Controversial streamer Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff recently announced a massive $10 million deal with Twitch rival Kick, and it seems that although once implored pro-LGBTQIA people To “leave the children alone,” he is not concerned about teaching them how to play.
In a recent Kick broadcast, Kolcheff (whose the skin was removed Obligations in June after he made those anti-LGBTQ comments on social media) was chatting with his viewers about his new contract. “The first question I’ve been seeing is like ‘yo Nick, are you going to do betting streams’?” He then smiles as he chews gum furiously, before yelling “yes sir!” “Yes, we’re going to do betting streams,” he explains. “We’re not going to do shit, but we’re sure going to gamble a little. “It’s part of the contract.”
kotaku He contacted Kick and Kolcheff for clarification on the details of their contract, but did not receive a response in time for publication. However, Andrew Santamaría, head of strategic partnerships at Kick, quoted the post above and stated that “there is no shrimp [gambling] clause in the Kick contract.”
Jake Lucky, who initially shared the clip, later clarified: writing that Kolcheff “has a Stake contract along with his Kick contract.” Stake is a betting website owned by Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, who are the main backers of Kick along with streamer Tyler Faraz Niknam, so Santamaría’s clarification is not entirely honest. Interestingly, Kolcheff suggests in the clip above that he will stream outside of North America for those gaming-related sessions, likely because Staking is banned in the US.
Kick has been poaching some of the industry’s biggest streamers since launching a year ago, with Félix “xQc” Lengyel and Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa recently signed deals with the Twitch competitor. (xQc deal was worth $100 millionwhile Amouranth never revealed the official cost of his). And while the streaming platform has better revenue-sharing options than Twitch, it is heavily intertwined with gambling (Asmongold revealed several months ago (that the site appears to be coded to include gambling on its home page) and has courted some problematic industry figures, including Adin Ross, who was banned on Twitch in February after transmitting pornographic content.
Twitch banned betting sites like Stake in 2022, after users raised concerns that prominent streamers were promoting sites to young, impressionable viewers. And although Craven announced in June While Kick had “removed some unnecessary exposure to gambling-related content” and would “add the ability to disable all gambling-related streams,” gambling clearly remains a cornerstone of the streaming service. sequences, to the point that Kolcheff, one of the most prominent figures in the industry will host gaming broadcasts as part of their new agreement.
And don’t forget that another of Kick’s new streamers, xQc, once lost almost $2 million thanks to what he himself called “addiction” to the game. But God forbid kids go to a drag show, right?
