Sauber may encounter legal challenges following a Swiss investigation into its partnership with Stake.
An investigation into Sauber’s major sponsors has been launched by Swiss authorities, which has dealt a serious blow to Stake F1 ahead of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Sauber revealed their new name for the next two seasons as ‘Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber’ at the beginning of the year.
Stake, a cryptocurrency gambling startup, has already been announced by Sauber as their title sponsor while Kick is a streaming platform owned by Stake.com which is one of the most popular gambling websites at the moment.
As time went on, rumors circulated over the team’s name and how they planned to get over gambling laws in a number of countries including Singapore, Qatar and Japan.
Sauber allayed these concerns by stating that the team’s name will change over the season in accordance with national laws prohibiting the promotion of gambling. In such cases, the team will rebrand itself as the Kick F1 team over the course of racing weekend.
The team officially launched their new challenger for the 2024 F1 season on Monday which will be piloted by Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu and will have the Stake branding prominently displayed on its striking black and green livery.
But the team’s first controversy didn’t take long to surface as legal actions against Sauber were initiated the day after the reveal,.
Tuesday saw a report from Swiss broadcaster SFR claiming Sauber and his connection with the cryptocurrency casino were the subject of an investigation by the national gambling regulator.
Strict regulations have been put in place for online gambling, lotteries and money games in Switzerland. According to the law, it is forbidden to advertise gambling without a Swiss license, which Stake failed to secure.
But the team’s first controversy didn’t take long to surface as legal actions against Sauber were initiated the day after the reveal,.
Tuesday saw a report from Swiss broadcaster SFR claiming Sauber and his connection with the cryptocurrency casino were the subject of an investigation by the national gambling regulator.
Strict regulations have been put in place for online gambling, lotteries and money games in Switzerland. According to the law, it is forbidden to advertise gambling without a Swiss license, which Stake failed to secure.
The head Centre for Competition and Commercial Law, Patrick Krauskopf, gave a statement regarding the proceedings on Tuesday.
“Sponsorship would be permitted,” Krauskopf said. “In this case, however, the Stake and Sauber brands are so closely linked and the term Stake is so strongly imprinted in the minds of viewers that we have probably crossed the red line into unauthorised advertising.”
Yet, neither Sauber nor Stake seems concerned about the investigation. Speaking with Racingnews365 about the incident, a Stakes representative said that they are complying with the regulations and that the investigation is standard procedure.
“We are in close contact with the Swiss Commission, and we are following all the regulations,” said the spokesperson. “It is a completely routine situation. Everything is above board, above ground, and the rules are being applied.
“It is the same procedure as last year with the Swiss Commission when Stake joined us as a partner. And our situation is no different to that of Williams when it had to change its livery on occasion for certain grands prix.”
Meanwhile, Sauber issued a statement about the investigation that echoed Stake’s stance that there is no need for concern.
The statement read: “Sauber Motorsport AG have always complied and continue to comply with all existing regulations, both Swiss and of whichever country we race in.
“The report of an ongoing investigation by the Swiss Authorities does not concern us: this is a procedure that will highlight our compliance with all applicable regulations.
While the investigation is currently under way, Sauber dropped the Stake logo from their website out of caution.
