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The 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be the biggest in franchise history. The tournament will span three countries and feature 48 of the world's best teams going head-to-head across 104 matches. To match the excitement of the Football World Championships, bet365, the globally recognised online casino and sports betting provider, is launching an exciting new tournament to celebrate the event. Read on to learn how the promotion works, when it will be running, and how you can get in on football-fueled action for free this Summer. What Is the WC26 Tournament Challenge? Building on the success of their previous free-to-play prediction games, bet365 is inviting its customers to get into the spirit of the beautiful game by taking a shot at climbing the leaderboard to take home the win. The Tournament Challenge features five leaderboard competitions, each offering a $250,000 top prize, with additional prizes available across the leaderboard positions. These leaderboard events are: Matchday 1: Get your predictions in before the opening matches kick off. Matchday 2: Make your next pick and see how you're doing on the leaderboard. Matchday 3: Keep collecting points as the group stage action unfolds. Knockout Stage: Put your football knowledge to the test as the tournament progresses. Tournament Final: Find out where you are on the final leaderboard. Submitting your tournament prediction for each round is free of charge. While the event offers a generous top prize, it is not designed around a winner-take-all structure, as it also offers multiple prizes for supporting positions. How the Tournament Challenge Works What makes participating in WC26 entertaining is the combination of several features, which, combined, create an event that matches the energy of the World Cup itself. The Tournament Challenge includes five key features: Predictions: These allow players to forecast match outcomes. Matchday Progression: These unlock new stages as the tournament develops. Leaderboards: Punters can track performance throughout the competition. Your Leagues: The feature lets players create private groups with friends. Social Sharing: Invite your mates to join by using a custom league code. The promotional challenge follows the flow of the football tournament itself, with separate leaderboards running throughout the competition. Match Days 1, 2 and 3 each have their own leaderboard, while the Round of 32 also operates as a standalone stage. From the Round of 16 onwards, the focus shifts to the overall standings before the final leaderboard is settled at the conclusion of the tournament. This combination of entertaining features allows players to follow the action throughout WC26 while comparing their predictions and leaderboard positions with friends and other football-loving punters. Your Leagues Bring a Social Element One of the new additions to the lineup is the "Your Leagues" feature. Punters can now create private groups and invite friends using a unique league code. Rather than only tracking your score on the main leaderboard, players can check predictions and positions against people they know at any time. Whether you are competing with friends, family, or footie fans at work, the feature adds another layer of entertainment. As the tournament progresses, members can see how their free game picks stack up against one another, creating friendly rivalries that continue from the opening kick-off to the final tournament whistle. For league fans who already enjoy chatting about matches and making picks before kick-off, Your Leagues provides a simple way to keep building hype throughout WC26. The Perfect Summer of Football Fit In the same way that the spectacle of the World Cup keeps fans and players on the edge of their seats, so does the format of the bet365 Tournament Challenge. Football fans can look forward to: Frequent match schedules throughout the tournament. Ongoing engagement across multiple stages. Following football beyond individual bets. Comparing predictions with friends and other participants. More reasons to keep an eye on the action. With high-energy matches, leaderboard positions constantly changing, and new opportunities to climb the standings, Tournament Challenge gives football fans another reason to follow the action from start to finish. Interested in taking part? Learn more about the Tournament Challenge and other WC26 football promotions at bet365 Casino. Full Terms & Conditions: Gameplay For full details on gameplay, please refer to our Tournament Challenge rules. You are responsible for any tax obligations (reporting and / or tax settlement) that are applicable in your jurisdiction in relation to any deposits, stakes or entry fees or any winnings/prizes or losses as the case may be. Prize values displayed are exclusive of any tax deductions (where applicable). Using Bet Credits Bet Credits will be added to your balance once your predictions are confirmed as correct and once the result of the final fixture is known. Your Bet Credits are non-withdrawable. Any returns from Bet Credits stakes will be added to your Withdrawable Balance but Bet Credits stakes are not included in any returns. For example, a $20 bet placed at odds of 3.00 (2/1) would give a return of $60 ($40 winnings plus $20 stake), whereas a $20 Bet Credits stake placed at odds of 3.00 (2/1) would give a net return of $40, as the $20 Bet Credits stake is not returned. Stakes can be funded in part by your Bet Credits and part with your Withdrawable Balance; however the Bet Credits element of the stake will not be included in any returns. For example, a $20 bet placed at odds of 3.00 (2/1) which was funded by $10 Bet Credits and $10 cash would give a net return of $50 ($40 winnings plus $10 cash stake) as the $10 Bet Credits stake would not be returned. If a bet is void and has had an opportunity to win (for example, in the event of a push), Bet Credits stakes will not be returned. If a bet is void and has not had an opportunity to win (for example, when a Goalscorer bet is placed on a player who does not then take part in the match), Bet Credits stakes will be returned. Your Bet Credits will expire 7 days after they are added to your Bet Credits balance. If additional Bet Credits are added to your Bet Credits balance within this 7 day period, the total Bet Credits balance will expire 7 days after the last addition. General Tournament Challenge is available at the discretion of bet365 and bet365 makes no guarantees regarding its availability. bet365 will not be responsible if the Tournament Predictor feature is not available for technical reasons. Please note that bet365 is not responsible for any rewards or promotions offered in connection with the Tournament Challenge by any third party. bet365 reserves the right to accept or decline any Tournament Challenge entry. bet365 reserves the right to reclaim any prize-money or remove Bet Credits awarded for a Tournament Challenge entry if the outcome of a fixture within the relevant game was determined in error. bet365 reserves the right to amend, suspend or remove the Tournament Challenge feature (or any part of it) for any event, fixture or customer. bet365 reserves the right to remove the Tournament Challenge feature for any customer or group of customers where it has reasonable grounds to believe that the customer or groups of customers is misusing the feature.
With the growing value of Bitcoin and other decentralised tokens, we have seen a surge in crypto casinos and a growing appetite from players to gamble using their favourite coins. However, as the industry has begun to mature and cryptocurrencies are moving away from simply being the ‘hot new trend’ into a trusted financial instrument, how holders are using these digital assets is also evolving. One of the use cases for this cutting-edge technology, which is gaining ground, is staking. Join us to learn more about this process and why it resonates with crypto gamblers. Global Crypto Regulation Shift In recent news, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) amended its cryptocurrency legislation to allow Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VATP) and exchange-traded funds (ETF) to offer crypto staking to their users. This move saw the financial powerhouse join the ranks of Singapore (excluding retail staking), Germany, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. All of these regions have ensured that their crypto laws, local crypto tax codes, and investment frameworks allow investors to stake their digital assets in yield-bearing products. Malta and Portugal do not have specific laws governing the practice, but neither is there anything that claims it is illegal. This grey area, combined with their lack of capital gains tax for private investments, has made staking a hot topic amongst investors but kept platforms from going too hard until there is more regulatory clarity. While both the European Union and the United States are on record as considering the legalisation of crypto staking, it is the United Kingdom that will most likely be the next big player to enter the space. Staking is not the Same as Betting While crypto gamblers are used to funding their player accounts and using their assets to play slots or back a sports team, staking in this context is more like backing the house than wagering on the game. Britannica Money defines cryptocurrency staking as: “... practice of locking your digital tokens to a blockchain network in order to earn rewards—usually a percentage of the tokens staked. Staking cryptocurrency is also how token holders earn the right to participate in proof-of-stake blockchains.” In short, this is similar to how a poker room operates. It allows players to compete head-to-head at their table; they manage the deposits, withdrawals, and the flow of the game. At the end of the game, they take a cut of the pot as a service fee. Crypto staking allows investors to assign a portion of their holdings to a staking platform, based on the advertised rate of return, for example, 5% for 30 days. The investor receives interest on their stake at the end of the period. Why Gamblers Are Turning to Staking Punters who are holding large sums of crypto tend to have delegated gambling balances, and as this pot grows, they look for ways to keep it active without risking it all on crash games and live dealer bets. Staking has become a fantastic way to ensure their portfolio remains active and gains value without being used for online gambling. The experience is akin to betting on low-volatility games; sure, the wins are not astronomical, but it's fun to see your balance ticking up over time. Also, there is a particular pleasure in being the house for a change, rather than the one competing against it. Staking is essential for the viability of crypto platforms as it ensures that networks add accurate new information, and it is used to defend against network control attacks (also known as 51% attacks). All of this and you earn passive income for investing your tokens into the network for short periods, making it the ideal intersection of risk versus reward for online gamblers. It’s Not all Sunshine and Roses With the mention of risk versus reward, we have to clarify that, much like any sports bet or casino wager, cryptocurrency staking is not a guaranteed win. The Downside of Staking Your Tokens: Anytime you place an asset under the control of a 3rd party, there are risks - here are some of the things to consider before staking: You can’t access your crypto while it’s locked in staking. Prices can drop, so your staked tokens and rewards might lose value. Some or all of your crypto can be taken if the network rules are broken. Too many rewards can cause inflation and reduce the value of your earnings. If the blockchain is attacked, your staked crypto could be at risk. Staking is not well-regulated in many countries. Staking can be tricky and may need technical know-how. Some platforms charge high fees that eat into your staking rewards. Not all staking projects are legit—some could be scams. Slashing Penalties Can Be Brutal: Even with all precautions, slashing penalties can still occur, and they may cost you part or even all of your staked tokens.. This is because, in a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, validator activity is monitored by a smart contract that defines the rules of participation. If those rules are broken, whether intentionally or not, the contract can automatically trigger penalties, including the loss of staked tokens. If a validator using your funds is deemed to be validating conflicting blocks (called double signing), or goes offline too often, resulting in missing blocks, they may be penalised by having a portion of their staked crypto permanently taken away or being removed as a validator. In both instances, there will be a negative impact on your expected returns, or even lose a portion of the coins you set as the stake. Take Matters Into Your Own Hands If you prefer to trust the growth of your crypto holdings to your luck at the tables, rather than the whims of a network validator, we recommend checking out these highly recommended crypto casinos. Each operator offers a generous welcome bonus that guarantees a tasty boost to your bottom line from the outset, and you get to actively enjoy some of the best mobile slots, arcade games, and live dealer gameshows the internet has to offer.
Some online casinos are just casinos. Stake.com is something else. Since launching in 2017, it's grown into the largest crypto casino on the planet, processing over $100 billion in bets, pulling in millions of players, and building a sponsorship portfolio that would turn heads in any industry. Drake. Everton FC. The UFC. A Formula One team. At some point it stopped looking like a gambling site and started looking like a media company - and honestly, that's probably intentional. The real question, though, is whether it actually delivers. Celebrity deals are great but you can't spin a roulette wheel with them. So we dug into the games, the payouts, the bonuses, and the fine print. Here's what we found. History and Background The origin story is genuinely unusual. Stake.com didn't come out of a traditional gaming background - it came out of RuneScape. That's where Ed Craven, an Australian in his early twenties, and Bijan Tehrani, his American-Australian co-founder, first crossed paths in the mid-2010s. They got curious about gambling mechanics through the game's player-run betting communities, and in 2013 they launched Primedice - a simple cryptocurrency dice game that quietly built a loyal audience among early Bitcoin users. By 2016 they'd formalised things into a company called Easygo and turned their focus to building a full online casino. Stake.com went live in 2017, licensed in Curacao, and growth came fast. They expanded to the UK in late 2021 through a partnership with TGP Europe, and by 2022 the brand was everywhere. Craven appeared on the Financial Review's Young Rich List in 2024 with an estimated net worth of over AU$2 billion. He was born in 1995. It started with a dice game. Stake pulled out of the UK in early 2025 after a cautionary notice from the Gambling Commission, but that's not slowing it down elsewhere. In February 2026, it secured a five-year licence in Denmark and set up its local headquarters inside Parken Stadium, home of FC Copenhagen. That's not the move of a company in retreat. Games and Software There are over 6,000 games on the platform. That puts Stake among the biggest online casino libraries around, drawing from providers like Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw Gaming, NetEnt, and Evolution Gaming. But the most interesting part of the catalogue isn't from any of them. Stake Originals are built in-house by Easygo, and they're unlike anything you'll find at a typical casino. Plinko, Mines, Crash, Dice, HiLo, Limbo - these games all use provably fair technology, meaning you can independently verify every outcome yourself using cryptographic proofs. No trust required. You can just check. That's a genuinely rare thing in this industry. Outside the Originals, the library covers everything you'd expect: Slots - Thousands of titles spanning every theme and volatility level, from slow-burn low-variance games to the kind of high-variance slots that can go either way fast Live casino - Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, and a growing selection of game show titles, all streamed by Evolution Gaming with real dealers Table games - The full range of classics, most available in multiple variants Sports betting - A well-built sportsbook covering football, basketball, tennis, UFC, motorsports, and more, sitting right alongside the casino eSports - Dedicated betting markets across CS, League of Legends, and other competitive titles Poker room - Live poker for players who want something with a bit more strategy involved There's no dedicated mobile app, which some players will find annoying. But the browser experience on mobile is genuinely good - fast loading, clean navigation, no features missing compared to desktop. For a library this size, it holds together well. Licence and Security Stake runs on a Curacao Gaming licence (OGL/2024/1451/0918) via Medium Rare N.V. Curacao is a legitimate offshore credential and widely recognised in the industry, but it's not the same level of oversight you'd get from the MGA or UKGC. If strict regulation is your top priority, that's worth factoring in. What Stake does control - its own security setup - is solid: 256-bit SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and a Vault feature that lets you ring-fence part of your balance behind a time delay, which is a nice touch for anyone who's ever made a withdrawal they regretted at 2am. The biggest test of Stake's security came in September 2023. Hackers tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group got into one of its hot wallets and walked away with around $41 million in crypto. Not a minor incident. What happened next, though, was impressive - no player lost a single dollar. Stake covered the full amount, restored every affected balance, and was back online within hours. We've seen regulated casinos handle far smaller problems far worse. That response matters. One thing to know before signing up: KYC verification is required before your first deposit. If you were hoping to play anonymously, this isn't the platform for that. Third-party RNG fairness is independently audited, and the Originals are fully provably fair and player-verifiable at any time. Bonuses and Promotions Stake doesn't do bonuses the way most casinos do. There's no giant welcome offer plastered across the homepage followed by a thin calendar of recycled promos. Instead, it runs a continuous programme of high-value competitions that refill every day, every week. For players who stick around, the cumulative value is hard to match anywhere. Welcome Bonus - 200% up to $3,000: New players can get a 200% match on their first deposit, capped at $3,000. You'll need to deposit at least $50 in crypto and contact Live Support to activate it - not the smoothest process, admittedly - and a 40x wagering requirement applies with contributions weighted by house edge. The value is real, the activation is just slightly clunky. Daily Races - $100,000 every 24 hours: This is the one. Every single day, Stake splits $100,000 between the top 1,000 players on a wager-based leaderboard. Races reset at midnight UTC, standings update live every minute, and winnings pay out in real cash with no wagering requirements attached. Most casino welcome bonuses don't come close to this kind of daily value for active players. Weekly Raffle - $75,000: One ticket per $1,000 wagered on slots and Originals, draw every Friday. Simple, and the prize pool is nothing to dismiss. Stake vs. Eddie - $50,000 per week: Players go head-to-head against the house host, trying to out-multiply him on featured slots. It's a fun format that makes slot sessions feel less solitary, and $50K a week keeps the competition lively. Originals Ascent - $40,000: Hit specific multiplier targets across the Originals library to earn rewards. Good motivation to actually explore the in-house games properly. Bonus Drop Codes: Free codes dropped on Stake's Telegram, X, and Instagram at irregular intervals. You need to be paying attention to catch them, but they're genuinely free money when you do. And then there's rakeback - from Bronze tier upwards, a percentage of every bet's house edge comes back to you automatically, on every single game, win or lose. No claiming, no codes, just passive returns on your play. VIP Club The VIP programme is probably Stake's strongest card, and nearly a million players are already in it. What makes it stand out is that it's open to everyone - no invitation required, no getting handpicked by an account manager. You just play, your wagers accumulate, and you move up. There are 15 levels in total: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum I through VI, Diamond I through V, and Obsidian at the top. Here's what you unlock as you climb: Bronze - Rakeback on every bet, weekly boosts, monthly bonuses, access to the VIP Telegram channel Silver and Gold - Same perks with progressively higher bonus amounts; Gold adds a birthday bonus Platinum I-VI - Daily reload bonuses calculated from your recent wagering, growing rakeback rate Platinum IV onwards - A dedicated VIP host assigned to your account, handling personalised bonuses, priority support, and tailored game recommendations Diamond and Obsidian - Fully custom reward packages negotiated directly with your host Bronze requires $10,000 in wagering to unlock. Silver and Gold sit between $50,000 and $100,000. Platinum starts at $250,000. So yes, the top tiers are for serious players - but the rakeback and weekly boosts you get from Bronze onwards still add up to real value even if you're not wagering at high-roller volume. Worth noting: sports betting wagers count three times faster toward VIP progress than casino bets, which is handy if you split your time across both products. For a deeper breakdown, you can check out our full Stake Casino profile on the site. Accepted Currencies and Payment Methods Stake is crypto-first and that's not changing. Every deposit and withdrawal goes through cryptocurrency, which means no waiting on bank processing, no currency conversion fees, and no withdrawal limits imposed by the platform. Over 20 digital currencies are accepted including: Bitcoin (BTC) Ethereum (ETH) Tether (USDT) USD Coin (USDC) Solana (SOL) Dogecoin (DOGE) XRP Litecoin (LTC) Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Tron (TRX) EOS, and more Not set up with crypto yet? MoonPay is built directly into the platform, so you can buy crypto with a Visa, Mastercard, or Maestro card without leaving the site. Your balance displays in whichever fiat currency you prefer - USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and others - but the actual transactions run on crypto rails throughout. It's a smooth enough on-ramp that even players with no prior crypto experience tend to get through it without much friction. The no-limits withdrawal policy is a genuine differentiator, especially for bigger players. Cashing out large amounts quickly, without submitting forms or waiting days for approval, is something a lot of traditional casinos simply can't offer. For more on how crypto payments work across the industry, our Bitcoin casinos guide covers the basics well. Sponsorships and Celebrity Partnerships No gambling company has spent on marketing quite like Stake has. Rather than buying banner ads and affiliate traffic, they went straight for the biggest names in sport and entertainment. The results have been hard to ignore. Drake - reported $100 million per year: The headline deal. Drake serves as Stake's global brand ambassador under what's been widely reported as a $100 million annual arrangement - one of the biggest celebrity sponsorship deals in history, gambling industry or otherwise. He's hosted exclusive Stake streams, given away thousands to viewers live on air, and the initial campaign included a $1 million donation to the LeBron James Foundation. The reach this generated is enormous. Everton FC - record Premier League kit deal: In June 2022, Stake's logo went onto the front of Everton's shirts - reportedly the largest commercial deal in the club's 144-year history. It covered both men's and women's kits, stadium screens at Goodison Park, and the club's full digital presence. Watford FC carried the Stake badge before that, giving the brand two consecutive seasons of Premier League exposure. UFC - Official Betting Partner: Stake holds official UFC partner status across Latin America and Asia, putting the brand ringside in front of a global audience that tops a billion TV households. Among the fighters who've represented the brand: Israel Adesanya, Alex Pereira, Jose Aldo, Alexandre Pantoja, Merab Dvalishvili, and Caio Borralho. Kick Sauber F1 Team: Stake sponsors the Sauber Formula One team - known as the Kick Sauber F1 Team - with branding on the cars across 20+ race weekends per season. The deal ties directly into Kick.com, the streaming platform Ed Craven co-founded as a competitor to Twitch. eSports - Astralis and Team Vitality: Since March 2026, Stake has partnered with Danish CS organisation Astralis, building on a deal with 2025 CS Major winners Team Vitality. If you're using Stake for eSports betting, these partnerships give the brand some genuine credibility in that space. Football and combat sports beyond the Premier League: Sergio "Kun" Aguero has been a brand ambassador. Stake sponsors Mumbai City FC, Hyderabad FC, and clubs across South America. It's also partnered with the Davis Cup in tennis and sponsored the Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Ryota Murata world title fight in Japan. The reach is genuinely global at this point. Jackpots and Big Wins Stake puts its winners front and centre, and there are a lot of them. The Daily Races and Weekly Raffles produce hundreds of documented payouts every week - real people, real amounts, verifiable results. That's a different kind of win culture to the one-in-ten-million progressive jackpot story most casinos lean on. The Originals games - Crash, Plinko, and Mines in particular - have generated some of the platform's biggest individual wins. Because they're provably fair, those wins can actually be verified by anyone who wants to check the seed and outcome data. That gives the stories a credibility you just don't get with a screenshot of a slot machine. It's also helped build a large community of streamers who broadcast on Kick.com, where big sessions attract hundreds of thousands of live viewers and turn individual wins into shared moments. For progressive jackpots, third-party titles from providers like Pragmatic Play bring network-linked prizes into the mix. Combine that with Stake's own competitions and there's a reasonable amount of upside available at any given time. You can track what's currently live across top casinos in our progressive jackpots section. Reputation and Trust Stake's reputation across the player community is largely positive, and it's earned rather than bought. The platform pays out. Complaints get resolved. And when something went badly wrong - the $41 million hack in 2023 - the response was fast, transparent, and complete. Every player was made whole. The platform was back within hours. You can find regulated operators who've handled far smaller incidents far worse. Live chat support runs around the clock with response times that consistently come in under a minute. That's an unusually high standard. The communities on Reddit, Telegram, X, and Kick are actively maintained - actual engagement, not just scheduled posts. The Curacao licence is the main caveat, and it's a fair one. You don't have the same regulatory backstop as you would with an MGA or UKGC operator. The UK exit in 2025 raised some eyebrows too, though it came down to a specific regulatory issue rather than a general pattern of non-compliance. The Danish launch - in one of Europe's stricter regulatory environments - suggests the long-term direction is toward more oversight, not less. The platform runs in 16 languages and serves players across most of the world, which at least tells you it's not struggling to find an audience. If you want to weigh Stake up against other options before deciding, our top online casinos list is a sensible starting point. And if the sportsbook side of things interests you specifically, we have a separate review covering Stake Sports in its own right. Pros and Cons What we like: Over 6,000 games, including provably fair Originals you won't find anywhere else $100,000 in daily prize races - nothing else in the industry comes close 20+ cryptocurrencies supported, with a built-in MoonPay card-to-crypto option Instant crypto withdrawals, no limits 15-level VIP programme that's genuinely open to everyone Automatic rakeback on every single bet from Bronze tier up 24/7 live chat with response times under a minute Casino, sportsbook, poker room, and eSports all in one place Proven track record of paying out and handling problems responsibly Worth knowing before you sign up: Curacao licence - not the same level of protection as MGA or UKGC UK players can't access the platform following the 2025 exit KYC verification required before your first deposit Crypto-only deposits - no direct bank transfers or traditional card payments No dedicated mobile app - browser only Welcome bonus has a clunky activation process and a 40x wagering requirement Our Verdict Stake.com has built something genuinely impressive. The provably fair Originals, the $100,000 daily races, a VIP programme that rewards everyone not just whales, and a brand presence that's reached places most gambling companies could never dream of - it all adds up to one of the most well-rounded platforms in online gambling right now. It's not perfect. The Curacao licence is a real limitation for players who care about regulatory protection, and the crypto-only deposit model will put some people off. But if you're comfortable with crypto and you want a platform that delivers ongoing value rather than a one-time welcome offer, Stake is genuinely hard to beat. It started as a dice game built by two guys who met on RuneScape. Now it's sponsoring Premier League clubs and Formula One teams. Whatever you think of gambling, that's a hell of a story - and the platform behind it is worth your time. Want to see how it stacks up against other crypto-friendly operators? Check out our guide to the best fast payout casinos for more options.
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