Meet the 29-year-old crypto billionaire owner of an F1 team: Australia-based geek is friends with UFC star Israel Adesanya and has already made his mark in the Premier League

Edward Craven is the proud owner of a Formula One team

His firm, Stake.com, has owned the Sauber team since 2024

Craven is Australia’s youngest billionaire at the age of 29

A new player has entered the world of Formula One, and if his track record is anything to go by, be ready for things to be shaken up.

Edward Craven, 29, is a cryptocurrency and gambling magnate, Australia’s youngest billionaire and the proud owner of the Sauber F1 team – officially known as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber.

Craven owns crypto and gambling firm Stake.com, which boasts endorsement partnerships with the likes of Drake and Israel Adesanya, while he also launched streaming platform Kick.com in 2022.

The Melbourne-born entrepreneur made headlines in his hometown just under two years ago when he purchased two Toorak mansions for around $40million and $80million apiece.

Craven and business partner Bijan Tehrani formed Stake in 2017 and expanded to the UK in December 2021.

The betting firm has been the main sponsor for English football clubs Everton and Watford.

Ed Craven (right) is the owner of Formula One team Sauber, which is officially known as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

The 29-year-old billionaire has made a huge splash in the sports sponsorship arena

Stake had previously been a sponsor of the Alfa Romeo F1 team, with the historic Sauber team now incorporating Stake’s name from last season.

‘Fuelled by deep passion for speed, innovation, and pushing boundaries, we are now ideally positioned to take the team to unprecedented heights from 2024 and beyond,’ he said.

‘The upcoming years will be a thrilling ride with some mind-blowing activations planned that will redefine excitement on and off the track.’

According to The Australian, Craven and Tehrani’s empire generates an average of $US400m every day due to its online casino and sports betting business.

The pair are based in Melbourne and applied for a bookmaking licence in the Northern Territory. At present, Stake.com is domiciled in Curacao due to gambling using cryptocurrency via online casinos being banned in Australia.

Craven and Tehrani’s business journey has been a rollercoaster ride. They previously launched Primedice and Easygo – other crypto firms – before finding success with Stake. A US court threw out a $580m claim against them last year due to a lack of jurisdiction.

The newly-launched Kick provides a rival platform for the Amazon-owned Twitch, and Tehrani says that the new F1 deal will have a positive impact on the streaming service’s trajectory.

‘We are thrilled to take our collaboration to an unparalleled magnitude, backed by our knowledge of the motorsport culture, and our passion for cutting-edge technology,’ he said. Exceptionally, this universally popular sport, aligns perfectly with our product and what we are building at Kick.com.’

His cryptocurrency and gambling firm is the main sponsor of Premier League club Everton

‘Last season represented the start of Stake’s journey in Formula One, and the brand’s new role headlining Stake F1 Team represents the natural and exciting next step on this path,’ said team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi.

‘Stake not only successfully tapped into Formula One’s growing fan base to enhance its own community; but also introduced a completely new audience to the sport, something that benefitted not only our team but also everyone else in F1.

‘We had the opportunity to participate in some incredible activations with some of Stake’s ambassadors, including Argentine football legend, Sergio Aguero and Indian-Canadian rapper Karan Aujla.

‘2024 will be a new page and the chance to do more, better, and reach even farther: we are looking forward to an even more exciting calendar of events in this new season.’

Craven founded Stake in 2017. The company generates an average $US400m per day