Stake wants to be the Apple of casino games
Sharpr breaks down the companies, tech, and trends shaping the future of internet gambling
In this week’s edition of Sharpr…
Stake wants to be the Apple of casino games.
Underdog Fantasy inks esports partnership.
The Simpsons takes on sports betting in latest episode.
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Stake wants to be the Apple of casino games
Stake has launched Stake Engine—a new platform that lets third-party developers build and publish games directly onto its casino, and earn a cut of the revenue.
The platform was built by engineers from various casino game studio backgrounds, and is intended to serve a wide range of developers—from indie studios to full-stack teams—with software dev tools, hosting, and distribution to over 20M (registered) users, per Stake.
Developers will earn 10% of GGR, paid monthly, and retain full control over their games— no exclusivity, no lockups.
Games built on Stake Engine have already produced $3.3B in handle, according to the company.
Stake co-founder Bijan Tehrani is already framing the launch as a pivotal moment in the industry, likening the product to other successful user-generated content platforms.
“This will probably fly under the radar but will someday be seen as one of the biggest disruptions to gambling ever,” he said. “Think Fortnite creator system but for gambling.”
For developers, the shift cuts both ways. On one hand, it dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for studios who previously had to integrate with aggregators or negotiate direct casino distribution. “Stake is becoming like Apple,” said one crypto gambling operations lead. But instead of apps, you’re listing your game inside a casino.
On the other hand, success will increasingly depend on branding and discoverability. More developers means more noise, so to stand out, you're going to need to think like a marketer too, he added.
🔎 Between the lines: While Stake Engine only just launched publicly, the parallels to Apple and Fortnite are interesting analogies—both offering useful frameworks for understanding what Stake is trying to build.
Just as Apple created the rails for developers to build and monetize mobile apps, and Epic Games did by letting creators and brands develop in-game experiences in Fortnite, Stake is now attempting to do with online casino games.
That may not be an apples-to-apples comparison, but it should give you a sense of how the democratization of content development—paired with scale and distribution within a sandbox-like environment—can unlock real value.
For users, this could lead to the creation of more innovative and entertaining content—something I’ve long argued presents a big, untapped opportunity for the betting industry (see: here, here, and here).
The very succinct and amended version of that argument goes something like this:
If you stripped away the ability to win money betting on sports or playing casino, would the current product set be entertaining enough on-face for customers to continue spending their time playing them? If you think the answer is no, that’s something worth thinking about.
To put that into context: during my time at Rivalry, we developed our own in-house casino game called Cash & Dash. It was a fresh take on the casino product—its mechanics felt more like a ‘game’ with original IP and player agency, versus what is typically a more passive experience.
Soon after it launched, Cash & Dash had become one of our highest-grossing casino products, even with a user base that pales in comparison to Stake’s. This news makes me wonder potentially how much bigger the game could’ve been if it had access to scale and distribution that was effectively 10x that of ours at Rivalry.
Zooming back out though: this could be the start of a shift in casino content being something built by studios for operators, to something built by creators for platforms.
The same way Apple turned mobile designers into the distribution engine for the App Store, and Fortnite Creative empowered players to build in-game worlds, Stake Engine could turn independent developers into some form of gambling content creators.
If it all works out as planned, Stake could start to create a UGC moat in gambling.
Underdog Fantasy inks esports partnership
Underdog Fantasy has partnered up with esports event operator BLAST to sponsor several Counter-Strike 2 tournaments in 2025.
The deal covers the Premier Lisbon Open, Premier Rivals, and the Austin Major.
Underdog will appear across English-language broadcasts, onsite activations, and BLAST’s official fantasy mini-game for U.S. and Canadian users.
The Austin Major will feature 24 teams competing for a $1.25M prize pool in front of a sold-out crowd.
Underdog’s Director of Partnerships Zach Powell said the company is excited to “engage with a new audience” during its first in-person esports tournament in a press statement.
Counter-Strike represents a great starting point for Underdog to test the waters with esports; the title consistently nets over half of betting handle globally in any given year (64% in 4Q24), and is popular among U.S. and Canadian fans where the company operates.
For what it’s worth: PrizePicks—one of Underdog’s biggest competitors—has been making a case for its esports strategy. In Q3 2024, the fantasy operator reported that Counter-Strike ranked fourth in entry fees and lineups built among all sports on the app last year, trailing only basketball, football and baseball.
🗞 In the news
FanDuel has released a fantasy pick’em app in five states.
The Simpsons takes on sports betting in latest episode.
Sporttrade has petitioned the CFTC to offer its prediction market product nationwide.