.

The gambling firm, which claims to be even bigger than Bet365, is licensed in Curacao, an island 60km off the Venezuelan coast.

When accessed in Australia, the site comes up with a warning that “due to our gaming licence, we cannot accept players from Australia”.

However, the geo-blocking can be avoided by using a Virtual Private Network which stops a computer tracking a user’s location.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said that “the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (the IGA) makes it an offence to provide or advertise … online casino-style games, online slot machines and online wagering services that accept ‘in-play’ betting on sports events.”

Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani are both very wealthy. Picture: Julian Kingman

ACMA said in a statement this week that it was “aware of Mr Craven’s promotion of Stake.com on Kick.”

However, it said that it could only take action if it could prove the “majority” of people watching the “content are physically present in Australia. This potentially limits the reach of the advertising prohibition for websites that have a global audience such as Kick, Facebook, YouTube and Twitch.”

ACMA has asked the Federal Government, which is currently reviewing gambling laws, to tighten the legislation.

The office of Communications Minister Michelle Rowland did not respond to requests for comment.

Australians poured more than $1 billion a year into offshore sports and betting platforms, and $240 million into online casinos, financial watchdog Austrac found in its latest Money Laundering National Risk Assessment.

“Many offshore online platforms have absent or illusory AML (anti-money laundering) controls,” the report, speaking generally without naming Stake.com, said.

“They also contravene Australian legislation by offering gambling services to Australians in the absence of a domestic licence.

“Online offshore wagering platforms are not currently covered by the AML/CTF (Counter Terrorism Financing) Act when they do not have a geographical link to Australia.”

Ed Craven with boxer Tyson Fury. Picture: Linkedin

Brais Pena Sanchez, chief strategy officer at EasyGo, the parent company of online casino Stake.com, with the company's Formula 1 team car. Picture: LinkedIn.

Mr Craven, 28, has burst onto Melbourne’s social scene with a series of cash splashes.

He paid $80 million for a ghost mansion in Melbourne, with plans to add a stylish $145 million rebuild.

The scale of the money made on Stake.com has been breathtaking, with the company buying the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team, sponsoring English Premier League Club Everton and doing a deal with singer Drake.

The 'Ghost Mansion' in Toorak owned by Ed Craven. Picture: Supplied

Stake.com set up Kick in 2022 after rival streaming service Twitch banned gambling.

Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, singled out Stake.com when announcing the ban.

Kick has been splashing cash to increase its audience, with one “streamer” star paid $150 million to sign with Kick.

The deal for the gamer known as xQc made headlines in June last year because it was more than Los Angeles Lakes megastar Le Bron James was paid in a two-year contract.

The blond-haired gamer was broadcasting himself playing “Fire Portals” slot machines on Stake.com this month.

Industry insiders claim that setting up Kick and getting access to the computer servers to run the website would cost “tens, if not hundreds of millions” on top of the payments to streamers.

Mr Craven boasted in a blog post it took “Netflix 3.5 years to reach 1 million users, Facebook 10 months and Spotify 5 months. Kick? 69 days.”

Annie Knight, left attended a Halloween party at Ed Craven's mansion. Picture: TikTok

A makeup bar at the Halloween party. Picture: TikTok

The company denied that it set Kick up to promote gambling, saying “the creation of something as complex as a social media platform significantly predated this change in Twitch’s content policy.

“As an entertainment business, Kick was born out of the co-founder’s passion for live streaming,” it added.

Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie, who has been campaigning to reduce gambling harm, said even with the warning that Stake.com was unavailable in Australia she was still able to view the site from her base in Adelaide.

“I suspect that many young people are more savvy with technology and quite easily able to get around geo-blockers, for example by setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Network),” she said.

Ed Craven and co-founder Bijan Tehrani. Picture: Linkedin

Ms Sharkie said she supported a proposal to “block transactions to known illegal gambling operators in co-operation with Australian banks.”

“The Government needs to be far more proactive to respond flexibly to ensure these restrictions are responsive to evolving trends and effective in blocking access to illegal gambling services,” she said.

“It also needs to be cognisant that there is strong evidence that cryptocurrencies are popular with criminal organisations due to their lack of centralised regulation and anonymity.”

Mr Craven and his co-founder Bijan Tehrani have both become billionaires from Stake.com’s operations.

A holding company EasyGoSolutions, which provides services to Stake.com, made $500 million in profits in three years.

The company has its headquarters in an office on the second floor of a building in Collins Street, Melbourne.

A sheet of A4 paper directing deliveries for EasyGo to call a mobile number was the only sign of its operations.

EasyGo, speaking on behalf of Stake.com, responded to a series of questions in a statement this week.

The company said it required players to provide proof of identity and monitored for suspicious behaviour.

“Stake.com conducts stringent checks to prevent Australians from gambling on site,” the company said.

“Stake.com has established stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and Anti Money Laundering (AML) processes.

Ed Craven, co-founder of Stake.com, an online casino based in Curacao, off the Venezuelan coast, with its operations headquartered in Melbourne. Pictured with staff. Picture: Linkedin

“We regularly update customer information and monitor for any discrepancies or suspicious behaviour to maintain the integrity of our platform.”

EasyGo also addressed the incident on Kick, where a sex worker was allegedly kept against her will.

“As we made public at the time of the incident, our response was to tighten up our community guidelines and enforcement policies to make it very clear that we don’t condone criminal conduct,” the company said.

Mr Craven has been making friends with his lavish parties, with some comparing him to The Great Gatsby of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

Annie Knight, an OnlyFans model, attended his 2022 Halloween party at his Toorak mansion.

“It was an amazing party, there was a makeup room, cocktails. I don’t really know Eddie, he’s kind of elusive,” she said.