Danish esports organization Astralis has announced it has signed a deal with online casino Stake as its new betting partner. 

The team debuted its new shirts with Stake emblazoned on the front at the ESL Pro League over the weekend, winning 2-0 against Heroic. 

In a post on LinkedIn, Astralis CRO Jakob Kristensen commented, “This is a strategically important partnership for Astralis and a strong validation of our position as a significant sports entertainment brand.”

Stake recently acquired MocinoPlay, the company behind the VinderCasino brand, which allows it to expand in the Danish market. 

Kristensen added, “Stake is entering the Danish market with global momentum, and doing so together with Astralis reflects the strength of our platform, our audience, and our long-term vision for esports as mainstream entertainment. We see significant opportunities to innovate, grow fan engagement, and help shape the next phase of our industry.”

Stake Enters Denmark As Astralis Goes International

In announcing the deal, Stake noted its aim to expand in Denmark and highlighted Astralis’ past achievements. The team won four major tournaments between 2017 and 2019, but has struggled to replicate that success of late. 

As a result, the team is now recruiting non-Danish players to join its lineup. It recently signed up Love “phzy” Smidebrant and Gytis “ryu” Glusauskas, from Sweden and Lithuania, respectively. 

This follows similar moves by Vitality, NIP, Fnatic, and FURIA, who all recycled national talent before changing their approach. 

As part of the deal with Stake, Astralis said, “This collaboration marks an important step in Astralis’ continued commercial evolution. 

“Together with Stake, we will develop integrated activations, digital campaigns, and content that brings fans closer to our players, our performance culture, and our competitive journey.

Stake Expanding Esports Presence

The deal with Astralis follows on from Stake agreeing a deal to sponsor Team Vitality last year. The company also signed up as a partner with the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) in November, vowing to commit to “ensuring the ecosystem remains fair, transparent, and trusted by fans and participants worldwide.”

On the deal with Astralis, Akhil Sarin, CMO of Stake, stated, “Stake is a digital-native brand; we were born on the internet and we live for this culture. 

“Tying our story to a legend of the game like Astralis is both a strategic milestone and a celebration of our newly activated Danish license. It’s a perfect match: global ambitions backed by strong local support.”

Stake Under Scrutiny

While its path into the Danish market has been cleared, the company remains blocked in many jurisdictions, including the US, where it has adopted a sweepstakes model to operate through Stake.us. 

It has been the subject of several cease-and-desist orders from state gambling regulators claiming it is operating a gambling site without a valid license. 

It is also facing lawsuits in several states, along with some of its celebrity promoters, including Drake. 

Its relationship with Drake was placed under further scrutiny this week amid allegations that the rapper hits jackpots at a rate well beyond statistical norms. Although these claims misunderstand how the bonus buy features on slots operate.

Drake and fellow livestreamer Adin Ross do stand out as having a higher jackpot rate than other Stake, or parent company Easy Go, players, but they also played a higher number of nominal spins per hour than most other streamers.

Drake has also publicly shown massive gambling losses in sports wagers at Stake, most recently in a $1 million losing bet on the Super Bowl. 

Fellow Stake promoter, Trainwreck, has also suffered bad beats on the platform, including a $5 million losing bet on Team Falcon at the BLAST Rivals Fall Counter-Strike final last year. Whether these losses are genuine or are refunded by Stake has also been called into question.