Sauber F1 team recently rebranded to Stake F1 team after Alfa Romeo withdrew from the sport at the end of the 2023 season. Even though there were talks about the name of the team being name Sauber, Stake became the title sponsor of the outfit for the next two season. They joined the Swiss-based team in 2022 and recently signed a $100 million deal with rapper Drake.
Stake, an Australian company, is a big-time player in online betting, entertainment, and lifestyle. They have been in this business for quite a long time now and have also partnered with Premier League team Everton and other soccer clubs like Gillingham and Watford.
The Australian company is operated by Medium Rare NV and was established by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani in 2021. However, it was established under the name of Easygo in the first place in 2016. As it stands, Stake has made $2.6 billion in gaming revenue only in 2022.
Stake tied up with Drake recently after ramping up themselves as the title sponsor of the Sauber-owned team for 2024 and 2025. With this, Drake soon became the face of the team even though they had people like UFC fighter Israel Adesanya or Argentine soccer star Sergio Aguero on board.
Stake and the controversy
Stake, being an online and betting site saw a fair share of controversies when the co-founders of the company had a $580 million lawsuit filed against them in New York.
Christopher Freeman, an early associate of Craven and Tehrani alleged that he had been shut out of the business by the co-founders. He also alleged that he was misled and cheated by the Australian entrepreneurs.
However, court dismissed the case citing jurisdictional issues in America. Therefore, they were able to dodge the multi-million dollar lawsuit. However, Stake also lost over $41 million in 2023 due to hacking activities by the North Korean Lazarus Group.
All in all, Stake is now in full partnership with Sauber. They will be aiming to do better as a team in 2024, after the outfit’s final season with Alfa Romeo saw them finish P9. They would want Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu to deliver sharper performances, which will ultimately help Stake.
