Meet the 28-year-old crypto billionaire new 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

A new player has entered the world of Formula 1, and if his track record is anything to go by, be prepared for things to be turned upside down.

Edward Craven, 28, is a cryptocurrency and gambling magnate, Australia's youngest billionaire and now the proud owner of the Sauber F1 team – which will be renamed Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber this year.

Craven owns crypto and gambling company 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 18 months ago when he bought two Toorak mansions for around $40 million and $80 million each.

Craven and business partner Bijan Tehrani founded Stake in 2017 and expanded to the UK in December 2021. The gambling company was the main sponsor of the English football clubs Everton and Watford.

The 28-year-old billionaire has made a big impression in the field of sports sponsorship

Stake was previously a sponsor of the Alfa Romeo F1 team, and now the team will be renamed Stake F1 team from 2024.

“Fuelled by a 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 coming years will be a thrill ride with some stunning activations planned that will redefine the excitement on and off the track.”

According to The Australian, Craven and Tehrani's empire generates an average of $400 million every day from its online casino and sports betting business.

The pair are based in Melbourne and have applied for a bookmaking license in the Northern Territory. Currently, Stake.com is based in Curaçao because gambling using cryptocurrency through online casinos is prohibited in Australia.

Craven and Tehrani's business trip was a rollercoaster ride. They previously launched Primedice and Easygo – other crypto companies – before finding success with Stake. A US court dismissed a $580 million claim against them last year due to a lack of jurisdiction.

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

“We are pleased to take our partnership to an unprecedented scale, supported by our knowledge of motorsport culture and our passion for cutting-edge technology,” he said. This universally popular sport aligns exceptionally well with our product and what we are building at Kick.com.”

“Last season marked the start of Stake's journey in Formula 1, and the brand's new role as headliner of the Stake F1 Team represents the natural and exciting next step on this path,” said team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi.

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

'Stake has not only successfully leveraged Formula 1's growing fan base to strengthen its own community; but also introduced a completely new audience to the sport, something that not only benefited our team but everyone else in F1.

“We had the opportunity to take part in some incredible activations with some of Stake's ambassadors, including Argentinian football legend Sergio Aguero and Indian-Canadian rapper Karan Aujla.

“2024 will be a new page and the opportunity to do more, better and reach even further: we look forward to an even more exciting calendar of events in this new season.”