Kick
Live streaming platform rivaling Twitch, funded by crypto casino Stake.com.
On the record
Checkpoint: French criminal trial over the Pormanove death, with prosecutors seeking prison sentences
The call
Kick is pulling viewers from Twitch, but its growth runs on gambling subsidies and legal exposure, not a proven business model.
Kick is a video streaming service where people watch live broadcasters, similar to Twitch. It attracts creators by taking only a 5% cut of their earnings instead of Twitch's 50%, and by allowing more gambling promotion and less content filtering. The catch is that Kick itself is not profitable and survives only because its owner, a crypto-gambling company called Stake, funnels money into it. This setup is hard for others to copy not because of technology but because it requires a billionaire willing to lose money indefinitely, while also the exact things making Kick different from Twitch (loose moderation, gambling ties) are now the subject of criminal investigation in France. If Stake faces serious legal or financial trouble, or if French authorities shut down the gambling ties, Kick's entire funding model could collapse.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. AI cannot replicate live parasocial streaming; no AI product currently threatens Kick's core draw. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Twitch (Amazon-owned). Twitch still holds roughly 53% of hours watched and could raise payouts or ease moderation to blunt Kick's gains. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Money, not product lock-in: founders keep covering Kick's losses using profits from sibling crypto casino Stake.
What would change this call
Verdict/sentencing in French Pormanove criminal trial (active July 2026). Would show whether legal exposure forces moderation changes that erase Kick's differentiation.
Stake.com reports a revenue decline or new regulatory restriction in a major market. Would show whether the subsidy funding Kick's payouts and growth is weakening.
Kick announces external funding, an IPO filing, or acquisition talks. Would show whether Kick is moving toward a real liquidity path instead of founder self-funding.
Stake.com reports a revenue decline or new regulatory restriction in a major market. Would show whether the subsidy funding Kick's payouts and growth is weakening.
Kick announces external funding, an IPO filing, or acquisition talks. Would show whether Kick is moving toward a real liquidity path instead of founder self-funding.
Key numbers
- Founders self-funded Kick with ~$1B since 2022
- Kick has ~100M registered, ~10M weekly active users
- Avg concurrent viewers: Kick 182K vs Twitch 955K
Named risks
- Active French criminal proceedings over Jean Pormanove death could yield indictments or corporate negligence suit.
- Unprofitable business model dependent on founder wealth tied to Stake.com crypto gambling revenue.
- No IPO, acquisition, or liquidity path disclosed for equity holders as of June 2026.
- Gambling cross-promotion with Stake exposes Kick to regulatory scrutiny in markets like France.
- Moderation gaps around AI deepfakes and self-harm content addressed only reactively via March 2026 policy update.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Twitch | contesting | Kick's concurrent viewership (~182k) trails Twitch's (~955k) as of 2026-06-28, per Stream Hatchet data |
| YouTube Gaming | losing to | YouTube averages ~1.4 million concurrent viewers versus Kick's ~182,000 as of 2026-06-28 |
| Rumble | contesting | Both platforms compete on looser moderation policy versus mainstream incumbents |
Questions people ask
- Is Kick profitable in 2026?
- No. Kick remains unprofitable as of June 2026, per company executives quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald on 2026-06-28. Founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani have self-funded close to $1 billion into the platform since its December 2022 launch, with no external VC or disclosed IPO plan.
- Who owns Kick?
- Kick is privately owned by Easygo Entertainment Pty Ltd, controlled by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, the same founders behind crypto casino Stake.com (founded 2017). There are no outside investors, and as of June 2026 a company director told SMH an IPO is not on the cards at this stage.
- Is Twitch Kick's biggest competitor?
- Yes. Twitch, owned by Amazon, is Kick's primary rival. Stream Hatchet data cited by the Sydney Morning Herald on 2026-06-28 put Twitch's average concurrent viewership at roughly 955,000 versus Kick's roughly 182,000, showing Kick still trails by a wide margin.
- Could AI replace Kick's streamers?
- No. Live parasocial human streaming is the core value Kick sells. Third-party tools like the July 2026 KickChatters AI Autopilot chat bots supplement streams with reactive chat bots but do not replace the human streamers themselves, per vendor reporting on the product.
- How many users does Kick have?
- Kick reported about 100 million registered users as of April 2026, but only around 10 million weekly active users and roughly 1,000 employees, according to a Sydney Morning Herald interview published June 28, 2026.
- Why is Kick's creator payout so much higher than Twitch's?
- Kick offers creators a 95/5 revenue split versus Twitch's standard 50/50 or 70/30 Plus tier. This is subsidized largely by founder wealth tied to sibling crypto casino Stake.com, which the founders' own bio pages report generated $4.7 billion in revenue in 2024.
Timeline
- 2026-07-14French prosecutors demand prison sentences, social media bans for two streamers in Pormanove case
- 2026-03-19Kick overhauls Community Guidelines: first rules on AI deepfakes, self-harm, minor safety
- 2026-01-27Paris prosecutors seek arrest warrants for Kick managers over Pormanove death investigation
- 2025-12-08Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber sponsorship ends after 2025 season as Sauber moves to Audi
- 2025-11Kick launches platform redesign 'From Every Angle' and 'Drops' in-game reward feature
- 2025-08-18Streamer Jean Pormanove dies during 280-plus hour live Kick broadcast
- 2025-03Kick removes hourly Partner Program pay for Slots and Casino category creators
- 2025-02Kick implements age and ID verification policy for gambling-affiliated streams
- 2023xQc signs non-exclusive $70M to $100M streaming deal with Kick
- 2022-12Kick launches as direct competitor to Twitch
Revision history
24 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Kick (service) (2026-07-22)
- Ed Craven (2026-07-08)
- Inside Kick: the controversial streaming giant the world can't pin down (2026-06-28)
- Twitch Hours Watched & Market Share (2026-07-09)
- Inside Kick 2026 (2026-06-30)
- Latest Announcements on KICK
- Kick cracks down on 'unsafe' content and AI deepfakes (2026-03-23)
- French probe seeks warrants for Kick managers (2026-01-27)
- French prosecutors demand prison (2026-07-14)
- Jean Pormanove Wikipedia summary (2026-07-22)
- Bijan Tehrani (2026-07-10)
- Well-known names have left Formula 1 (2025-12-08)