Fatties vs midgets, cybersports and flexible budgets - CMO Stake on brand marketing

Fatties vs midgets, cybersports and flexible budgets - CMO Stake on brand marketing

Akhil Sarin is the first marketer on the Stake team, evolved with the company and grew to the CMO position. In the podcast. Bet It Drives he talked about how the brand is building its media presence. I share the most interesting extracts.

Budget without fixed splits

Stake does not divide the marketing budget according to the formula «X% for sponsorships, Y% for performances». Each deal is evaluated separately and the budget is scaled by ROI. The priority is window of opportunity and timing, not fulfilment of the spending plan.

Ambassadors and partnerships

Akhil looks for partners who use the product themselves and are ready for a long-term relationship. For example, Drake has been with Stake for six years.

Although in the summer of 2025 Drake publicly attacked Stake and personally Ed Craven - he suggested to him to settle relations in a boxing match. The conflict was later hushed up - note Wager 3.0

At the same time, the speaker frankly admitted: not all deals can be closed. For example, we recently failed to finalise a title sponsorship deal with a club from the top 6 of the APL.

$10K → 16 billion impressions

Akhil recalled the most striking marketing case study - a viral event in Brazil. Football match «fatties versus midgets» has racked up a total of 16+ billion impressions on a budget of less than $10,000.

Entering cybersport

Stake sponsors Team Vitality and has launched its own StarLadder tournament for CS2. The logic is not just to buy placements, but to own the events. Akhil compares the approach to Floyd Mayweather's model: if you control distribution, you control everything.

Floyd Mayweather abandoned promoters and began to own the rights to his fights and PPV broadcasts himself - instead of giving most of his income to middlemen, he controlled the entire chain from organisation to distribution. The result: the Pacquiao fight brought in ~$600 million, of which Mayweather took half... note Wager 3.0