Stake Ranked: $600K CS2 Circuit Launches as Crypto Gambling Fills Valve’s Sponsor Vacuum

One month after Valve banned skin gambling sponsors from CS2 jerseys and tournaments, crypto casino Stake has announced its most ambitious esports play yet: Stake Ranked, a six-event LAN tournament circuit with StarLadder featuring $600,000+ in prize pools. This isn’t just sponsorship—it’s tournament ownership. And it’s perfectly legal under Valve’s new rules.

The Valve Loophole: How the Skin Ban Cleared the Field

On December 9, 2025, Valve updated its Tournament Operating Requirements to ban skin gambling sponsors, case-opening sites, and skin trading platforms from CS2 events. Teams like NRG dropped SkinRave from their jerseys. Aurora Gaming removed CSFAIL. Skin.Club, Hellcase, Daddyskins—all out.

But here’s what Valve explicitly did NOT ban: traditional real-money gambling operators. Casinos and sportsbooks remain perfectly legal sponsors.

“Licensee will not accept sponsorships from sponsors that generate revenue through activities that violate applicable Valve agreements or violate local law or rely on Valve’s game economies.”
— Valve’s Limited Game Tournament License, Section 2.4.e

Valve’s rationale: skin gambling violates Steam’s Subscriber Agreement and Valve’s IP rights. Real-money gambling doesn’t. Result: Stake, Roobet, and other crypto casinos are in. The ban actually cleared the field for them.

One month later, Stake launches an entire tournament circuit. The irony isn’t lost on the community.

Stake’s Legitimacy Ladder

Stake Ranked isn’t an impulsive move. It’s the latest step in a calculated esports strategy that’s been building throughout 2025:

The pattern is clear: team sponsor → integrity partner → tournament owner. Stake is building credibility layer by layer. The ESIC partnership is particularly strategic—it’s hard to argue Stake is bad for esports integrity when they’re literally funding the Esports Integrity Commission’s anti-corruption work.

Tournament Structure: Bridging Tier-2 to Tier-1

Stake Ranked is designed around the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) system, targeting the gap between Tier-2 teams and Major qualification. The format:

Strategic Major Positioning

The timing of Stake Ranked events isn’t accidental. Both announced dates align with Major qualification windows:

Teams competing for Major slots need VRS points. Stake Ranked events will offer those points. By inserting itself into the Major qualification ecosystem, Stake becomes essential infrastructure for competitive CS2—not just a sponsor, but a pathway to the top tier.

StarLadder: Major Pedigree Meets Gambling Money

StarLadder brings serious credentials to the partnership. Founded in 2001, the Ukrainian organization is one of the oldest esports tournament operators in existence. They hosted the Berlin Major 2019 (CS:GO) and just concluded the Budapest Major 2025 (CS2) on December 14—one of the most successful Majors in Counter-Strike history, held at the 20,000-seat MVM Dome.

In January 2025, NODWIN Gaming acquired StarLadder for $5.5 million, bringing the organization into a larger esports portfolio that includes Comic Con India and Freaks 4U Gaming.

“Our legacy is in LAN events production. We see that Tier 2 events are often not treated properly due to various reasons, and we are here to fix that together with Stake.”
— Roman Romantsov, Founder of StarLadder

StarLadder already has a gambling partnership—Rollbit served as the official betting partner for the Budapest Major. The Stake Ranked deal deepens that relationship with the gambling industry. This mirrors the broader trend: G2 Esports signed with Betpanda, while BC.Game assembled a superteam featuring s1mple. Crypto casinos aren’t just sponsoring esports—they’re acquiring it.

The Tier-2 Funding Crisis

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Stake Ranked addresses a real problem. Tier-2 CS2 is chronically underfunded. Teams struggle to get LAN experience. Tournament operators can’t afford prize pools without gambling sponsors. The skin gambling ban made this worse—many smaller tournaments depended on Skin.Club and SkinRave money to survive. When BC.Game’s $10 million bid for the FaZe Clan core fell through, it highlighted just how much gambling money is flowing into CS2—and how dependent the scene has become.

From the community perspective on HLTV:

This is the core tension: gambling money funds the scene, but community sentiment is increasingly uncomfortable with its omnipresence. Stake is betting (literally) that the value they provide—$600K in prize pools, LAN experience for Tier-2 teams, a pathway to Majors—outweighs the optics of crypto gambling ownership.

The Global Expansion Play

Stake Ranked launches in Europe, but the roadmap is global. Akhil Sarin, Stake’s CMO, stated that “Americas and Asia is a key perspective for the future.” The 2026 European circuit is a proof of concept. If it works, expect Stake Ranked events in North America and Asia-Pacific in 2027.

This aligns with Stake’s broader strategy: the platform reports over 80 million monthly visits and 100 billion bets annually. Esports is a customer acquisition channel, and owning tournament infrastructure gives them something competitors can’t easily replicate—a permanent presence in the competitive ecosystem rather than just banner ads. The Drake partnership’s reported $100M in earnings shows the scale of Stake’s marketing budget—$600K for a tournament circuit is a rounding error.

“Our goal with Stake Ranked is to create a genuine pathway for ambitious teams to progress from Tier 2 to Tier 1 competition. We believe the heart of Counter-Strike lies in the LAN environment—where talent is proven, stories are built, and the community truly connects with the game.”
— Akhil Sarin, CMO of Stake