Kick, push and shove
G&Co looks into Stake's streaming site Kick and its role in driving traffic
Hello, on Gaming&Co today:
G&Co looks into Stake’s activities in regulated markets following the death of a French content creator on its streaming site Kick
Ex-Entain CEO and senior execs charged in connection with Turkey
Results roundup: Gaming Innovation Group, Gentoo Media, Tabcorp
ANJ seeks RG ambassadors, NFL issues predictions warning
News shorts: Flutter-India, KSA, Allwyn, Spotlight-Liderform
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Kick out the jams
The death of a French content creator on Kick, a streaming site that belongs to Stake, shines a disturbing light on the crypto-gambling giant’s attitude to generating views and to regulated iGaming markets
High stakes: The death of the French content creator Jean Pormanove, real name Raphaël Graven, on the streaming site Kick has renewed focus on its parent company, crypto-gambling giant Stake, and its activities in European regulated markets. The event occurred when his colleagues discovered his fate after a marathon broadcast that lasted around 12 days. It has shocked industry observers and is a stark reminder of the type of content that is produced on the platform.
Wages of fear: Pormanove generally streamed alongside three other characters/business partners, but his main role in the venture seemed to be as a human punch-bag for those people, who subjected him to prolonged episodes of degrading physical violence. His death has led to stinging criticism by observers such as Philippe Auclair, a former journalist at France Football.
From an online gambling perspective, the fact that Kick is owned by Easygo, Stake’s parent company, has, once again, shone a light on its presence in regulated markets.
Technically, the Stake website is inaccessible to French players following moves in 2021 by the regulator ANJ to block it, but numerous industry contacts Gaming&Co spoke to for this article have confirmed that the group continues accepting players from many European regulated markets, while a simple VPN will give players access to the site from ‘unauthorised’ countries.
Non-exclusive: One industry contact also noted that Kick “plays a role in promoting Stake, but also other crypto-gambling sites”.
“On the face of it, Stake is indeed off-limits in France,” added the contact, “but it's not difficult to create an account there. Stake remains one of the most used online casinos by players located in France (even more so since the closure of Cresus Casino at the start of the year), but it's hard to give you an idea of its market share.”
Upstream: Stake’s crypto-gambling leadership, provocative marketing stunts and high profile sport sponsorships, first as a company called Primedice in 2013 before operating as Stake from 2017, have turned into an iGaming giant in the past 10-12 years. But its streaming activities have also played a major role in boosting its brand and recruiting players.
It used Amazon’s Twitch streaming platform to advertise its iGaming wares, but was removed from the website following a gambling clampdown in 2022. It then launched Kick, where players and brand ambassadors live stream their gambling and for which Stake allegedly offers much more generous terms than Twitch. Stake’s growth led the Financial Times to claim it was the seventh largest gambling group in the world in 2023.
Easygo has also expanded recently by acquiring stakes in Danish operator VinderCasino, following similar moves in Colombia, Peru and Brazil. As Regulus Partners’ Paul Leyland told G&Co in February: “Stake has got so big that it almost has to go regulated.”
Access all areas
When it comes to some of its most important markets, Stake is said to be a major operator in Japan, Canada (the home country of rap star and brand ambassador Drake) and LATAM countries. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t take bets in Australia, where its headquarters are located. And while it says it doesn't target the US, it was sued by the state of Illinois in April for operating the Stake.us url.
More to the point, critics allege that it shows few signs of dissuading players from regulated markets from accessing its products. As another industry source put it: “It left the UK market following its name being associated with a promotional stunt by a pornographic actress in February, but its logo continues to appear on the shirts of Everton FC.”
Streaming funnel: Meanwhile, Kick is available worldwide and players in, say, regulated Germany, “will watch the Kick streams and have little difficulty accessing Stake’s German website via a VPN. Replicate such moves across numerous other countries and the company's scale quickly becomes apparent,” added G&Co’s source.
Highly visible: On top of its sponsorship of Everton, the group also sponsors the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber outfit and UFC mixed martial arts events. In addition, it recently signed a multi-year, seven-figure partnership to become the official international betting partner of the French eSports team Vitality’s Counter Strike 2 roster.
Death of a streamer: France has announced it will be suing Kick for "negligence" following Pormanove/Graven’s death. "Kick did not do everything possible to stop the broadcast of dangerous content," said Digital Affairs Minister Clara Chappaz.
Gaming&Co will be contacting Stake about these issues in the next few days.
Crypto operators and KYC
Crypto operators, or some of them at least, are said to have minimal KYC or player protection measures. While players from regulated markets can easily access them thanks to VPNs, Cristoffer Andersson, COO at crypto operator 500 Casino, says that at some point “they will be asked to go through KYC checks, based on the casinos thresholds and triggers”.
Anderson adds that some crypto casinos “will simply allow whoever to play”, others “will only allow losing players from ’restricted’ countries to play while at the same time blocking winning players” and some groups, depending on their management and licensing structure, will “simply follow their terms and conditions, blocking the players who are supposed to be blocked”.
When it comes to responsible gambling, limits or self-exclusion tools, Anderson says crypto operators do not have access to official systems such as Spelpaus in Sweden or GAMSTOP in the UK because they don’t hold licences in those countries.
As for accessing regulated markets, Anderson says regulators will assess “if certain casinos are offering their language and if their products are accessible to players in their jurisdictions and crack down on the providers instead of the actual operator”. This, in effect, is what happened to Evolution in the UK at the end of 2024-early 2025.
Anderson notes that if the provider is listed, as is Evolution, it will put “major pressure on their shares, cause lots of bad publicity and lead to potentially significant fines. So the only way to come out of it is to force the operator to either block certain IPs, or the provider will break their contract.”
“Most casinos will take the first option of blocking the country from accessing the site in order to maintain good providers on their site,” he explains.
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Ex-Entain execs charged in long-running Turkish enquiry
Charged: Ex-CEO Kenny Alexander, former chair Lee Feldman, ex-CFO Richard Cooper and ex-legal director Robert Hoskin are among 11 former Entain executives who have been charged in the UK over alleged misconduct linked to the operator’s former Turkish business.
The charges, brought by the Crown Prosecution Service with HMRC, cover conspiracy to defraud, bribery, tax evasion, fraudulent trading and perverting the course of justice, and relate to activity between 2011 and 2018.
Entain, formerly GVC Holdings, is not facing action itself. In a statement, the company said that none of those charged are current employees and pointed to its December 2023 ‘Deferred Prosecution Agreement’ with HMRC, which settled the corporate investigation subject to ongoing compliance.
The case marks the latest chapter in the long-running probe into Entain’s historic overseas operations. A preliminary hearing for the individuals involved is scheduled for October 6 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
ANJ looking to sponsor amateur sports clubs
French regulator wants to raise awareness of risks associated with sports betting addiction
Les Ambassadeurs: France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux is looking to sponsor up to 14 amateur sports clubs to raise awareness of the risks of gambling addiction linked to sports betting. The clubs can apply on the ANJ website.
The move is part of a launch of a major prevention campaign aimed at amateur clubs that will see them become ambassadors for the ANJ campaign. They will also be asked to relay the message locally to raise awareness of the dangers of uncontrolled sports betting.
As part of the sponsorship agreement, ANJ will provide 196 sports kits with player safety messaging on the font the jerseys and up to €6300 in gift options to the selected clubs.
Results round up: GIG Q2, Gentoo Media, Tabcorp
Gaming Innovation Group has lowered its FY25 guidance from €44m to €39m–€42m, while its EBITDA will range from €5m–€7m vs. €10m previously, due to partners exiting the sweepstakes market in the US and the group targeting “higher quality, experienced partnerships”. It maintained 2026 revenue guidance of €56m–€60m and EBITDA of €15m.
The group also announced the launch of Betzone on its SportsX betting platform. Betzone launched in January on GIG’s CoreX PAM, with its betting solution provided by Metric Gaming, and switched to GIG’s solution in the past few weeks.
The group said post-Q2 it had signed terms with a Brazilian partner and a commercial agreement to launch its first major European lottery in 2026. GIG’s Q2 revenues increased 27% to €9.3m as it generated positive EBITDA of €1m, overturning in a €1.8m loss in 2024.
GIG’s former media-affiliate division Gentoo Media said “strategic alignments” and cost cuts were completed during Q2, but also led to 19% YoY drop in revenues to €24.4m while EBITDA was down 50% to €7.5m. The group said the quarter reflected “deliberate operational recalibration, market softness in Brazil, and seasonal impact from the absence of major sports events”.
With costs down, the group managed to return to 40%+ margins in June, but also noted that revenue had “developed below expectations”. The group said it was starting the second half of 2025 “as a leaner and more agile business” and was already seeing “stronger underlying performance” thanks to the measures it had undertaken.
Australian giant Tabcorp returned to profit in 2025 and posted a YoY revenue rise of 12% to AU$2.6bn after heavy losses in 2024. New CEO Gillon McLachlan said stronger cost discipline, leadership changes and a focus on execution had enabled the turnaround. Wagering and media drove the performance, with revenue rising nearly 13% to AU$2.44bn, boosted by a new licence in the state of Victoria and growth in digital and international markets.
Net profit hit AU$36.6m, compared to a AU$1.36bn loss in 2024. McLachlan said Tabcorp is now “fitter” and “digitally competitive” thanks to plans for a national tote and omnichannel strategy.
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NFL rings alarm over predictions platforms
Concerns grow as providers ramp up offerings ahead of new season
Going on the offence: With the new NFL season set for kick off predictions platforms are jockeying for position to grab market share, but the League has raised alarm bells about the lack of regulation. Kalshi has expanded its offerings to include point spreads, totals, and player prop contracts for the NFL and college football, while Robinhood has partnered with Kalshi to introduce an American football-focused “Prediction Markets Hub” within its app.
Polymarket is preparing for its return to the US market after three years by acquiring QCEX, a CFTC-licensed exchange and ramping up social advertising spend with taglines including “Legal football trading is coming to ALL 50 states this fall”.
But on a media call ahead of the new season, NFL VP of sports betting, David Highhill, stressed that predictions platforms needed the same “robust protections” as sports betting markets. “We’re concerned that if these markets aren’t properly regulated, they could be susceptible to manipulation or price distortion,” he said.
NFL chief compliance officer Sabrina Perel added that players have been reminded that engaging with predictions platforms is prohibited under the League’s existing sports betting policies.
In response, Kalshi said it was “committed to working with the NFL and all leagues to address their concerns, share data and be as transparent as we are legally allowed to be”.
News shorts
Flutter said it was “disappointed” with India passing the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill last week. The bill occurred “within an exceptionally short timeframe having only been introduced into Parliament on August 20, 2025, and without consultation”. The group said India was expected to contribute c$200m revenue and $50m adj. EBITDA in 2025 and will “assess the accounting implications including any non-cash impairments to (its) Junglee business” in the country.
The Switzerland-based investment firm KKGC has sold a 4.27% stake in Allwyn to J&T Arch Investments which will drive proceeds of €500m for the fund founded by the Czech entrepreneur Karel Komarek, who is also Allwyn’s chairman. KKGC said the transaction values Allwyn’s share capital at €11.2bn as of December 31, 2024. J&T ARCH is listed on the Prague Stock Exchange and manages assets worth around €5.6bn. Following the transaction, KKCG’s stake in Allwyn is 95.73%.
The Dutch regulator KSA has insisted that gambling brands will be prohibited at the Dutch F1 Grand Prix this weekend and any teams displaying iGaming logos will be guilty of illegal advertising. Last year, the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber had to remove all its branding from team cars, driver helmets and from its paddock and hospitality zones. KSA told other F1 teams such as Red Bull (PokerStars), McLaren (Allwyn) and Williams (Betway/Super Group) that they must also follow the directive.
Spotlight Sports Group, the parent company of the Racing Post, will provide US horse racing content to Turkish racing enthusiasts as part of its partnership with Liderform, a leading horseracing information portal in Turkey. The agreement is “a significant expansion of the Racing Post's international footprint” and a “foundation for a broader strategic relationship between the two companies”, said Spotlight.
Calendar
Results: 11Sept: Playtech, 18 Sept: Super Group Investor Day
Events: 15-18 Sept: SBC Summit Lisbon
Contact
Get in touch with Jake Pollard to find out more about Gaming&Co: jake@gamingandco.info