Thomas Carvalhaes is a Brazilian iGaming executive best known in the US for one specific reason: he was the person Stake — the crypto casino brand many American readers recognize through its sweepstakes offshoot, Stake.us — put in charge of its entry into Brazil’s newly regulated betting market in January 2025. He left that role by September 2025.
Outside of that Stake chapter, Carvalhaes has spent over a decade building a reputation as one of the more recognizable operational names in Brazilian and Latin American online gambling, moving through country-manager and regional-director roles at several international operators before and after his time at Stake.
A note on scope before you read further: Carvalhaes’ career has been built almost entirely in Brazil and Latin America. He has not held a role with direct authority over any US-facing gambling product. We’ve included a dedicated section below on why he’s still relevant to a US audience, rather than overstating a US connection that the public record doesn’t support.
Quick Facts
| Name | Thomas Carvalhaes |
| Best known for | Leading Stake’s launch into Brazil’s newly regulated real-money casino and sportsbook market (Jan–Sept 2025) |
| Most recently confirmed role | Country Manager, Brazil — Stake (Jan 2025 – Sept 2025, departed) |
| Reported current affiliation | SCCG Management (per LinkedIn; unconfirmed by an official announcement — see Career Status) |
| Industry | Online casino / sports betting (iGaming), Latin America focus |
| Years of experience | Publicly stated as 12–17+ years, depending on source |
| Base of operations | São Paulo, Brazil |
| linkedin.com/in/thomas-carvalhaes |
Current Career Status
As of this page’s last update, the most recent confirmed fact about Carvalhaes’ employment is that he departed Stake in September 2025. He announced the move himself on LinkedIn, writing that he was leaving “the business in very good hands” following the completion of Brazil’s regulatory licensing push — a process he described as a milestone for the country’s iGaming professionals broadly, not just his own tenure.
We have not found an official company announcement confirming his next role. His public LinkedIn profile currently lists SCCG Management, a Brazil-focused gaming advisory firm, as his listed employer. Because we could not independently verify a title, start date, or job description tied to that listing through a press release or company statement, we’re presenting it here as the best available public signal, not a confirmed fact. We will update this page if that changes.
(Some industry aggregator sites published stories in January 2026 suggesting Carvalhaes had rejoined GR8 Tech as Senior Business Development Manager — a title he already held there from 2023–2024. Because that content closely duplicates earlier reporting from his original GR8 Tech tenure, we are not including it here as a distinct, verified event.)
Career History
Carvalhaes’ career spans two decades, starting outside the gambling industry entirely. He worked as a video editor and camera operator at Lion Video e Foto in Brazil from 1998 to 2001, then completed a linguistics degree at the University of the Nations (2008–2011) before entering iGaming.
He broke into the industry in 2011 at DigiOutsource in Cape Town, starting as a Portuguese-language customer host and moving up to Portuguese brand marketer. By 2012, he’d been promoted to Regional Manager for Portugal and Latin America, running a multi-brand portfolio that included Jackpot City, Gaming Club, and Casino Epoca.
In 2017, he stepped into his first CEO role, a contract position at JET Incorporated, where he says he drove a 20% increase in client growth and a 60% increase in brand awareness. He spent the next two years, 2017 to 2019, working as an independent iGaming consultant, advising operators including Omni Slots and Nine Casino on their Latin American strategy.
From 2018 to 2019 he was General Manager for Mexico and brand owner for Mundi Fortuna at Betmotion BR, a stretch he credits with 30% NGR (net gaming revenue) growth. He then joined LeoVegas Group (2019–2020) to lead market-entry into Brazil, Peru, and Chile, managing both the LeoVegas and Royal Panda brands across the region.
At Hero Gaming (2020–2023), he started as Brazil and LatAm Manager and Product Owner before being promoted to Regional Director, again leading market-entry strategy for Brazil, Peru, and Chile — a run that also includes co-founding Amuletobet.com. From 2023 to 2024 he moved to GR8 Tech as Senior Business Development Manager, focused on iGaming platform sales and expansion across Brazil and Latin America.
That run of repeat market-entry work is what led to his highest-profile assignment: in January 2025, Stake named him Country Manager for Brazil following the company’s acquisition of a casino and sportsbook license there — part of the first cohort of operators licensed under Brazil’s new regulatory framework. He led a local team of 10 from São Paulo, backed by Stake’s global workforce of roughly 1,000, before departing the role in September 2025.
In His Own Words
“I am taking the lead of a brand that has the ability to innovate…” — on his appointment as Stake’s Brazil Country Manager
“…leaving the business in very good hands…” — on his September 2025 departure, via LinkedIn
Key Achievements
- Led Stake’s formal entry into the regulated Brazilian market as its first Brazil Country Manager, at a moment when Brazil had just stood up its national licensing framework for online casino and sports betting.
- Ran market-entry launches for two other major international operators — LeoVegas (Brazil, Peru, Chile) and Hero Gaming (Brazil, Peru, Chile) — making him one of a small group of Brazilian executives with repeated, named market-launch experience across multiple operators.
- Co-founded Amuletobet.com during his tenure at Hero Gaming.
- Reportedly named iGaming Executive of the Year (BIS Awards, 2022) and, separately, voted “Featured Professional of the Year” for Brazil’s iGaming industry, according to his own conference biographies. We list these as reported industry recognitions rather than independently confirmed awards, since we could not locate the original award announcements from the presenting organizations.
- Recurring conference speaker and panelist on Latin American iGaming topics, including affiliate marketing and localized market strategy, at events such as iGB Affiliate and Brazilian iGaming Summit (BiS).
Company Background: Stake and Its US Connection
Understanding Carvalhaes’ role requires understanding that “Stake” is really two related but legally distinct businesses — a distinction that matters directly to US readers.
Stake.com is the original, global crypto casino, founded in 2017 by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, who first partnered on gambling-adjacent products years earlier through the online game RuneScape. Stake.com operates under a Curaçao gaming license through Medium Rare N.V., and its core model runs on cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals rather than traditional banking rails. It has expanded into several regulated markets over the years, including Brazil (via Carvalhaes’ team) and other Latin American jurisdictions.
Stake.com does not accept US players. It’s blocked in the United States, alongside a handful of other countries, largely due to the regulatory uncertainty around real-money crypto gambling domestically.
Stake.us is the product US readers are actually more likely to have encountered. Launched in 2022, it’s a sweepstakes-style social casino — operated by a separate legal entity, Sweepsteaks Limited, under the same parent group, EasyGo. Stake.us uses a dual-currency model (Gold Coins for play, Stake Cash redeemable for cash prizes) rather than direct real-money wagering, which is how it operates legally across most US states under sweepstakes law rather than traditional gambling regulation.
Carvalhaes’ role was tied exclusively to the Stake.com real-money entity’s Brazilian launch. He had no reported operational role at Stake.us.
Why This Profile Matters to a US Audience
Given the above, we want to be direct about the connection rather than inflate it: Carvalhaes has no confirmed history working on any US-facing gambling product. His relevance to US readers comes from two things instead:
- Brand recognition. Stake is a name many US players already know through Stake.us, even though the executive team behind that specific product is different from the one Carvalhaes led.
- A parallel worth understanding. Carvalhaes’ work getting Stake compliant and operational under Brazil’s brand-new national licensing framework is a live example of exactly the kind of market-entry process now playing out state-by-state in the US, where operators like BetMGM, DraftKings, and Caesars have gone through comparable licensing transitions as individual states legalized online casino play. The playbook — securing a license, building a local compliance team, localizing the product — looks similar whether the new market is Brazil in 2025 or a newly regulated US state.
A Note on Verification
This profile draws on multiple industry trade publications (InterGame, Gaming Americas, iGaming Brazil, Yogonet), Stake’s own public statements at the time of its Brazil launch, and Carvalhaes’ publicly listed professional biography and conference appearances. Where a claim — a specific growth percentage, an award, his current employer — comes only from his own self-reported biography and we could not locate independent confirmation, we’ve said so directly in the relevant section rather than presenting it as an established fact. We’ll update this page if new, verifiable information becomes available.
FAQ
Does Thomas Carvalhaes still work at Stake?
No. He departed the Brazil Country Manager role in September 2025, roughly eight months after starting.
Is Thomas Carvalhaes connected to Stake.us?
Not in any confirmed capacity. His role was with Stake’s Brazilian real-money casino and sportsbook license, a separate legal entity from Stake.us, the sweepstakes product available to US players.
What is Thomas Carvalhaes doing now?
Unconfirmed. His LinkedIn profile lists SCCG Management, a Brazilian iGaming advisory firm, but we found no official announcement confirming a specific title or start date.
What was Thomas Carvalhaes’ role at Stake?
Country Manager for Brazil, appointed in January 2025 to lead Stake’s entry into the country’s newly regulated online casino and sportsbook market. He led a local team of 10 employees.