As Elon Musk’s X continues its transformation right into a right-wing fever dream, the platform’s dwindling inhabitants of irony-poisoned meme enjoyers has discovered a brand new motive to be aggravated: an onslaught of Stake gambling ads.
Irrespective of the place you lurk on X, it’s unattainable to flee the flood of viral posts stamped with the Stake emblem within the backside proper nook. A number of the greatest meme accounts, shamelessly recycling stolen content material or churning out their very own, have became strolling billboards for the crypto-backed on line casino.
What’s Stake?
Stake is a web-based sports activities betting and on line casino platform that lets customers gamble with cryptocurrency. Based in Australia in 2017 by Edward Craven and Bijan Tehrani, the corporate now operates out of Curaçao, a jurisdiction identified for its lenient gaming laws. However if you happen to’ve heard of Stake, it’s in all probability not due to its product — it’s due to its relentless advertising and marketing machine.
The corporate has embedded itself deep in web tradition, hanging profitable offers with former Twitch stars like xQC and Adin Ross who now stream solely on Kick, the Stake-owned streaming platform. Past the gaming world, Stake is an official partner with the UFC, the main sponsor of Sauber Motorsport’s Method One vehicles, and even has a cope with Drake, who’s responsible for this recent Stake ad.
In 2022, the corporate took its ambitions to the Premier League, slapping its title on Everton’s jerseys. That partnership didn’t final — by February 2025, according to The Athletic, Stake had pulled out of the UK solely after the Playing Fee launched an investigation into its promoting ways.
Mashable High Tales
The investigation was sparked by a Stake advert showing on a video that includes English pornstar Bonnie Blue. A complaint filed with the Promoting Requirements Authority argued that the position violated UK laws prohibiting playing advertisements from being related to “seduction” or designed to enchantment to younger audiences.
Why is its emblem on all these memes?
First reported in late 2024 by 404 Media and Slate, Stake had struck offers with numerous content material aggregators on X — paying them to slap its emblem on all their posts. Thus, it is created a low-effort, high-visibility promoting marketing campaign for the crypto on line casino as X’s algorithm prioritizes content material posted by subscribed customers.
Making issues worse, Stake managed to squeeze much more free promoting out of X’s Group Notes system. Customers making an attempt to name out the model inadvertently boosted its visibility, as Notes explaining what Stake is — typically even linking on to its web site — unfold throughout the platform.
Your complete scheme seems to be a workaround for X’s personal content material insurance policies, which explicitly ban undisclosed playing advertisements and prohibit promotions for offshore casinos.
In keeping with Slate, X person @FearedBuck was “floor zero” for Stake’s newest advert blitz. As soon as a Milwaukee Bucks fan web page, the account pivoted to reposting clips from Kick, earlier than abruptly stopping when it began drawing scrutiny for potential FTC violations. Now, meme accounts nonetheless slapping the Stake watermark on their posts have added a skinny layer of believable deniability, tacking on disclaimers like “Gamble Responsibly” or #AD.
In December, Musk took a quick stand, warning and suspending several accounts accused of manipulating the platform to push Stake advertisements. However the crackdown was extra of a velocity bump than a deterrent, as new accounts proceed to floor, holding the cycle alive.
And now, it’s getting even worse. Meme pages that first flooded X with Stake-branded content material are taking their hustle cross-platform, reposting the same viral photos — watermark and all — onto Instagram Reels and Fb, spreading the crypto on line casino’s attain far past Musk’s already compromised platform.
