Sauber’s new team name can be confusing

On the first day of the new year, Swiss team Sauber confirmed it will be called the Stake F1 Team for the next two years.

However, the new name could cause a number of problems in the future, and the motorsport press immediately drew attention to this. Some people think that the naming choice is strange even from a philological point of view, because it does not evoke the most pleasant associations; it is sufficient to mention just a few. The word stake also means, depending on the context, that a person can win or lose in a casino, for example, and during the Inquisition it was the name of the stake to which those who were burned alive were tied. In addition, this is a pole that is inserted into the ground, including when setting up a tent.

And so on – the list can be continued, but let’s leave this to the linguists, since there are more serious questions. PlanetF1 journalists write about issues related to the legal field.

The Stake company became a sponsor of the team in February 2023 – they say that in monetary terms the contract is very serious and Sauber should receive $ 100 million in three years.

But what kind of company is this? According to the team’s press release, Stake is “a renowned gambling, entertainment and lifestyle brand.” But as usual in such cases, this is not the whole truth. Stake.com is an online casino where players place bets in cryptocurrency. Formally established in the Caribbean, the holding company is registered in Curaçao.

But in 2021, after their investigation, the Australian press discovered that Stake does not in fact operate from this distant island, but directly from Melbourne. At the same time, online casinos in Australia have been illegal for more than twenty years and cannot offer their services to residents of the country.

However, there are gray areas in local law that allow such companies to be based in Australia, as long as they do not offer their services to Australians or allow local people to use them. And of course, such companies are not allowed to advertise in Australia.

But the kind of business Stake does is not encouraged in many other countries, where online casino advertising is also banned. Certain restrictions in this area also apply in Switzerland, where Sauber Motorsport is based. Somehow such activities are legally restricted in eight of the countries that will host the 2024 World Cup: Qatar, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, China and Brazil.

However, the team’s official name now doesn’t even include the founder’s name, i.e. it’s now simply called Stake F1 Team, and it’s very curious how they manage to get around the current restrictions?

Part of the answer was received last year: in four stages of the last season the team competed under the Kick brand – this is a streaming platform belonging to… the same Stake.com.

Because Kick is not formally associated with the gambling industry or cryptocurrency, the team can operate under this brand in countries where it is impossible to advertise Stake. As the coming season progresses, it will therefore have to maneuver intensively and change the signs under which it competes. However, a similar practice has long been used in Formula 1, albeit usually only in terms of branding. However, it cannot be ruled out that Sauber will encounter new legal difficulties and will try to overcome them.