It was recently announced that Stake.com will be leaving the UK market. The betting and gaming brand has experienced rapid growth in the last few years, but that growth is often mired in controversy, and it seems like an advertising campaign pushed the regulators over the edge.
So, why is it leaving the UK market, when will the exit happen, and what does this mean for current members of Stake.com?
What Did Stake Do?
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission announced the exit of Stake from the British market on February 12, 2025. It followed an investigation into a viral advertising campaign featuring adult actress Bonnie Blue.
Filmed outside Nottingham University, with the Stake brand clearly visible throughout, the video followed Blue on what she said was a mission to have sex with “barely legal 18-year-olds”. Initially, the video appeared on the entertainer’s OnlyFans page, but it was later edited to display the Stake branding.
The issue, it seems, is not that the gambling site was using sex to draw attention to itself. If that was the problem, most brands would have to shut up shop, and no companies would have made it through the 1990s. It’s the “barely legal” aspect that caught the ire of the regulators, and the fact that the ads are clearly targeted toward younger viewers, even though gambling under the age of 18 is illegal in the United Kingdom.
Other Controversies Involving Stake
Stake has spent a lot of money signing streamers and celebrities to promote its services, with those brand ambassadors then streaming themselves playing games on the platform and winning large sums, often with credits supplied by the site.
Many fans of those streamers are underage, and a large number watch from jurisdictions where gambling is illegal or tightly controlled, so these streams have shone a negative spotlight on Stake in recent years.
Eventually, gambling streams were banned on Twitch, and the founders of Stream responded by launching their own streaming platform, known as Kick, where such activity was allowed.
The Lasting Effects
The UK side of Stake was slated to shut down by March 11, but after visiting the site a few times after February 12, I can confirm that it stopped accepting UK registrations soon after the announcement.
From now, it will no longer market to UK customers and players from the UK can’t sign up for a Stake account. Existing members will have already received communication from the site regarding the current state of play.
One of the things that could cause issues for Stake is that they were still the main shirt sponsor of Everton F.C,, a deal that began in June 2022. Everton have played several times since then, and Stake remains the main sponsor, with the Guardian reporting that they have no intention of changing that.
Everton’s counterargument is that they are not promoting Stake to UK users in particular and are promoting the brand’s non-UK operations. However, a statement from the UKGC makes it clear that they risk prosecution if they are found to be promoting unlicensed gambling operations to UK players.
