Before you criticize the use of a word, you may want to check on it's actual meaning.

Rape does not have an exclusively sexual context. The dictionary may list the sexual context first, but it does list several others next:

• The act of seizing and carrying off by force; abduction:
  the rape of Europa by Zeus.
• The act of pillaging or plundering:
  the rape of the city by the invaders.
• Abusive or improper treatment; spoiling or abuse:
  the rape of the land by polluters.

And to make it more precise, the word "rape" is actually based on the latin "raptio", meaning "abduction". Such as in The Rape of the Sabine Women

Use of the word "rape" comes from the conventional translation of the Latin word used in the ancient accounts of the incident: raptio. Modern scholars tend to interpret the word as "abduction" as opposed to (sexual) violation.

So we cannot say that the word "rape" is inappropriate with the given subject of "the reward pool".

The context is given by the subject, not by the verb!