The plaintiff, Christopher Freeman, an early associate of Craven and Tehrani, claimed that he had been excluded from the business and mislead using illegal tactics.

[6] Stake has invested in sponsorship deals across several sports, including with UFC fighter Israel Adesanya,[15] English football teams Gillingham, Watford, Everton,[16][17] Indian football club Mumbai City,[18] USA Cricket,[19] Argentine footballer Sergio Agüero,[20] Formula One reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi and his brother, Formula 2 driver Enzo Fittipaldi,[21] Canadian musician Drake,[22] and the Gennady Golovkin vs. Ryōta Murata boxing match.

[23] Stake is also sponsoring UFC Light Heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA.

The surge in gambling streams tied to these deals and others led to scrutiny, resulting in Twitch announcing in September 2022 that it would prohibit streams of online slots, roulette and dice games on services that are not licensed to operate in the United States or "other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection"—a ban that would include Stake.

[7][24][25] Craven and Tehrani subsequently launched a competing livestreaming service known as Kick as a sister company, which would differentiate itself by promising higher revenue splits to streamers than Twitch, and looser content guidelines—especially in regards to gambling streams.

The ads may be a violation of X's terms of service for paid partnerships, while they may run afoul of advertising codes restricting the marketing of gambling products where minors may be present.