Ed Craven

Last updated

Edward Craven
Born1995 (age 29–30)
NationalityAustralian
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder of Stake and Kick

Edward Craven (born 1995) is an Australian billionaire entrepreneur [1] known as the co-founder of the online casino Stake and the live-streaming platform Kick. [2] [3] [4] Craven also streams on Kick. [5] [6]

Contents

Early life

From Melbourne, Australia, [7] Craven was born in 1995. His father, Jamie Craven, was banned from working in the financial services industry and jailed for six months in the 1980s over the collapse of investment company Spedley Securities. [8] [9] Little is publicly known about Craven's upbringing or education, although he did attend to Bishop Druitt College where he developed an early interest in technology, online gaming, and cryptocurrencies. [10] [11] According to Craven, he won $6000 on a family cruise at age 12, which gave him a fascination with the statistics of the gambling industry. [12] During his teenage years, he became active in online communities centered around virtual games and gambling, particularly within the game RuneScape . [13]

Career

After experimenting together with Bijan Tehrani with virtual gambling in RuneScape, Craven and Tehrani created Primedice, a cryptocurrency-based online dice game in 2013. [14] In 2016, they launched Easygo, a company specializing in online casino games. [15] Until the end of 2021, Craven was known publicly only as "Edd Miroslav." [7]

Stake

The brand Stake debuted in 2017. Operating through a license in Curaçao, the company opened offices in Serbia, Australia, and Cyprus, becoming one of the world's largest gambling companies. [16] Stake expanded to the UK in December 2021 through a partnership with TGP Europe. It is the main shirt sponsor for Everton FC and Watford FC, and also backs the Sauber Formula One team. [17] [18] In 2022, Canadian musician Drake was paid US$100 million annually to endorse Stake on social media. [19] [20]

In September 2023, the FBI confirmed that the Lazarus Group, a North Korean cybercrime organization linked to over US$300 million in cryptocurrency thefts in 2023, had stolen approximately US$41 million in cryptocurrency from Stake. [21] [22]

In May 2024, Craven and his business partner, Bijan Tehrani, increased their stake in ASX-listed bookmaker PointsBet to over 5% through their company, Easygo Gaming. [23] [24] In August 2025, it was reported that Craven had backed Mixi's offer to acquire PointsBet, in a $421 million bid. Craven, through Easygo Entertainment, already controlled 5% of PointsBet. [25]

In early 2024, Stake, partnered with Canberra-based Racing and Sports Technology to begin offering horse racing bets. [26] In February 2024, Stake became a sponsor of Formula 1 by rebranding the Sauber team as the "Stake F1 Team." [27] [28] In August 2024, Stake expanded into the Italian market by acquiring Baldo Line SRL, the operator of Idealbet.it, thereby enhancing its European presence. [29] In March 2025, Craven announced a strategic shift for Stake, transitioning from a cryptocurrency-exclusive platform to accepting 70% of transactions in traditional fiat currency. [21] Stake in early 2025 was registered in Curaçao, but run from Melbourne, where its services were not legal for Australians. Stake.com left the UK in early 2025, after it was cautioned by the UK gambling regulator over videos by an adult content creator. [30] In April 2025, Stake was sued in California over allegedly illegally operating a "social casino" in the state. [31]

In June 2024, Craven's company Easygo Solutions owned both the Stake and Kick platforms. That month, it began offering sign-on bonuses of up to A$100,000 to attract senior engineering talent, aiming to recruit from tech firms such as Atlassian, Canva, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Xero. [32] [33] [34]

Kick

Kick was launched in 2022 by Craven and his business partner, Tehrani, with the intention of competing with Amazon's Twitch as an online live-streaming platform. [35] Unlike Twitch, it provides a 95-5% split of revenues to content creators. [36] Kick's sponsorships include the Alfa Romeo F1 Team and Everton Football Club. [4] In May 2024, Craven addressed concerns from streamers about the platform's moderation being worse than Twitch, noting Kick was working to balance content regulation and community feedback. [37] [6]

Other ventures

As of May 2024, Craven and Tehrani own more than 5% of the ASX-listed online bookmaker PointsBet through Easygo. [38]

Craven is also an investor in Australian AI technology company Maincode, [39] of which as of August 2025 he was majority investor. [40] Maincode's parent company, MCECTech, has Craven as its sole shareholder. [39] In August 2025, Maincode revealed its flagship platform Matilda, which was to be Australia's first "sovereign large language model, trained on Australian data." [41]

Easygo Solutions, Craven's private investment vehicle, had revenues of over $500 million in the 2024 financial year. It had profits that year of $260 million, and held $405 million in cryptocurrencies. At the time, Craven was also director of Easygo Group Holdings, held along with Tehrani. [42]

Personal life

Craven resides in Melbourne and in 2022 he purchased a 7,187-square-metre (77,360 sq ft) derelict mansion for A$80,000,088—the most expensive house in Toorak. [3] [43] Craven plans to construct a new luxury residence valued at approximately $150 million. Architect Paul Conrad noted that the design would be more akin to architectural styles from the US and UK than typical local. [44] [45] Also in 2023, he purchased a Toorak home for $38.5 million. [46]

Craven plays online games and livestreams his gameplay on Kick. He has streamed alongside celebrities including Drake. [47]

Net worth

In October 2024, Craven debuted on the Financial Review's Young Rich List, ranking 68th with a net worth of A$2.01 billion. [48] At the same time, Forbes Australia highlighted Craven and Tehrani's US$5.6 billion fortune, built through Stake and Kick. [7] In February 2025, the Financial Review reported his wealth at $4.51 billion. [30] According to The Australian, he is the youngest Australian billionaire. [21]

Year Financial Review
Rich List 		Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest
Rank Net worth (A$)Rank Net worth (US$)
2024 [49] 26Increase2.svg$4.51 billion Increase2.svg
2025 [50] 32Decrease2.svg$4.82 billion Increase2.svg
Legend
Icon Description
Steady2.svgHas not changed from the previous year
Increase2.svgHas increased from the previous year
Decrease2.svgHas decreased from the previous year

References

  1. ↑ Seeto, Tamika (21 June 2024). "Wild details revealed as 28-year-old builds Australia's most expensive home". Yahoo Finance . Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  2. ↑ Begley, Patrick (21 February 2024). "The private chat messages from inside an Australian billionaire's 'money machine'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  3. 1 2 Bucci, Nino (16 August 2022). "High stakes: the cryptocurrency casino king who bought the most expensive house in Victoria". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Rich Lister accused of encouraging 'incredibly inappropriate' behaviour". Australian Financial Review. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  5. ↑ Craig, Matt (9 June 2024). "These entrepreneurs went all in on a crypto casino - and became billionaires". Forbes Australia. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  6. 1 2 "The real humans at Kick striving to make a real difference". Dexerto. 3 October 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 "Ed Craven & the untold story of Stake: Inside the $5.6 billion rise of crypto's biggest high rollers". Forbes Australia. 24 February 2025. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  8. ↑ Danckert, Sarah. "The secret Australian origins of the world's biggest crypto casino".
  9. ↑ Macken, Lucy (10 April 2024). "Crypto casino billionaire Ed Craven's dad buys trophy beach house for $16m cash". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  10. ↑ "Crypto King Foundation Student". Bishop Druitt College. Retrieved 21 June 2025.
  11. ↑ Barnes, Oliver; Chipolina, Scott (28 March 2023). "Stake.com: the Aussie gambling minnow that made it big on crypto". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  12. ↑ Whittaker, Mark (24 February 2025). "Ed Craven & the untold story of Stake: Inside the $5.6 billion rise of crypto's biggest high rollers".
  13. ↑ Malvin (21 February 2025). "Ed Craven's Journey: From RuneScape to Kick and Stake". Inspirepreneur. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  14. ↑ "Stake.com: the Aussie gambling minnow that made it big on crypto". www.ft.com. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  15. ↑ "The secret Australian origins of the world's biggest crypto casino". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 December 2021.
  16. ↑ "No room at the inn for Stake.com crypto billionaires". The Australian .
  17. ↑ "Alfa Romeo F1 team announce co-title partnership with Stake". Reuters. 27 January 2023.
  18. ↑ "Everton FC - News, pictures and video". The Mirror US. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  19. ↑ "Stake.com: the Aussie gambling minnow that made it big on crypto". www.ft.com. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  20. ↑ Brown, Preezy (2 March 2022). "Drake Partners With Online Platform Stake For Live Betting Event". VIBE . Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  21. 1 2 3 "Australian billionaire Ed Craven on what keeps him ambitious". The Australian. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  22. ↑ "FBI Identifies Lazarus Group Cyber Actors as Responsible for Theft of $41 Million from Stakecom". FBI. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  23. ↑ "Stake.com billionaires buy more of local bookie Pointsbet". Australian Financial Review. 31 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  24. ↑ "PointsBet shares surge on talk offer is pending for the online bookmaker". The Weekly Times. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  25. ↑ Thompson, Sarah; Sood, Kanika; Rapaport, Emma (17 August 2025). "Mixi wins key ally as the battle for PointsBet heats up". Australian Financial Review.
  26. ↑ "Billionaire-backed Stake.com to take horse racing bets after deal with Racing and Sports Technology". The Australian. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  27. ↑ Evans, Jake (6 February 2024). "As it happened: Stake F1 Team's extravagant unveiling party". NEXT.io. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  28. ↑ "Crypto billionaires Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani secure stake in Formula One team Sauber". Herald Sun. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  29. ↑ "Italy move ideal for ambitious Aussie-owned Stake.com". The Straight. 1 August 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  30. 1 2 Samios, Zoe (17 February 2025). "Stake.com to quit Britain after Bonnie Blue video controversy". Australian Financial Review.
  31. ↑ "The Mercury".
  32. ↑ Thomsen, Simon (20 June 2024). "Crypto gaming billionaire Ed Craven dangles $100,000 sign-on carrots to lure engineers away from Canva, Atlassian and Australia's top tech companies". Startup Daily. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  33. ↑ "Aussie company offers $100k starting bonus". news. Archived from the original on 18 June 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  34. ↑ "Stake.com co-founder Edward Craven's Easygo Solutions technology firm posts $500m profits". Herald Sun. 28 May 2025. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  35. ↑ "Top Twitch creator endorses platform connected to crypto gambling site". The Washington Post.
  36. ↑ D'Anastasio, Cecilia (3 March 2023). "Twitch's New Streaming Rival Kick Tests Waters of Lighter Moderation". Bloomberg . Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  37. ↑ "Kick streamers say moderation is worse than Twitch as CEO asks if it's too harsh". Dexerto. 22 May 2025. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  38. ↑ Samios, Zoe (31 May 2024). "Stake.com billionaires buy more of local bookie Pointsbet" . Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 23 May 2025.
  39. 1 2 Smith, Paul (29 July 2025). "Stake.com founder invests millions to build Australia's ChatGPT" . Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  40. ↑ Field, Shivaune (31 July 2025). "Inside Ed Craven's multi-million dollar bet on Australia's answer to OpenAI".
  41. ↑ Smith, Paul (14 August 2025). "Meet Matilda, Australia's answer to ChatGPT". Australian Financial Review.
  42. ↑ "Accounts show Stake.com billionaire Ed Craven's private vehicle in revenue surge". Australian Financial Review. 3 March 2025.
  43. ↑ Redman, Elizabeth; Heagney, Melissa (15 August 2022). "Victorian house price record smashed twice in a week as Toorak mansion fetches $80m". The Age . Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  44. ↑ "Owner of $80m Toorak mansion is planning a $150m property" . Australian Financial Review . 16 August 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  45. ↑ Field, Shivaune (17 September 2024). "How Ed Craven is changing Australia's 'trophy home' real estate". Forbes Australia. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  46. ↑ Redrup, Yolanda (12 February 2023). "Aussie crypto billionaire alleges ex associate embezzled millions". Australian Financial Review.
  47. ↑ "Drake and crypto betting site Stake officially announce partnership: 'It was inevitable'". USA Today. 4 March 2022.
  48. ↑ Thompson, Sarah (16 October 2024). "The 10 richest young Australians revealed". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  49. ↑ Redrup, Yolanda; Bailey, Michael (30 May 2024). "Australia's wealthiest 200 now control $625b". Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  50. ↑ Redrup, Yolanda (30 May 2025). "Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed, fortunes blow past $667b" . Australian Financial Review . Retrieved 31 May 2025.
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