Nexus International’s trajectory over the past three years can be traced, in large part, to a single platform. Spartans.com now accounts for the majority of the company’s revenue and has become the vehicle through which Gurhan Kiziloz is mounting a challenge to the gaming industry’s most established operators. Bet365 and Stake have dominated for years. Spartans is making the competition interesting.
The platform launched with $200 million behind it, Kiziloz’s own capital, deployed without outside investors or institutional approval. The bet was substantial. It was also deliberate. Kiziloz did not build Spartans to occupy a niche or serve an underserved segment. He built it to compete at the top of the market, against companies with decades of brand recognition and resources that dwarf what Nexus had at the time.
The early differentiation was operational. Where legacy platforms had layered compliance onto ageing infrastructure, Spartans was built with regulatory architecture at its foundation. Payouts that take days on competing platforms process in minutes. Both fiat and cryptocurrency move through the system with equal efficiency. The user experience was designed around reducing friction, fewer steps, faster transactions, cleaner interfaces. These details, compounded across millions of users, translated into retention rates that exceeded industry benchmarks.
Kiziloz’s leadership style shaped how the platform developed. Decisions at Spartans move quickly. There is no committee structure to slow approvals, no board to consult on strategic direction. When an opportunity emerges, the company acts. When something underperforms, it is fixed or cut. The organisation operates at a tempo that larger competitors, with their more complex governance, struggle to match.
This speed has proven to be a meaningful advantage. Spartans has entered new markets faster than rivals anticipated. Product iterations that might take months elsewhere are shipped in weeks. The platform adapts to user feedback and regulatory changes with an agility that reflects its founder’s preferences. Kiziloz has spoken about not having patience for slow execution. The company he built reflects that disposition.
The competitive landscape Spartans is entering is not forgiving. Bet365 has spent more than two decades building its brand, expanding across jurisdictions, and establishing the kind of trust that comes only with time. Stake captured a younger generation of users by embracing cryptocurrency early and building a product that felt native to how they wanted to transact. Both companies have resources, reach, and institutional knowledge that Spartans is still accumulating.
But they also have constraints. Larger organisations move more slowly. Public scrutiny limits certain decisions. Shareholder expectations shape strategy in ways that do not always optimise for speed. Spartans operates without these encumbrances. Kiziloz answers to no one but the market, and the market has responded favourably.
Nexus International’s $1.2 billion revenue in 2025 is the clearest measure of that response. Spartans drove the bulk of it. The platform has grown from a new entrant to a recognised competitor in a timeframe that has surprised industry observers. The growth has not come from marketing spend alone, though that has been significant, but from a product that delivers on the fundamentals users care about: reliability, speed, and an experience that respects their time.
Kiziloz does not position Spartans as a scrappy underdog. He speaks about the platform in terms of where it is going, not where it started. The goal has always been to compete with the largest operators in the industry, not eventually, but now. The $200 million investment was a statement of that intent. The revenue growth is evidence that the intent is translating into results.
The next phase will test whether Spartans can continue its trajectory against competitors who are now paying attention. Bet365 and Stake did not reach their positions by ignoring challengers. They will respond with their own product improvements, marketing investments, and market expansions. The advantage Spartans has built is real, but it is not permanent. Maintaining it will require the same focus and execution that created it.
Kiziloz appears prepared for that. He has built a company that reflects his priorities: speed over deliberation, performance over politics, results over process. Spartans is the expression of those priorities in a product that millions of users now interact with daily. It is also the engine that is powering Nexus International forward, generating the revenue that has made Kiziloz a billionaire and positioning the company for whatever comes next.
The gaming industry’s hierarchy has been stable for a long time. Bet365 at the top. Stake rising fast. Everyone else competing for what remains. Spartans is attempting to redraw that map. The early results suggest the attempt is serious. Whether it ultimately succeeds will depend on whether Kiziloz and his team can sustain what they have started.
So far, the evidence favours them.
