Is PointsBet or Stake legal to use?

It depends on where you are, and the two don't overlap. PointsBet holds real licenses — AGCO-registered in Ontario, licensed in Alberta, regulated in the Australian states and territories where it operates — but has taken no US customer since selling that business to Fanatics in April 2024. Stake.com runs on a single Curaçao Gaming Authority license via Medium Rare N.V. and blocks the US, Australia, and several other markets outright, with no state or provincial license anywhere.

Is PointsBet or Stake more legit?

PointsBet, structurally. It's a public company on the ASX (ticker PBH), majority-owned by Japan's MIXI, Inc. since September 2025, and its Ontario and Alberta operations answer to named provincial regulators. Stake is a real, large business too — nine years running, a reported $4.7 billion in 2024 revenue, founders wealthy enough to co-own the Sauber Formula One team — but that track record sits behind a single offshore license rather than the multi-jurisdiction oversight PointsBet carries.

Can Australians use Stake.com instead of PointsBet?

No. Stake.com names Australia as one of the markets it blocks, alongside the US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. PointsBet is the one actually built for Australian players — it's the company's largest market by revenue, even after a roughly 4% dip over the nine months to March 2026 as local competition intensified.

Can Americans sign up for either PointsBet or Stake?

Neither. PointsBet sold its entire US sportsbook, iGaming, and retail business to Fanatics Betting and Gaming in a deal that closed state by state through April 2024; every US account converted automatically to Fanatics. Stake.com has never taken a US sign-up on its main platform — its only US-facing product is the separate Stake.us sweepstakes site, built on a Gold Coins/Sweeps Coins model rather than real-money wagering.

Is PointsBet safer than Stake?

Wherever PointsBet actually operates, yes, in the sense that a named regulator — AGCO, AGLC/AiGC, or an Australian state authority — stands behind the license and can intervene, as Ontario is currently doing over the prop-betting disclosure dispute. Stake's safety rests on Medium Rare N.V.'s single Curaçao license and its own incentive to keep paying, with no second regulator to escalate to since it gave up its UK license in 2025. That safety edge only matters inside PointsBet's own footprint — it isn't an alternative for a US or blocked-market reader.

What should a US reader do instead of comparing PointsBet and Stake?

Look at an operator that actually takes American sign-ups. For sportsbook access, that means a US-licensed brand like Fanatics Sportsbook, which bought PointsBet's old US platform outright. For a Stake-style casino and crypto banking, Bovada is the long-running offshore option that still accepts US players across most states, though it carries its own unlicensed caveats.

PointsBet vs Stake: Regulated Book, Neither Serves the US

PointsBet vs Stake pairs two brands that rarely get mentioned in the same sentence, because they sit on opposite ends of the regulatory spectrum and neither one takes a US sign-up. PointsBet is a publicly traded, AGCO-licensed sportsbook that sold its entire American business to Fanatics Betting and Gaming in 2024 and now operates only in Australia and Canada. Stake is a $4.7 billion-revenue crypto casino running on a single Curaçao license that has never accepted a US account and, as of 2025, no longer holds a UK one either. This comparison is about what "legit" and "safe" actually mean when one brand answers to named regulators and the other answers to none.

PointsBet vs Stake is a matchup that only really exists in search bars, not in the market. One is a publicly traded sportsbook operator answering to provincial and state gaming regulators in two countries. The other is a $4.7 billion-revenue crypto casino running on a single offshore license, closed to the United States since day one. Nobody picks between these two the way they’d pick between two US sportsbooks — but the regulatory gap between them is exactly why the comparison is worth making.

Is PointsBet or Stake more regulated?

Not close. PointsBet Holdings Limited trades publicly on the Australian Securities Exchange under ticker PBH, and its operating businesses answer to Ontario’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission (licensed since April 2022), Alberta’s racing and gaming regulators, and state-level authorities across Australia. Stake’s entire regulatory footprint is one Curaçao Gaming Authority license, held by Medium Rare N.V. — and that footprint got smaller in 2025 when Stake surrendered the UK Gambling Commission license it used to hold and withdrew from the UK market rather than keep meeting that standard.

PointsBet vs Stake, side by side

	PointsBet	Stake.com
Founded	2015, Melbourne	2017, Curaçao-licensed via Medium Rare N.V.
Regulatory backing	AGCO (Ontario), AGLC/AiGC (Alberta), Australian state regulators	Curaçao Gaming Authority only — surrendered its UK license in 2025
US status	Sold entire US business to Fanatics, closed April 2024	Never accepted US sign-ups; Stake.us is a separate sweepstakes product
Where it operates	Australia (largest market) and Canada (Ontario, Alberta)	Everywhere except US, UK, Australia, and several EU markets
Ownership	ASX-listed (PBH); MIXI Australia holds 66.43% since Sept. 2025	Privately held by Medium Rare N.V., founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani
Current dispute	AGCO proposed a 5-day suspension (Feb. 2026) over prop-bet reporting; appealing	None disclosed beyond the 2025 UK exit
Welcome offer	Ontario: $250 deposit match or $50 bonus bets + Pay Back Tokens	200% match + 5% rakeback, only via a referral code entered at signup

The Australia wrinkle

Here’s the detail that actually makes this comparison useful: Stake.com blocks Australia by name, alongside the US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Australia is PointsBet’s single biggest market by revenue — the company traces its own roots there. An Australian reader who lands on a “PointsBet vs Stake” search only has one real option, and it isn’t the crypto casino with the bigger revenue number.

Neither one answers a US search. PointsBet sold its US sportsbook to Fanatics Betting and Gaming in a deal that closed state by state through April 2024. Stake.com has blocked American sign-ups since it launched. The only Stake-branded product a US resident can actually use is Stake.us, a separate sweepstakes-model site.

Is PointsBet legit, or is Stake the safer bet?

“Legit” and “safe” pull apart here in an unusual way. Both brands are legitimate operating businesses with years of track record — PointsBet since 2015, Stake since 2017, and Stake’s reported 2024 revenue of roughly $4.7 billion dwarfs anything PointsBet discloses. But legitimacy as a business isn’t the same as safety as a regulated one. PointsBet currently has an open dispute with Ontario’s AGCO over how it handled disclosure around the Jontay Porter prop-betting scandal — a real black mark, worth knowing about — but that dispute exists precisely because a regulator has the authority to investigate and propose a suspension. Stake has no equivalent regulator watching it; the closest it came was the UK Gambling Commission license it gave up in 2025.

Which one for who

For an Australian or Canadian reader choosing between the two, PointsBet is the licensed sportsbook actually built for that market, current regulatory dispute and all. Stake isn’t available to Australians at all, and Canadians outside PointsBet’s licensed provinces would be looking at an offshore, single-license casino instead of a regulated one. For a US reader, neither brand is the answer: PointsBet’s old platform is now Fanatics Sportsbook, and Stake’s crypto-casino style is closer to what Bovada offers among operators that actually take American sign-ups. None of this is a path to making money — both are entertainment products with a house edge, 21+ where legal.

PointsBet vs Stake: One Regulated, Neither in the US