Stake and Kick Owner Ed Craven-Road to Billionaire

One could say that we live in an era when it’s easier than ever to become a billionaire. While that might be true it’s not an easy path by any means. Yet, folks like Ed Craven do make it look easy. The second youngest self made billionaire did it before he turned 30. The Stake & Kick co founder amassed almost $3 billion as early as he could. Before Craven not many people were aware just how much money could be made when you deal with cryptocurrencies, online gambling, and streaming.

Craven’s biggest asset is Stake, an online casino and sportsbook, which was founded way back in 2017. Ed founded the company with his long time business partner, an US born 31 year old Bijan Tehrani. Craven, an Australian, and his partner created an outlet that mostly offers casino games such as slots, blackjack, roulette, and many original games only available on Stake, and an online sportsbook too. All of it is based on cryptocurrencies, making Stake one of the pioneers in the online crypto casino business.

Not much is known about Ed Craven, besides the fact that he comes from Melbourne, Australia, where he attended the Bishop Druitt College, where he first came in touch with modern technologies, cryptocurrencies and online gaming. Even during the times when Stake, and crypto casinos weren’t allowed in the United States, United Kingdom, and most parts of Europe, Stake was raking in close to $5 billion revenue. Due to this type of revenue, Craven found himself on the Forbes’ list of 2025 youngest billionaire list. Together with Alexander Wang, he was the only self made billionaire on that list.

By the time Ed Craven’s name caught the attention of the general public, Stake was already a massive brand in its domain. According to Brett Abarbanel, who is executive director of the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Stake is a massive crypto casino, seen as the biggest player in the domain. Abarbanel that Stake didn’t only elevated the riches of Craven and Tehrani, but managed to put the field of online crypto casinos on the map through its influence.

As one could have guessed, Stake kicked off during the coronavirus pandemic. Its popularity was aided by multiple high end streamers who showed their gambling activities online making Stake one of the primary online crypto casinos in the world. According to the available data, it appears that somewhere between 2% and 4% of all Bitcoin transactions happen on Stake. While everything tied to Ed Craven these days goes through digital currencies, online gambling, and streaming, his beginnings were rather more traditional. According to Craven himself, his first encounter with gambling happened during a family cruise when he was only 12 years old. During an interview with Forbes Australia, Craven said: ” It was flashing lights and quite incredible. We attended it ritually for the first five days. On the fifth day there was ‘the Snowball Jackpot’ and I won about $6,000. That’s when my fascination with the industry really took off.”

While becoming a self made billionaire is impressive, Craven never hid the fact that he wouldn’t be able to do it on his own. His entire success story is closely tied to his long time partner, Bijan Tehrani. The two get acquainted during their teenage years (15 & 17) while playing an online role playing game, RuneScape. The two boys kicked off immediately, and in no time, they found themselves running an online casino within the game. Such action got them kicked off from the platform, but gave them both an idea of what they want to do in the future.

During the next few years, Craven and Tehrani found themselves impressed with the world of digital currencies. Their first experiment tied to crypto and online gambling was called Primedice. It was a game that allowed people to gamble with BTC via means of a digital dice roll. At the moment when their online gambling adventure started Bitcoin was only worth $100. While a far cry away from its current worth, Primedice generated more than enough revenue for Craven and Tehrani to call themselves entrepreneurs, and to make online gambling and digital currencies their full time venture.

Craven remembers these days with the joy of a kid saying: “I think we took over a million dollars in bets on our first day. I was still in high school, and I remember telling some friends. I don’t think anyone believed me.” With money raking in for two teenagers, they soon opened their first office. It was located in Melbourne, and it was called Easygo. It was one year prior to launching Stake, when Craven and Tehrani employed only 18 people. With Stake, Craven has finally gone global. The company went on an astronomic rise during the first few years of its existence. For example, only in 2020 the online casinos and sportsbook generated $105 million in gross revenues. This is the amount that was left to Stake after all payouts to casino and sportsbook winners were made. While $105 million is impressive, the number reached $2.6 billion only two years later, catching the eye of Financial Times.

Stake’s rise was not only acknowledged by its peers but it is also well respected. One man who has it in awe is Nigel Eccles, who is the founder of FanDuel, another gambling firm. He stated that Stake’s success lies in their aggressive marketing. According to Eccles, Stake has managed to position itself as the world’s first truly global, crypto only, casino and sportsbook. This observation is true, and the best part is that Craven & Tehrani didn’t stop when Stake was peaking. Instead, they pushed further when it appeared that they were at the top of the world. They used their amassed fortune to further promote Stake through means of high profile sponsorships.

Just some of Stake sponsorships include being on the front side of the English Premier League side Everton shirts, which is a deal worth $12 million a year, and a deal to have naming rights for a Formula 1 team, worth $100 million over three years. As if that was not enough, Stake also has an exclusive deal with the Canadian rap star Drake, who is both gambling & streaming face of the company.

The fact that is often taken against Craven & Tehrani is their willingness to run their business in areas that are seen as gray ones by other entrepreneurs. Due to crypto not being fully regulated, Stake is a company registered in Curacao, which is seen as a way to pay lower taxes, while not being under the jurisdiction of any major government, neither Australia nor United States. Craven doesn’t run from this fact, and is even willing to share his thoughts on the subject: ” We’ve taken two of the most controversial technologies and industries and combined them. So it’s always been an uphill battle for us to beat public perception of what the company may stand for.”

While it was crypto that made Ed Craven a billionaire, he is not willing to lay down his eggs in one basket. These days, Stake operates as more of a standard online casino. What started as a crypto only platform operates mostly with fiat currencies these days, where it is estimated that 70% of all Stake bets are made by standard currencies. Craven pinpoints the decision to move away from crypto and steer more into traditional means of payment as a strictly business one by saying: ” We’re very confident that Stake doesn’t have as much room to grow in crypto as it does in traditional payment methods.”

While the shift to what’s perceived as a safer way of doing business became more than obvious, Craven added that the company will remain loyal to its digital currency roots. While Stake remains his main source of income, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani saw a different opportunity to grow their business venture that could also be tied to their original company, Stake. Their second tech startup is called Kick and it is a streaming platform. It was designed as a means of competition to Amazon’s Twitch, which was the leader in the streaming universe during these past few years. Launched in 2022, Kick quickly became a platform that attracts millions of daily users. When starting, both Craven & Tehrani stated that the goal of Kick is that in coming years challenges Twitch for the streaming throne, and surpasses it in the not so distant future.

Their second main opponent is YouTube, but they don’t see it as a main rival due to the nature of the streaming business. While they do not have an easy task ahead of them, Tehrani and Craven believe that Twitch can be surpassed, despite its current valuation being close to $46 billion. Their confidence stems from the fact that they have managed to shake the foundations of online gambling with Stake and that same can be done in the world of online streaming with Kick.

Of course, at the moment, Kick is seen as a side quest by Ed Craven, considering that Stake is the venture that generates the most of his fortune. As such, it also requires most of his attention. Despite Stake requiring a lot of attention to remain what it is, one of the leading online casino and sportsbook platforms, Craven doesn’t hide the fact that he sees Kick as being able to parry it in the future. Part of his belief can be seen through streaming activities of his own as he has a show of his own that streams on Saturday nights.

At the moment, Craven’s main goals are to further grow both of his businesses while also being on the lookout for similar opportunities in other fields. For him, the future of business that he sees himself in lies in entertainment, and he sees both of his current brands falling into a similar category. Turning billionaire before 30 didn’t make Ed Craven lazy. Instead, it grew a wish in him to create another globally recognized brand in his 30s too. Talking about what the future holds for him in this domain, Ed said: ” We’ve proven ourselves a couple of times now. So what other opportunities are out there? I think that’s super exciting.”

While the future certainly holds a lot of success for Ed Craven, one could argue that he has done enough with what he has achieved so far. Stake is one of the world’s most recognizable online gambling brands, and despite its massive popularity it still continues to grow. In addition to its Drake, Formula 1, and Everton deals, the number of brands and individuals, Stake is associated with growth by the day. The company is an official betting partner of UFC, and has ambassador deals with the likes of Merab Dvalishvili, Alex Pereira, and Israel Adesanya. It has also spread in sports such as cricket with Trinbago Knight Riders of the Caribbean Premier League, and to horse racing through Frankie Dettori. Stake remains at the top of the mountain of what they’re doing the best, but it appears that now only the sky is the limit.

With an estimated net worth of close to $3 billion and growing, Ed Craven has attained himself a luxury not to work a day in his life anymore, but still he remains adamant that a lot of work lies ahead of himself. He is now more than used to being a trailblazer, and it is evident that he will not stop at making a mark on the society we live in through his entrepreneurship. Talking about uphill battles of the past and those that await, Ed Craven said: ” We’ve taken two of the most controversial technologies and industries and combined them. So it’s always been an uphill battle for us to beat public perception of what the company may stand for.”

Ed Craven will continue to stand up for what he believes in, and if we’re to judge him by his past actions and results, it is going to be a gamble that will pay out for him.