As Kai Cenat, one of Twitch’s biggest creators, faces his fifth ban on the platform, increasing numbers of people are calling for him to join Kick. Kick is a rival streaming platform that has a reputation for being less strict on what creators can upload, though it has been cracking down on sexual content and hot tub streams. It isn’t nearly as big as Twitch, and has been accused of faking views with bots, but has still drawn in big streamers like Adin Ross, Dream, Destiny, and Trainwreck, who is a non-owner advisor for the platform.
Apart from having more relaxed content moderation than Twitch, Kick markets itself as a creator-friendly platform with policies much more beneficial for the average streamer. Kick has a 95-5 subscriber revenue split, which is far better than Twitch’s 50-50 offering, and all regular donations to streamers go entirely to the creators. Kick also offers same-day payouts instead of monthly cheques, giving streamers more financial stability.
This is incredible for streamers and puts the earning power of their content into their own hands – nobody can deny this. Kick may have fewer viewers right now, and may potentially be view botting to hide this, but more competition is good and could push Twitch to give its streamers better deals. However, Kick has been widely considered to be unsustainable. There’s no logical way for it to keep the platform running on so little revenue from streams, especially considering its overall viewership is a fraction of Twitch’s. There’s also the fact that it apparently pays Amazon to use Twitch’s own video system. So how is it surviving?
Signs point to involvement with Stake.com, a crypto gambling site. Kick is a legal entity registered in Australia, and its only shareholders are Easygo Entertainment and Easygo’s director. Easygo, in turn, was only recently registered and is one-third owned by Ashwood Holdings, which is fully owned by Ed Craven, the owner of Stake. This links back to Trainwreck, who was Kick’s first really big streamer. When he was still on Twitch, Trainwreck’s content heavily revolved around gambling and he was forced to pivot when Twitch announced gambling was no longer allowed on the platform. Stake was a major sponsor of Trainwreck on Twitch.
It’s easy to infer that Stake is using Kick and its lax rules as, essentially, a big advertisement for gambling. As young stream viewers watch creators gamble on Stake, they’re more likely to get involved. Content creators don’t have to disclose whether they’ve been gifted large sums of in-game dollars to spin slots with, and viewers often have no idea that the streamers aren’t gambling with their own money. These streams are glorified adverts, showing all of the highs of gambling and none of the devastating lows.
Obviously, gambling is incredibly addictive, and very detrimental to the mental health of those that do get addicted – gambling addiction has been linked to elevated suicide rates and has been known to tear families apart. Obviously, this is a net bad for society, but on top of streamers promoting hate speech, showing porn of minors, and straight up just having sex without getting banned, it’s pretty clear that Kick is a bad influence on impressionable young viewers in every possible way.
Kick’s success will rely on the talent it draws to the platform, and especially on who it can poach from Twitch. Kai Cenat is just the latest streamer to be courted, and the more Twitch closes in on people violating its content policies, the more big streamers will be tempted to jump ship. My hope is that they’ll recognise the severity of the choice they’d be making, but money may cloud their judgment as they consider their options. Twitch’s policies aren’t great for its streamers, but Kick’s policies are bad for all of us.