The dark side of Kick, the Twitch rival backed by Stake

Corrupt gambling and hate streaming are just a few of the many issues surrounding Kick, the Twitch competitor backed by Stake.

Published by José @ PC Game Spotlight a year ago

Kick: The Twitch Competitor with Controversies

Stick with the Twitch vs YouTube comparison if you want a more positive look at Kick, the latest Twitch competitor. Kick has cornered the Twitch market over the last few months, coming out of nowhere to steal the platform’s top streamers. The reasons are easy to track down: the pay is better, and there are no rules barring 'no pornography' and 'no hate speech.' Sounds great, right?

Sadly, no. Not because Kick itself is awful—it is—but because of what its lenient rules attract. There’s always a downside to something that appears too good to be true, and Kick is no exception. Here are some of the worst Twitch streamers that have migrated to the challenger since its inception, along with some of the reasons why.

Why Some Twitch Streamers Have Moved to Kick

Some Twitch streamers have migrated to Kick because they see it as a new platform and a fresh start. After a couple of years on Twitch, some channels have grown stagnant and desperate for another shot at stardom. For them, Kick represents the next step in their career, and another route to, maybe, YouTube or even traditional mainstream media. With over 25 million monthly active users on the platform, it's an enticing prospect.

The pay is also better, and this is the main reason why Twitch competitors come and go like the tides. The main issue Twitch streamers have is with the 50/50 split of Twitch’s revenue between themselves and the platform. Kick, on the other hand, does it differently by offering streamers a 95/5 split of its revenue. Many Twitch streamers see this as a maybe-too-good-to-be-true opportunity to go full-time or have more money to donate to charities or create better content.

Of course, some people might be fed up with Twitch. Not the streamers themselves—they’re mostly tied in long-term to the platform—but specific Twitch employees or partners that Twitch streamers may have worked with in the past. If a streamer is given less support by Twitch’s workers or isn’t offered the same opportunities as other partners, they might see leaving as the only way to maintain their revenue or level of stream quality.

There are also many Twitch streamers who moved to Kick with worse intentions. The platform allows gambling streams, with the difference being that Twitch took the proactive step of banning them to avoid controversial cash giveaways and unintentional involvement of its streamers in underage gambling. Tyler ‘Trainwreckstv’ Niknam was caught up in this and charged by American authorities for operating an illegal gambling operation. He then left Twitch for Kick, expressing how he “feels like [he] wasted two years on Twitch” and criticizing the “ridiculous” gambling ban.

Kick was co-founded by Ed Craven, who is also a co-founder of Stake.com, an online gambling site. It seems likely that Craven ensured gambling was permitted on Kick, giving Trainwreckstv a new platform to stream and betting companies a new streaming partner. Kick has experienced rapid growth since Trainwreckstv joined, boasting over 440 streamers and 50,000 viewers. If you watch Trainwreckstv, or another Twitch stream banned due to gambling, you might notice that they have still not been banned on Kick. Twitch’s rules are not only protecting young watchers and streamers, who make up 36% of Twitch’s userbase according to Streamlabs, but also preventing scams, which are more prevalent than many people realize.