Gobal betting brand Stake has announced a multi-year partnership with French esports organisation Team Vitality.
The online casino and sports betting specialist has become the official betting partner of Team Vitality’s Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) squad, with its branding being carried on the front and collarbone of the newly released shirts for 2025.
The deal, described as a “seven-figure sum” by Team Vitality, will enable Stake to produce a range of activations, including high-impact digital campaigns across social media, fan experiences and produce exclusive content featuring players.
When Will Stake Appear On Team Vitality Shirts?
The newly branded shirts made their debut appearance at the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) in Cologne which kicked off on July 25.
The Counter-Strike circuit attracts a huge following and last year’s event in Cologne drew in over a million viewers
Team Vitality are a global powerhouse in the CS2 scene.
The Grand Final winners of IEM Cologne in 2024, they began their title defence with a couple of 2-0 Group A wins over Astralis in the upper bracket quarter-finals and G2 Esports in the semi-finals.
Stake Takes First Step Into Esports
Stake Casino launched in 2017 as specialists in online casino games and two years later added its sportsbook offering.
A range of high-profile international sponsorships have included a
partnership with rapper Drake while their most prominent position in sport so far has been with the Sauber Formula 1 team.
Sauber has adapted its operational name to Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber and a large Stake logo appears prominently on the side pods of the cars driven by Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.
What They Said
Akhil Sarin, Chief Marketing Officer at Stake, said: “This partnership brings together two industry powerhouses: Stake, a global leader in betting and entertainment, and Team Vitality, the reigning CS2 world champions.
“This collaboration adds esports to our globally renowned portfolio of sports and entertainment partnerships, with Team Vitality representing exactly the caliber of world-class partner we seek as we enter the esports arena.”
Vas Roberts, co-CEO of Team Vitality, added: “This partnership with Stake is historic: not only for its scale but also for its symbolic value.
“It reflects the success of our ambition to establish Team Vitality as a leading global esports brand, alongside the biggest names in their respective industries.
“At a defining point in our Counter-Strike journey, this collaboration will allow us to create innovative experiences, offer exclusive content around our team, and support our CS2 roster as it reaches new competitive heights.”
Jim Munro is a betting industry and gambling expert who has been a national newspaper journalist for over 30 years, predominantly at The Sunday Times and The Sun, where he wrote a weekly soccer betting column. Jim also worked on the launch of Virgin Bet with Gamesys and was subsequently head of editorial at LiveScore, the sports media and betting group.
