Twitch’s Move Against Gambling Fuels New Stake.com-Backed Streaming Platform

Posted on: December 7, 2022, 07:51h. 

Last updated on: December 8, 2022, 02:35h.

Erik Gibbs Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Gaming Business, Global Gaming.

Twitch recently announced that it will cut off certain types of gambling content on the streaming platform. That led to a drop in viewership of at least 20%, and an alternative backed by Stake.com might be where those viewers are now going.

Tyler ‘Trainwreck’ Niknam
Tyler ‘Trainwreck’ Niknam on an episode of his streaming program. Once one of Twitch’s top streamers, he is moving to a rival startup that allows gambling content and is backed by Stake.com (Image: Twitch: Tyler ‘Trainwreck’ Niknam)

Tyler ‘Trainwreck’ Niknam, who helped lead Twitch to a huge audience with his content, announced this week that he’s switching to Kick.com. He’ll be providing content there while also serving as a “nonowner adviser and nonexclusive broadcaster.”

An internet sleuth and YouTuber, Stephen ‘Coffeezilla’ Findeisen, discovered Kick.com’s links to Stake.com after doing a little digging.

Twitch Gets Kicked by Kick

Twitch grew to be the top streaming platform through the inclusion of gambling- and video game-related content. However, in response to complaints by some of its top streamers upset by the gambling content, Twitch backed off.

A few months ago, the Amazon-owned company announced it would no longer allow certain types of content, including streams by certain operators (including Stake.com) that focused on slot machines, roulette, or dice games. However, poker and sports betting were safe.

Twitch has built an empire off of our backs and has the audacity to spit in all of our faces by not only giving us no financial security, with its inconsistent policies, but by also cutting our pay in places that they have no right to cut,” said former Twitch streamer Trainwreck.

In addition, Twitch changed its monetization policy. Where it was previously 70/30 in favor of the content creators, the new split was 50/50. The 70/30 remained for only the first $100K of earnings, which meant that all of the top earners were going to see drastic reductions in profit.

Those changes are causing Trainwreck, with his 2.1 million Twitch followers, to jump ship. Instead of giving up half his earnings to Twitch, he’ll only have to give up 5% to Kick, according to his announcement.

Kick Banks on Advertisers

Kick believes it can make more money through advertising deals than through direct content. By reducing its stake in the content, it hopes to quickly attract more streamers and their followers. This, it hopes, will lead advertisers to open their wallets.

Gambling was a huge part of Twitch before it was cut off. Statistics show that the slot machine category registered around 31 million hours of viewing in April. This later jumped to more than 50 million hours only four months later.

It’s also possible that Kick eventually runs into the same types of problems over its content that Twitch did. There were threats to ban Twitch in the US because of certain types of content. The company has also run into issues in South Korea, Russia, and China.

Kick has already run into trouble for allegedly stealing, through embedded content, Twitch streams. Having connections to Stake.com could also eventually become an issue. While the gaming platform loved by Canadian rapper Drake may have deep pockets, its status as a reputable gambling option has been called into question.

Several other streaming platforms have tried to threaten Twitch’s reign, but they all failed. Trovo, DLive, and Mixer all sought to unseat the champ before throwing in the towel. Perhaps Kick has learned from where they went wrong.