Stake.com eSports Betting Review

Stake.com is a new gambling site that aims to make online betting with cryptocurrency more accessible to a wider audience.

Though the site is yet to take its place among the top crypto betting companies, our Stake.com review detected so many positive features that we have no doubt the website will one day achieve status as a global crypto gambling operator.

It markets itself as ‘one of the largest casinos in the world,’ and while that may be a bit of an overstatement, what it offers in terms of casino and sports betting doesn’t put it too far behind some of the biggest casino operators. If you narrow down comparing Stake.com to crypto betting sites, it ranks high up there with the top companies.

The sports section, while seemingly average-looking, contains plenty of betting markets and covers all major events and leagues.

However, in this Stake.com review, our primary concern will be eSports, with additional commentary about the casino and sportsbook and information about what makes Stake.com safe for crypto gambling; its bonus offers; whether there should be concerns about Stake.com scam incidents and other general information about the operator.

About the Company

Stake.com was founded in 2017 and is run by Medium Rare N.V., a company based in Curacao.

Stake.com Key Information

Website	www.stake.com
Founded	2017
Parent company	Medium Rare N.V.
License	Curacao Government
Products	online casino, sportsbook, eSports
Provably fair	yes
Software providers	Evolution Gaming, Play’nGO, Pragmatic Play, Yggdrasil, Habanero, Microgaming, Betsoft, Big Time Gaming, Relax Gaming, No Limit City
eSports	CS:GO, LoL, Dota 2, StarCraft, and Rainbow Six Siege
Payment options	cryptocurrency
Available cryptocurrencies	Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Tron (TRX), EOS
Min./max. deposit	N/A
Min./max. Withdrawal	N/A
Support	email, live chat
Email	[email protected]
Languages	English, Spanish, German, French, Russian, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Turkish, Chinese
Welcome bonus	no
Mobile compatibility	yes (no native app)

Medium Rare does not operate any other online casinos and has instead diverted all its focus on making Stake.com secure and building a safe and enjoyable platform for its ever-growing number of new customers and eager crypto punters.

Medium Rare is licensed and supervised by the Curacao Government. So far this is the company’s sole license.

This limits its presence in several major markets where online betting is highly appreciated, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, though it has a steady base of operations in many European countries, Japan, and Canada. We have no reason to doubt that someday Stake.com will obtain licenses from the U.K. Gambling Commission and U.S. gambling authorities given the increasing demand for eSports betting, and the enticing nature of the still relatively new and restricted world of eSports crypto betting.

What We Liked About the Site

Fed up with betting sites that delay every time you try to place a bet, take a long time to load, and have indolent customer support? Stake.com doesn’t fool around!

Stake.com has a model customer service and a support team that works vigorously to make your use of the site effortless. You can reach the support team via an email at [email protected], or write to them using the Live Chat, which already greets all new users with information about how to register, as well as tips for what to do in case they forget a password, lose an authentication code, or are unable to access the email used to create their account.

The website can be converted into more than a dozen different languages, which speaks for Stake.com’s dedication to making their services accessible to as many players around the world as legally possible, with hopes of expanding to other jurisdictions when the time is ripe.

Browsing for sports fixtures or casino games is delay-free and the site’s neatly packed and elegant layout gives you instant access to every feature, market, and piece of helpful information with a few clicks, or strokes of your finger, should you be using the Stake.com app.

Note that there is not a native Stake.com app that you can download from the Google or Apple stores. This can either be explained by the fact that the company lacks a license from the U.S. (where Google and Apple are based), or simply because they feel there is no need for an in-company Stake.com app, yet. Regardless, Stake.com provides first-class mobile gambling straight from a web browser, where you get every casino game and sports and a slick design optimized for your phone or another mobile device.

If you are a new user, it won’t take long for you to acclimatize to how the site functions and once your account is set up, Stake.com will display tons of information to help get you started. 

What we especially liked is the extensive blog that has dozens of individual articles offering betting tips and previews of all the world’s top sports events, as well as the “how-to” guides. The guides provide important information on a range of subjects including using and buying cryptocurrency, how to join the VIP club, how to play individual games, what bonuses can you win, or how to use the Stake.com vault – an alternative method for storing your deposits or credits.

That said, there are a small number of things we’d like to see improved in the future. These are minor flaws, such as the eSports games being mixed with the rest of the sports and not belonging to their separate category, as well as there is no welcome or special eSports bonus, despite the multiple promo offers and ways to earn rewards.

Security

The internet is a tough place to do business, let alone a gambling business – let alone a crypto gambling business. Scammers and online casino fraudsters are always keeping busy looking for new ways to exploit every weakness of a gambling website.

Running an online casino or sportsbook can sometimes be challenging enough, but combined with eSports, that’s a whole other ballgame. However, you have absolutely no reason to sweat over whether to consider Stake.com safe as the company runs a tightly secure operation all around.

Stake.com values user privacy and keeps personal data used during the registration process highly secure. The site is also closely associated with a site called PrimeDice, which works to ensure provably fair gambling on Stake.com.

Speaking of provable fairness in gaming, Stake.com employs advanced cryptographic hashing and a commitment scheme to make sure that their casino games are not manipulated. If that is not enough to rebut the idea of a casino Stake.com scam, we can only add that the casino games come from several established game developers, including Evolution Gaming, Play’n GO, and Pragmatic Play, among others.

Every new player is encouraged to keep their Stake.com account secure by using Google’s two-factor authenticator when registering a new account. This way, Stake.com will make your account extra-safe by requiring you to provide a unique 6-digit code to verify your identity.  Yet another interesting thing that renders Stake.com secure is its affiliation with the Crypto Gambling Foundation (CGF). That’s a big plus for crypto gambling sites that want to make sure their security systems are on the level.

The Crypto Gambling Foundation works to ensure sites foster a trustless environment —where players are in control of checking the fairness of games without having to rely on each other or trust third-party organizations, given that cryptocurrency is a decentralized payment system.

The foundation also promotes responsibility in online gambling and guarantees ‘complete protection’ of user privacy.

The CGF has analyzed, vetted, and deemed Stake.com secure, making the site one of only 11 other verified CGF operators.

The Curacao license, exclusive CGF membership, and customer support experts will keep your account and data on Stake.com safe day and night.

Stake.com eSports Betting – Markets, Games, and more Features Reviewed

eSports has existed for well over a decade, and so has eSports betting.

Recognized eSports sites offer tons of markets available on more than a dozen eSports games – from immensely popular first-person shooter like CS: GO, to the more tactical real-time strategies like League of Legends (Lol), to Blizzard’s super-popular digital card game Hearthstone.

Simply put, eSports-oriented sites have you covered from (almost) every angle because a variety of gaming is partly what they strive for.

With Stake.com that is not the case. The Stake.com eSports variety won’t bring the house down, though the choice of games is satisfactory and the markets pretty extensive.

At the time of writing this Stake.com review, there were only five eSports games available, including CS: GO, LoL, Dota 2, StarCraft, and Rainbow Six Siege.

It is a pretty short list of games, though the types of bets are much more copious, and for the top three games, the following bets are available:

CS: GO

• Correct score
• Over/under total rounds
• Tim to win the round
• Team to score the first kill
• Match winner
• Map winner
• Handicap Betting
• Correct score
• Team to place top 2 in event
• Outright tournament winner

Dota 2

• Match winner
• Map winner
• Handicap
• Correct score
• Over/under total maps
• The first team to get Aegis
• Team to draw first blood
• Team to destroy the first tower
• Outright tournament winner

League of Legends

• Map and match-winner
• Correct score
• Handicap
• Over/under total maps
• Team to draw first blood
• Team to destroy the first tower
• Team to destroy the first inhibitor
• Team to kill the first baron
• Outright tournament winner

Overall, eSports-wise, Stake.com performs well enough but – and this is a big but – eSports alone is not what makes the site so attractive.

If diversity is what you seek, you are missing the point. Of course, you still get to bet on the top tournaments and high-intensity matches during league seasons and test your skills and knowledge of the players and teams on a range of different betting markets. However, it is rather the combination of eSports and crypto betting that makes Stake.com stand out.

It rarely gets better than Stake.com when it comes to eSports betting using cryptocurrency, despite the company having a relatively average eSports section.

Casino and sports betting with cryptocurrency are alone limited enough, but the use of crypto for eSports wagering is even rarer. Thus, Stake.com is one of a limited list of highly secure and credible sites to take crypto for eSports.

Cryptocurrency can be particularly accommodating for expert eSports high-rollers, given that 1 BTC is worth more than $50,000, but it is also suitable for placing smaller wagers. If you are new to the concept of crypto gambling, you can start your Stake.com betting streak with small stakes of as little as €1 (or the equivalent in your preferred cryptocurrency).

Details about the maximum permissible bets were not listed, though the amount can vary based on the size of the event. We were somewhat disappointed that detailed information about eSports betting rules on Stake.com’s ‘Sports Rules’ section and in its terms of service was extremely limited.

However, the variety of Stake.com betting options on conventional sports, and especially on the casino, is a different story.

The sportsbook covers every major category, and with over 2,000 casino games – live casino card and table games, slots, game shows, and more, Stake.com is the playpen of punters of all tastes. The casino is powered by multiple dependable providers who together have decades of casino gaming experience. Some of those include:

• Evolution Gaming
• Play’n GO
• Pragmatic Play
• Yggdrasil
• Habanero
• Microgaming
• Betsoft
• Big Time Gaming
• Relax Gaming
• No Limit City

The Stake.com Bonus Offers

No welcome bonus? No problem!

Don’t be too quick to leave the site just because it lacks a classic Stake.com bonus to welcome new players. Stake.com gives you so many other opportunities to earn prizes, rewards, and even get a share of an active $1 million prize pool that expires at the end of April.

There are also various other monthly offers, double winnings, extra bonuses, cash back, and more opportunities to increase your winnings if only you are patient and consistent with your bets.

Regular punters are also given up to $5000 in weekly giveaways as part of Stake.com’s forum challenges. And, as a nod to the public outrage about the creation of the short-lived Super League composed of Europe’s top football teams, Stake.com has an ‘Anti-Super League Promo’ which rewards players every time one of those 12 teams loses points in their domestic leagues. And considering the teams’ current form, an anti-Super League reward is a sure thing.

Payments

Finally, we present all the available payment methods on Stake.com.

The site appears to be crypto-compatible only and no fiat currencies are accepted – but that is only a minor nuisance.

Cryptocurrencies are generally considered safer than traditional payment methods and allow for lightning-fast deposits and withdrawals. At Stake.com, you get 7 of the top cryptocurrencies for placing bets, including:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Litecoin (LTC)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• Ripple (XRP)
• Tron (TRX)
• EOS

FAQ