Kick's Gambling Contracts: A New Era for Streaming?

High-profile streamers are making waves by signing lucrative contracts with Kick, a platform rivaling Twitch. These contracts have a unique clause: streamers must host gambling streams, sparking controversy and debate.

Nick 'Nickmercs' Kolcheff recently announced that he would be hosting gambling streams on Kick as part of his $10 million deal with the platform. This additional contract is with Stake.com, whose co-founders part own Kick. Similarly, Félix 'xQc' Lengyel signed a two-year contract with Kick worth approximately $70 million, with incentives that could push the total to about $100 million. Lengyel has openly admitted that he is paid to gamble high stakes on-stream, but he is also a self-confessed gambling addict.

Kick, backed by the co-founders of the Stake gambling platform, has been investing heavily in attracting top streamers to its platform. This is during a year that has seen the Twitch platform clamp down hard on gambling streams as a whole. Kick offers a 95/5 subscription revenue split compared to the 50/50 at Twitch for the first $100,000.