Chris Freeman’s Primedice Claim: $400M Stake.com Suit Dismissed

Chris Freeman’s Primedice lawsuit ended without a ruling on the merits. Freeman, a Florida man who says he co-founded the Bitcoin gambling site Primedice in 2013, sued Edward Craven, Bijan Tehrani, and Stake.com in federal court in 2022 for roughly $400 million, alleging they stole his idea for a full-service crypto casino and pushed him out of his ownership stake.¹ A federal judge dismissed the case in June 2023 on jurisdictional grounds, and the parties filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal in October 2024, closing the matter without any decision on whether Freeman’s claims were true.²

Who Chris Freeman Is and What He Says He Built

Freeman says he conceived Primedice as a college freshman around 2011, intending to compete with the early Bitcoin gambling site SatoshiDice, and recruited his childhood friend Bijan Tehrani to join him.³ Tehrani, he alleged, then brought in Edward Craven as a third partner without asking him first. Primedice launched in May 2013, and by 2017 the site said it had processed nearly 20 billion bets.⁴

Craven and Tehrani tell it differently. Forbes profiles describe the two as having met online as teenagers playing RuneScape and credit them alone as founders of both Primedice and Stake.com.⁵ Craven acknowledged in response to the lawsuit that Freeman had “a degree of involvement in Primedice” but rejected the founding claim and called the allegations “entirely without merit.”³

What Freeman Alleged

The heart of the complaint concerned 2016 and 2017. Freeman alleged that he pitched expanding Primedice into a full crypto casino and that Craven and Tehrani turned him down, saying the build would be too expensive.⁶ According to the Sydney Morning Herald’s account, they also told him they were only interested in a traditional fiat-money casino and that he would need to move to Australia to be involved, terms he refused.⁷

Stake.com launched in June 2017. Freeman claimed it was the same crypto casino he had proposed, partly built with his intellectual property and funded with Primedice money he was entitled to. He alleged Craven and Tehrani withdrew thousands of Bitcoins worth tens of millions from Primedice after Stake.com launched, while he himself had been a net depositor.⁶

Freeman also alleged his ownership stake was steadily reduced. He said he started with a 20% interest that dropped to 14% within nine months, contrary to an agreement that equity would only shift for those who put in capital.⁷ When he raised Stake.com with his partners, he said, they falsely assured him he still held his Primedice stake, then revoked his system privileges and locked him out of the platform. Ownership of the Primedice entity was eventually shifted through corporate shells including Medium Rare N.V. in Curaçao and Slicemedia B.V. without his consent, according to the complaint.⁶

His amended complaint, filed in January 2023, brought nine causes of action including fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, idea misappropriation, tortious interference, unjust enrichment, and conversion.⁶ Australian outlets reported the damages figure at A$580 million; U.S. and U.K. reporting put it around US$400 million.

How the Defendants Responded

Craven and Tehrani moved to dismiss, arguing the complaint failed to state a claim and that the U.S. court lacked jurisdiction because the business was not operated out of the United States.⁸ In their filings, they also accused Freeman of “stealing tens of millions of dollars of company-owned cryptocurrency” and “siphoning away assets,” according to the Australian Financial Review.⁹

Why the Federal Court Dismissed the Case

On June 26, 2023, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams dismissed the entire action without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. In an often-quoted line, the judge wrote that “Freeman’s Complaint — which reads not unlike The Social Network’s account of the creation of Facebook — alleges that Craven and Tehrani stole his idea for developing an expansive online cryptocurrency-based casino.”⁶

The judge never reached the merits. The dismissal turned on complete diversity of citizenship, which federal courts require to hear a case between citizens of different states or countries. Bijan Tehrani is a U.S. citizen living in Australia, which makes him legally “stateless” for diversity purposes, and any partnership including him inherits that stateless status. Because Freeman alleged he was a partner in Primedice alongside Tehrani, his own Florida citizenship ended up on both sides of the case, destroying diversity. The complaint also failed to identify the members of the defendant limited liability companies or plead their citizenship, offering only addresses, which is legally insufficient.⁶ Freeman was given 30 days to amend if he had a good-faith basis.

What Happened After the Dismissal

The case sat on the docket for more than a year. On October 14, 2024, the parties filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), ending the action without prejudice and without costs against any party.² No public reporting has confirmed whether a private settlement preceded the dismissal or whether Freeman plans to refile elsewhere. The Sydney Morning Herald had suggested at the time of the 2023 ruling that Australia might be an available forum.⁸ Because both dismissals were without prejudice, the claims themselves were not extinguished by the litigation; nothing in the public record shows the merits were ever adjudicated.

The Scale of What the Suit Targeted

Stake.com generated $4.7 billion in gross revenue in 2024, according to Forbes, which values Craven and Tehrani at roughly $2.2 billion each.¹⁰ The platform’s growth accelerated during the pandemic, jumping from $100 million to more than $2 billion in revenue in two years.⁵ Easygo Solutions, Craven’s wholly owned Australian company, reported A$503.7 million in revenue and A$260 million in profit for the fiscal year ending June 2024, and held A$405 million in cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet.¹¹ Primedice itself, run by Slicemedia B.V., is scheduled to shut down in October 2026, with its users directed to Stake.com.¹²

1
The Guardian. Crypto Gambling Site That Sponsors Everton FC Hit With $400m Lawsuit
2
PACER Monitor. Freeman v. Stake.com et al
3
DL News. From Runescape to High Stakes
4
iGaming Business. Primedice Rolls Out New Bitcoin Casino
5
Forbes. Ed Craven
6
Justia. Freeman v. Stake.com et al
7
The Sydney Morning Herald. Stake.com Founders Hit With $580 Million Lawsuit
8
The Sydney Morning Herald. Australian-Based Stake.com Founders Dodge $580 Million Claim
9
Australian Financial Review. Aussie Crypto Billionaire Alleges Ex-Associate Embezzled Millions
10
Forbes. Bijan Tehrani
11
Australian Financial Review. Crypto Billionaire Ed Craven Reports Nearly Half a Billion in Revenue
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MEXC. Primedice Shutting Down