New online video livestreaming platform Kick has coaxed some of the internet’s most popular personalities and more than a million users into joining in just three months with a promise of money and its laissez faire approach to content moderation.
Behind the scenes, Crikey can reveal evidence showing the Twitch competitor has hidden links to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency casino, Stake.com, and its Australian billionaire founder.
In early December, one of the world’s top streamers, Trainwreck, was leaving Twitch for greener pastures. In a screed that dedicated several thousand words to slamming the platform’s treatment of its creators, Trainwreck announced he was joining a new platform, Kick, as a creator and a non-owner adviser.
Twitch, the dominant player in the livestreaming industry, has recently said it was planning to end its 70-30 revenue split (70% of audience donations and subscriptions going to the creator, 30% to the platform) for top users in favour of a 50-50 split. It also recently banned users from streaming themselves playing slots, roulette or dice games on gambling sites such as Stake.com — a hugely popular livestream activity that was slammed for promoting gambling to young viewers.
Kick’s pledge sounded too good to be true. Among a variety of promises, Trainwreck said Kick streamers would get 95% of subscription fees and 100% of donations. Plus Kick had a terms-of-service allowing “ethical gambling” that would allow the sort of activities banned on Twitch.
High-profile internet creators and artists with millions of followers on other platforms such as Drake, Adin Ross and Corinna Kopf soon jumped ship. Their fans came too. Last week, Kick posted an update on its LinkedIn that boasted bringing in a million users in 69 days, faster than Spotify, Facebook and Netflix.
Who’s behind Kick?
Little was known about Kick’s owners when Trainwreck first announced his migration. Its website offers no information about who is backing or leading the ambitious, technologically challenging project.
The day after his announcement, Trainwreck told The Washington Post that gambling company Stake.com founder Eddie Craven was an investor in Kick. Craven was revealed as one of the founders of Stake.com by a Nine newspaper investigation in 2021. He and partner Bijan Tehrani registered the online casino out of the small Caribbean nation of Curacao.
Stake.com claims it took more than 65 billion bets from users around the world using cryptocurrency in 2022. The company has sponsorships with Drake, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, English Premier League team Everton FC, and the Alfa Romeo F1 team.
Craven’s links to Kick go far beyond just a role as an investor. He is a livestreamer, having previously used websites such as Twitch and DLive. Online culture publication Dexerto reported that Craven had begun streaming on Kick in November.
A Medium post made from Craven’s account a week after Trainwreck’s announcement about online casinos and streaming doesn’t mention Kick by name, but lays out its value to Stake.com: “The concept of winning big and often giving back to the wider community is a powerful one which has certainly popularised online casino content.”
Craven is also listed as the sole shareholder for the company records of Melbourne software development company Easygo. Its director is listed as James Ashley Craven, Ed Craven’s father, who was jailed for a year over fraud and contempt of court charges relating to his role in the collapse of the Spedley Group in 1989.
Easygo lists Stake.com as a “client”, along with another crypto gambling website Primedice.com. Easygo staff seemingly use Stake.com and Easygo interchangeably on their LinkedIn profiles.
While Easygo’s website doesn’t mention Kick, its job postings on LinkedIn show the close connections between the streaming platform, the development company and the online casino. An advertisement for the head of business analysis role said their bands include “Stake.com, Kick.com & Twist Gaming, with more in the pipeline”. A senior game artist position description said: “Kick is a new venture created by the founders of Easygo and Stake.com.” Kick’s LinkedIn doesn’t list any staff but does place its offices in Melbourne.
On January 24, Easygo’s chief strategy and operating officer Brais Pena wrote about being “immersed in a new project called Kick”. In it, he wonders whether the streaming platform will reach a $1 billion valuation: “Why Kick.com could be the next Australian Unicorn?”
Sex, hate and gambling broadcast on Kick
Kick has courted controversy since launching. Viral clips have circulated on social media showing streamer behaviour that would violate Twitch’s or, in some cases, even Kick’s more relaxed content moderation policies from some of its biggest users.
Online personality Adin Ross, who signed an exclusive deal to stream with Kick and averages tens of thousands of simultaneous viewers on his daily streams, has broadcast porn, the Super Bowl (a clear copyright violation), self-described Nazis, and friends saying the n-word and showing their backsides. He has seemingly faced no consequences from Kick. Another streamer, Heelmike, received a one-day suspension for taking part in a sex act on-air. Streamers have had their chat sections overwhelmed with hateful spam, including users flooding Nazi symbols and phrases in their comments.
“To say that Kick is the new Wild West of livestreaming is a total understatement,” Kotaku’s Levi Winslow wrote.
Kick’s location means that it is under the jurisdiction of Australia’s internet regulation. The Online Safety Act requires platforms such as Kick to take reasonable steps to prevent children from accessing Class 2 material that’s R18+ or X18+, such as non-violent sexual material.
“Technology companies need to appreciate that online abuse causes real harm — and they have a responsibility to proactively safeguard their users,” the eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant told Crikey.
Additionally, the eSafety commissioner can issue a removal or remedial notice if it’s not restricted and can issue fines of up to $137,500 if the company fails to comply.
Gambling streams are among the most popular content on the platform. Outside of the big-name talent who migrated to Twitch, the most viewed streams are typically dominated by gambling streams (sometimes including those creators). “Slots & Casino” streams were second only to “Just Chatting” as the most watched category.
Kick’s terms of service restrict online gambling streams to adults. The platform automatically restricts any stream in the Slots & Casino category but only requires a user to click through a prompt to say that they are 18 to access them.
Dr Mark R Johnson is a senior lecturer in digital cultures at the University of Sydney whose research has focused on livestreaming culture. He told Crikey that Twitch’s decision to ban online casino gambling streams was framed as a response to calls from its members who were concerned about the effect on young viewers, but was also likely made to avoid regulation down the road.
Johnson said Kick appeared to be trying to appeal to a subsection of the livestreaming and broader gaming community who have embraced gambling and gambling-adjacent activities, including cryptocurrency, loot boxes and skin gambling. This, combined with a looser moderation policy than Twitch, positions Kick as a “free speech” and “anything goes” alternative.
“There’s always been a group of people who think that having any rules on Twitch is too strict and there’s too many. I think there’s crossover with the crypto community, too. I can see this being appealing to a group of people,” Johnson said.
Age-gating some livestreams was crucial to protect younger audiences: “The easier it is to see objectionable content, well, it numbs you to it. I can see how younger, more impressionable and less worldly users could be drawn to this.”
Stake.com, Kick and Craven did not respond to requests for comment.
