Crypto betting giant Stake.com has applied for Australian betting licence in the Northern Territory

Run by young billionaires Edward Craven and Bijan Tehrani, Stake.com wants to compete with the likes of Tabcorp and Sportsbet after building a huge global business.

Crypto billionaires and founders of online US gambling site stake.com, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani. Picture: Julian Kingma

The global cryptocurrency gambling empire Stake.com co-founded by Australia’s youngest billionaire Edward Craven, has applied for a bookmaking licence in the Northern Territory.

Multiple sources have confirmed that Stake, which claims annual gross gaming revenue of $US2.6bn ($3.9bn) from its crypto casino and sports book worldwide, is trying to gain entry to the regulated Australian market.

Stake’s founders, Craven and US-born Australian resident Bijan Tehrani, are “two to three months” into the process of applying for a bookmaking licence in the NT, The Australian has been told.

Should Stake be successful, it would mean it would be a mainstream operator competing with the likes of established online corporate bookmakers such as Sportsbet, PointsBet and Entain’s Ladbrokes and Neds, as well as the ASX-listed Tabcorp.

Stake has a pending iGaming licence application in the Canadian province of Ontario and has also been rumoured to be looking for acquisitions for regulated companies in the US.

Craven and Tehrani’s company was recently linked to a potential bid for the New York Stock Exchange-listed online gaming platform Rush Street Interactive by industry research group Eilers & Krejcik.

Stake’s current global business is run out of Melbourne, but locals cannot legally play any of Stake.com’s games given customers bet with cryptocurrency. Stake has strong ties with the Melbourne-based Easygo Solutions business run by Craven and Tehrani.

There is no guarantee that Stake’s founders will gain approval from NT racing authorities given they will have had to provide proof of where their funding is sourced from.

Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani. Picture: Julian Kingma

Stake is domiciled in Curacao, with gambling in cryptocurrency and via online casinos banned in Australia. Craven made headlines last year when he bought two Toorak mansions in Melbourne for almost $40m and then about $80m without the need to take out mortgages for the properties.

Confirmation of the NT application comes after The Australian recently revealed that Craven and Tehrani had quietly registered the first local Australian companies and trademarks for their Stake brand – seen as a precursor to a move to a more regulated market locally.

Craven and Tehrani have registered a company called Stake Gaming Pty Ltd with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the first time the duo have made a move to use their Stake brand locally.

Stake Gaming is jointly owned by Tehrani and a company ultimately owned by Craven.

There has also been an application recently lodged with IP Australia to trademark “Stake Gaming” by a company domiciled in Cyprus that has been publicly connected to Craven.

Tehrani signalled the Stake duo’s intention to enter the legal Australian gambling market, likely as a regulated online corporate bookmaker, in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian Magazine late last year.

“We’re applying for (an Aust­ralian licence) now … and hopefully will get it in a year,” Tehrani said.

“It will only be sports betting. I think long-term it makes sense; we live here. It’s super competitive but I think it’s 100 times more competitive on the internet (worldwide) … The challenge is operating on low margins. But Ed and I are pretty confident that whatever market we go into, we can make an impact.”

Sources have told The Australian the pair could also be contemplating acquisitions in Australia and have also been making inquiries about potentially recruiting executives or consultants that have direct experience in or knowledge of regulated markets.

Stake has emerged as one of the world’s biggest gambling companies, though most of its customers are in so-called “grey markets” where regulation of online cryptocurrency gambling is not present or unclear.

Craven and Tehrani claim Stake accounts for about seven per cent of total bitcoin transactions around the world daily.

“People have been trying to find the killer application for cryptocurrency,” Mr Tehrani said in the October interview. “Well, it’s gambling.”

A spokesman for Stake would not comment when approached by The Australian regarding the NT application.

Canadian hip-hop superstar Drake has a lucrative endorsement deal with Stake, and it also sponsors English soccer club Everton and the Alfa Romeo formula one racing team alongside Craven and Tehrani’s successful new global streaming business Kick.

The pair also recently avoided a $580 million claim against their company by a former business partner after a US court threw out the claim due to a lack of jurisdiction.