Stake.us New Jersey: Deadlines Stayed, Sept 18 Call Set
- SEP 20, 2026 - The September 18 conference this article was written ahead of has happened, and the piece has been taken out of the future tense. Two entries went on the docket that day: entry 26, the minute entry for the 10:00 a.m. telephone conference itself, and entry 27, one entry carrying two clerk events - "Order Appointing Mediator AND ~Util - Case Stayed". So a mediator has been appointed and the case itself is now flagged stayed, where before only the corporate defendants' Rule 12 deadlines were. Both entries are bare on the free public mirror, with no description text and no downloadable document, so the mediator's name, any mediation deadline and the terms of the stay are not public. Nothing has been settled, no claim form exists and no money has changed hands. Every sentence that said the call was "today" or still to come now says what happened, the entry count has gone from 25 to 27, and our fuller report on the order is at /news/stake-us-new-jersey-mediator-case-stayed/. The finding this article is actually about survives: there is still no motion to compel arbitration anywhere on the file.
- SEP 18, 2026 - The conference this article was written ahead of is today, and the docket has grown since we counted it. On the substance nothing has moved: re-read on September 18, the court has entered nothing further on the telephone conference set for 10:00 a.m. today, no party has filed a public document saying what the early-resolution discussions cover, and there is still no motion to compel arbitration anywhere on the file. What has changed is the count and the framing. Two numbered entries went on on September 16, 24 and 25, both "Notice of Request by Pro Hac Vice ... to receive Notices of Electronic Filings", for George E. Kostel and Richard K. Kelsey, with a $500 pro hac vice fee receipted the same day and the clerk adding both to the electronic notice list on September 16 and 17. Both are plaintiff-side counsel. So the docket runs to 25 numbered entries rather than the 23 we read on September 12, and the sentences giving that figure have been corrected. The passages written as though September 18 were still in the future - "the September 18 call has not happened yet" and "the next scheduled event is the September 18 telephone conference" - now say that the call is today and that nothing from it has reached the public docket at the time of writing.
A federal judge in New Jersey stayed Stake.us's deadline to answer the Drake class action on September 10, 2026 and set a call for September 18 "to discuss further the early resolution of this case". That conference went ahead, and hours later the court appointed a mediator and flagged the whole case stayed. What makes the order worth reading is what is not on this docket: every other Stake.us class action we have covered has turned on a motion to compel arbitration, and there is no such motion on any of this one's 27 entries.
The case is Nufio v. Sweepsteaks Ltd., No. 3:26-cv-08394 in the District of New Jersey, before District Judge Robert Kirsch and Magistrate Judge J. Brendan Day. We read the docket directly on September 12 and re-read it on September 18 and September 20, which is how we check everything we publish. Nothing here decides anything, nobody has admitted anything, and no settlement has been announced. What the September 18 order does and does not say is set out in full in our report on the mediator appointment and the stay.
What did the New Jersey judge actually order?
Entry 23 is a text order in full, and this is all of the operative part, word for word:
Pursuant to the Telephone Conference conducted today, the Court hereby sets this matter for a Telephone Conference for 10:00 a.m. on Friday, September 18, 2026, to discuss further the early resolution of this case. In the interim, all deadlines for Defendants Sweepsteaks Ltd. d/b/a Stake.us and Kick Streaming Pty Ltd. to answer or otherwise respond to the Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12 are hereby STAYED.
Two things sit in that paragraph. The first is the phrase "early resolution", which the court says the parties were already discussing on a call held that morning. The second is the freeze: the two corporate defendants no longer have a clock running to file an answer or a Rule 12 motion.
The sequence took ten days:
| Date | Entry | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| August 31 | 20 | Five defence lawyers admitted to appear for Sweepsteaks Ltd. and Kick Streaming Pty Ltd. |
| September 8 | 21 | Text order setting a telephone conference for September 10 |
| September 10 | 22 | Minute entry: "Telephone Conference held on 9/10/2026. Order to follow." |
| September 10 | 23 | Text order: Rule 12 deadlines stayed, further conference set for September 18 |
| September 16 | 24, 25 | Two pro hac vice notices to receive electronic filings, for plaintiff's counsel George E. Kostel and Richard K. Kelsey |
| September 18 | 26 | Minute entry for the 10:00 a.m. telephone conference |
| September 18 | 27 | One entry, two clerk events: "Order Appointing Mediator AND ~Util - Case Stayed" |
What makes this docket different from the other Stake.us cases?
What is missing from it. Every other Stake.us class action we have covered turns on one question, court or arbitration. This one does not:
| Case | Where the arbitration question stands |
|---|---|
| Virginia | A judge sent eight Stake.us players into individual arbitration on July 30 |
| Minnesota | A judge refused to compel arbitration on two grounds; the operator has taken that refusal to the Eighth Circuit |
| Missouri | Stayed over the same question, then partially lifted in August so Drake and Adin Ross could argue they do not belong in it |
| New Mexico | Stayed and partially lifted the same way; Drake and Adin Ross moved to dismiss on September 7 |
| New Jersey | No motion to compel arbitration on any of the 27 entries |
We read all 23 New Jersey entries in full on September 12, re-read the file at 25 entries on September 18 and again at 27 entries on September 20. What the court has instead is mediation. The September 18 call went ahead at 10:00 a.m. and the court appointed a mediator and stayed the case the same afternoon; both entries are bare on the public mirror, so the mediator's name, any deadline and the terms of the stay are not published. "Early resolution" was standard language a judge can use for anything from a settlement conference to a narrowing of the issues, and it has turned out to mean mediation. Where that leads is still unknown: neither side has filed a public document saying what they discussed, and nothing has been settled.
One more detail on this docket has no parallel in the others. On August 14 the plaintiff filed a third-party litigation funding disclosure under the District of New Jersey's Local Civil Rule 7.1.1, which requires a party to say whether an outside funder is paying for the case. That document exists on the docket; we have not read its contents and make no claim about what it discloses.
Who is covered by the freeze, and who is not?
The order names two defendants: Sweepsteaks Ltd. d/b/a Stake.us and Kick Streaming Pty Ltd. Sweepsteaks Limited is the company behind the brand.
The complaint that came over from state court also names Aubrey Drake Graham, Adin Ross, Livingston Allen (DJ Akademiks), George Nguyen and unnamed Does. No notice of appearance for any of those individuals shows up in the federal entries we read, and the September 10 order does not mention them. We cannot tell from the public docket whether they have been served in the federal case.
What should a New Jersey player do about this?
Nothing about your account changes. No order in this case touches balances, redemptions or site access, and New Jersey banned the dual-currency model in 2025 regardless of what happens here.
The part that does have a deadline is your own, and it is not paused by anything the court did this week. As we set out when Stake.us moved this case to federal court, Count V is built on N.J. Stat. section 2A:40-1, and section 2A:40-5 gives a loser that civil action only "provided such action is brought within 6 calendar months after payment or delivery". The clock runs from each payment you made, not from the filing of a class action and not from a judge scheduling a conference. Money you paid more than six calendar months ago is outside that window whatever the parties agree in mediation.
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Sources & documents
- CourtListener docket, Nufio v. Sweepsteaks Ltd., No. 3:26-cv-08394 (D.N.J.) - 23 entries when read September 12, 2026, 25 when re-read September 18 and 27 when re-read September 20. Entries 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 are quoted or described from the clerk's own text; entries 26 and 27 carry clerk event labels only
- CourtListener entry search for the Sweepsteaks captions since September 9, 2026 - how we found the order
- Notice of removal, Nufio v. Sweepsteaks Ltd., ECF 1 - the July 8, 2026 filing that brought the case to federal court
21+. Court filings describe allegations, not findings. Nothing above is legal advice. If gambling is a problem, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER. Responsible gaming resources.
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Sources & documents
- www.courtlistener.com/docket/73593119/nufio-v-sweepsteaks-ltd/
- www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?q=caseName%3A%28%22Sweepsteaks%22%29&type=rd&entry_date_filed_after=2026-09-09&order_by=entry_date_filed+desc
- storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.602822/gov.uscourts.njd.602822.1.0.pdf
Every factual claim in this article maps to one of the sources above - that is the publishing bar, not a goal.
FAQ
Has Stake.us settled the New Jersey lawsuit?
No. The record shows a judge staying the defendants' deadline to respond, holding a call "to discuss further the early resolution of this case", and then appointing a mediator and staying the case. No settlement has been filed, announced or approved, and no claim form exists.
Does the stay mean the case is over?
No. The September 10 order stayed the two corporate defendants' deadline to answer or file a Rule 12 motion; the September 18 entry flags the case itself as stayed while a mediator works. The case remains open. The terms of that stay are not on the public docket.
Can I still claim my Stake.us losses in New Jersey?
Only money you paid within the last six calendar months is inside the window that section 2A:40-5 sets, and that is a question for a lawyer rather than for us. This case does not pause that clock.
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