Formula 1 teams and their partnership with shady companies is a well-known tale among the sport’s fans. It was not long ago when multiple teams on the grid burned their fingers with crypto companies’ sponsorships. Similarly, gambling companies have come under fans’ and host countries’ fury as well. To bypass it all, Alfa Romeo has carved out the perfect plan with its new sponsor, Stake.

As the crypto market saw the worst slump in its short history last year, many countries withdrew their legitimacy from its market. Singapore, which is the headquarter of many of these crypto trading platforms, banned their advertisements as well. As the majority of teams sported logos of one or the other of these platforms on their cars, F1 locked horns with the Singaporean authorities ahead of the Grand Prix. Resultantly, the teams were allowed to flaunt the logos throughout the racing weekend. However, Formula 1 was disallowed from displaying its Crypto.com sponsorship.

Gambling and advertisements related to gambling platforms remain illegal in many countries. Those countries include F1 host nations who wouldn’t allow Alfa Romeo to display Stake’s branding in their cars. To do away with the trouble, the Swiss team will sport Kick’s logo on the car. Kick is a streaming platform that is owned or partly owned by Stake. In countries where neither of the brands will be allowed to be advertised, Alfa Romeo will simply do away with any branding. As per Decalspotters on Twitter, Alfa Romeo refers to these alternatives as “Dark Market” and “Black Market”, respectively, in its Brand Guidelines.

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F1 teams losing sponsorship in the middle of the season is not an irregular occurrence. The stake is currently embroiled in a $400 million lawsuit, which can prove costly for Alfa Romeo.

The controversy behind the Alfa Romeo sponsor Stake

After Orlen’s exit, Alfa Romeo signed the title sponsorship deal with Stake last month. Reportedly, the deal with the online casino is worth $100 million, spread over a period of 3 years. The company is, however, facing a lawsuit worth 4 times that amount by the company’s founders, Edward Craven, and Bijan Tehrani’s former associate Christopher Freeman. The trio, according to Freeman, came up with the idea of an online business called Primedice during their university days. Freeman owned 20 percent of the company, while Craven and Tehrani owned 40 percent together.

Freeman alleges he raised the idea of a cryptocurrency casino in 2016. However, Craven and Tehrani were disinterested owing to crypto’s regulation. Later that year, the duo allegedly persuaded him to join them in the new venture called Stake.com, which would deal in fiat currencies such as Dollar and Euro.

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According to court documents reported by Sydney Morning Herald, “Later, when Stake.com launched as a virtual casino which included a competing online dice game and many other features Freeman had proposed and helped design, Tehrani and Craven affirmatively tried to assuage Freeman’s dismay at having been misled by affirming that he still retained his stake in Primedice.”

“Eventually, Freeman’s access to the Primedice account was blocked and never returned.”

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Stake.com’s lawyers termed the allegations “internally inconsistent, intentionally misleading, and provably false”. How the whole saga turns out, only time will tell.