Stake Review

Stake Sportsbook Summary

No one would blame you for knowing Stake simply as “the betting app Drake uses.” But it turns out that the Cyprus-based, Curacao-licensed casino and sportsbook is so much more than that – especially for players looking for a sports betting operator that accepts cryptocurrency.

Not a crypto user? No problem: Stake is still one of the top online sportsbooks in Canada for many other reasons, including a remarkably simple interface and some of the most competitive odds in the country. Users can use the Stake promo code 'SBRBONUS'.

Stake Quick Facts

Stake Locations

Stake is accessible to all residents of Canada. However, it isn’t licensed in the country and is therefore considered “grey market” – meaning you have no legal recourse in Canada should anything happen to your account.

Sports Leagues to Bet On

You won’t find many Canadian sportsbooks with a leg up on Stake regarding the depth and breadth of sports offered.

Here's a look at what you'll find at Stake when it comes to the most popular betting markets for Canadian customers:

NFL Betting

Stake provides NFL bettors with plenty of opportunities to profit on their favourite teams. Pre-game markets include moneylines, spreads, totals, and quarter- or half-specific markets, while players can also bet on any of Stake’s in-game offerings.

NBA Betting

Basketball betting has grown in popularity, and Stake is here to serve the hoops-happy crowd with moneyline, spread, and total markets. Player and team props are also available here, though larger sportsbook operators have a greater selection of offerings.

College Football

College football betting is seeing increased interest in Canada, and Stake is ready to serve an eager True North audience with moneylines, spreads, and totals for most Division I NCAA football games during the season. Look for even more markets during bowl season.

College Basketball

Stake is a slam dunk regarding NCAA basketball betting, offering traditional markets throughout the regular season and conference tournaments. And as with most providers, Stake steps things up a notch before March Madness tips off.

NHL Betting

Hockey bettors will find Stake hits most of the right notes regarding daily offerings. Players can wager on moneylines, pucklines, or totals, while the in-game selections are decent. Team and player props are among the most popular live options.

MLB Betting

Summertime means MLB wagering – and Stake comes armed with a decent offering of baseball odds. From moneyline, runline, and total options to player props, inning-specific markets, and alternate totals, players have plenty to choose from here.

Other Sports Leagues

Stake provides a strong base for soccer bettors, offering a wide variety of wagering markets across many of the top European leagues and tournaments. Tennis is also a strength of this operator, particularly regarding its selection of live betting opportunities.

In addition to the main leagues, Stake provides various secondary competitions like cricket, cycling, darts, futsal, Gaelic sports, handball, snooker, and squash, along with Alpine sports like ski jumping and biathlon. This compares favorably not only with the top Canadian sportsbooks, but also with notable Ontario and U.S. sites like FanDuel and BetMGM.

Esports aficionados will be pleased to know that Stake offers a wide variety of betting markets on Dota 2, Rainbow Six, League of Legends, and others. However, they're mixed in with the main sports rather than contained within their own menu. There are also politics and entertainment options, though they’re limited to British personalities.

Online Betting Experience

Stake doesn’t offer a mobile app at this point, so users are limited to either the desktop or mobile web experience.

Website Experience

I'm a big fan of the simple interface Stake uses, with the sports menu on the left-hand side and the rest of the screen devoted to the betting markets (that is, until you click to make a bet, an action that opens up a third column on the far right where your bet slip resides.)

Building a multi-bet card is a snap: simply add all the games you wish to wager on, decide if you want to make single bets or a parlay wager, and select “Place Bet” at the bottom of the slip. The white-and-three-shades-of-blue interface is sharp and not distracting.

One neat option Stake provides: a live list of all bets being made on the site at that time, with the event, user (provided their names aren’t hidden), time, odds, and bet amount. While the fire-hose scrolling during marquee events might get old, you can choose the  “high rollers” scroll menu, which is an excellent way of seeing who the big bettors are taking.

One significant strike against Stake: Occasionally mind-numbing load times. I ran into repeated issues, with some pages cycling for up to 30 seconds before either producing a blank screen or an error message. Fine-tuning those loads should be a high priority for this book.

Mobile Betting and Betting App

The mobile web version of the sportsbook is virtually identical to the desktop version in function and feel, though I didn’t encounter quite as many page load errors on my mobile device. That said, the live bet tracker display on mobile takes up most of the bottom half of the screen, so maybe including fewer displayed entries would be a nice option to have.

Live Betting

Stake does a great job of providing sports bettors with robust live betting markets. You’ll find the “Live Events” tab in the top segment of the left-hand sports menu; selecting it takes you to all the live events Stake covers at that time, sorted by sport, with soccer listed first.

Stake’s live odds update as quickly as any sportsbook in Canada, with quick-flash green and red arrows telling users which way the odds are moving. There’s also a standard countdown between when you place your bet and when it actually goes through, depending on which sports you're betting. It isn’t the fastest, but it’s suitable.

Stake doesn’t revolutionize the live betting experience here, but it provides a suitable foundation for sports bettors to make live wagers across as many sports as possible. Stake also offers live streaming options for selected sports, with the action contained in a small box in the bottom left corner of the site once activated.

Casino, Poker, & Other Gaming Options

This is where Stake really sets itself apart from the competition (and is probably one of the reasons Drake felt compelled to partner with it). While its sportsbook offering is top-notch, Stake also provides one of the top casino experiences of any site available in Canada.

Stake offers more than 2,400 slot machines, including the most popular jackpot machines you’ve encountered elsewhere. You can use the left-side menu to get more granular, sorting the machines into categories like New Releases, Stake Exclusives, and Feature Buy-In.

This greatly exceeds the quantity of slots you'll find at other Canadian sportsbooks like bet365 or Sports Interaction.

If that weren’t enticing enough, Stake also boasts a whopping 16 original games you won’t find anywhere else. In addition to being aligned with more than 30 gaming providers, Stake allows players to play proprietary games like Dice, Plinko, Blue Samurai, and Limbo.

Stake also stands out for big-stakes casino enthusiasts, offering some of the highest limits on their slots and table games of any gaming operator in North America. And while that might not appeal to the casual gamer, it’s definitely worth noting to those looking for a big score.

Lastly, while you’ll find a wide array of table games to suit your preferences (including blackjack, Baccarat, and roulette), Stake doesn’t have a poker room, so you’ll need to get your No-Limit Hold ‘Em fix elsewhere.

Stake History

Stake didn’t take long to gain a foothold in the global casino industry. Initially set up by Easygo’s Ed Craven and business partner Bijan Tehrani in 2017, Stake.com was an almost instant hit while operating out of Australia – a revelation that distressed the continent’s retail casino operators who were afraid that Stake would cut into their profits.

Fortunately for them, online casinos remain banned in Australia; Craven and Tehrani were simply operating their business out of there (which is perfectly legal as long as Australians can’t access it.) The decision to operate with a Curacao license was another way for Craven and Tehrani to distance themselves from the Australian gaming scene effectively.

Having established itself quickly, Stake set its sights on sponsorships – and it has amassed quite a roster in five short years. Among the site’s partners: Watford FC, auto racing’s Fittipaldi brothers, MMA fighters Israel Adesanya and Jose Aldo, and, of course, His Drakeness.

The most significant recent development, particularly for Canadian bettors: The added option of making deposits and withdrawals using regular money rather than cryptocurrency. Stake entered the space as a crypto-only entity, but has since opened up to more traditional deposit and withdrawal methods.

Customer Ratings & Reputation

Stake really runs the gamut from a customer reputation standpoint – so it wouldn’t hurt to do a little additional research before deciding whether to give this site a shot.

For starters, players have lauded the quality of odds, and with good reason. Not only does Stake avoid the widespread practice of juicing up both the pre-game and live odds as an operator with a smaller Canadian market share, but Stake’s odds for both are among the best in the business – and that includes the industry’s heavy hitters.

That said, there are some red flags to consider. Let’s start with the two main promos running in the left nav menu: A $50,000 weekly giveaway draw in which players need to wager a minimum of $1,000 to earn even one ticket and a $100,000 daily race in which bettors are ranked based on how much they bet that day. Wagering $5 at a time? Sorry, friend. These aren’t for you. 

There’s also Stake’s Trustpilot rating, which sits at an almost-too-good-to-be-true 4.4 through more than 1,200 reviews. But if you head to the gaming site’s Trustpilot page, you’ll see that it has recently had several fake reviews removed. That’s a bit of a red flag for me.

Customer Service

Stake prioritizes top-notch customer service, as evidenced by how little time players are left waiting in a live chat module. Stake’s response time is among the best in the Canadian gaming industry, and the representatives know their stuff and can readily answer questions about site-related issues.

Unfortunately, you’re mostly out of luck if you prefer other ways of communicating with CSRs. Reaching out via Stake’s generic support email means waiting a minimum of 24-48 hours for a response, and there is no phone number listed for Canadians hoping to talk voice-to-voice.

Stake Contact

• 24/7 Live Chat
• Email: support@stake.com

Stake Legal Betting

Stake is owned by Medium Rare N.V. based in Cyprus, and is legally able to operate in Canada by virtue of being licensed, authorized, and regulated by the government of Curacao (License No. 8048/JAZ).

Responsible Gambling

Stake offers players a wealth of resources to help with problem gambling – beginning with the option of self-exclusion, which players can access through their account preferences.

Stake also claims to offer its customer service representatives regular training on how to help players with problem gambling and responsible gambling. Representatives are instructed to guide concerned players to gambling-related support services in their respective countries.

Here is a list of some other recommended resources.

• BeGambleAware.org: offers free, confidential help and support to anyone worried about gambling for themselves or others.
• Gambling Therapy: a global service provided by Gordon Moody offering free emotional support and advice to anyone affected by gambling.
• ResponsibleGambling.org: The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) is a respected, independent non-profit organization. They have been a leader in preventing problem gambling in Canada and globally for over 35 years.

Why Choose Stake?

Stake is by no means perfect, but the redeeming qualities are numerous and significant. This sportsbook will appeal to new users from a simplicity and quality-of-odds standpoint, and if you’re into casino action, Stake is a genuine revelation.

And yet, there are so many things that need fixing here. Slow loading pages can turn people off instantly, and not offering accessible promotions for low-limit players makes this app a tough sell to casual bettors. Combine that with the Trustpilot review controversy, and you couldn’t blame new Stake users for saying, “Hold On, We’re Going Home.”

I recommend giving Stake a shot, but keeping expectations reasonable.