Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff confirmed that he would be hosting gambling streams as part of his move to Kick and he faced swift backlash from both fans and fellow streamer Felix “xQc” Lengyel.
Nickmercs has officially joined the ranks of streaming platform Kick. The streamer is the latest to sign a non-exclusive deal that will see him moving to the platform on a part-time basis. Nickmercs’ deal with kick is worth an estimated $10 million over one year.
While discussing the move, Nickmercs confirmed that gambling will be part of his content moving forward. The announcement happened during his first stream on Kick, where he also confirmed that he would be leaving the United States to host said streams. Online gambling is illegal in much of the United States.
Kick is co-owned by Stake, a cryptocurrency gambling website. On the platform, Slots & Casino is the second-most-watched category, only surpassed by Just Chatting. Other popular creators including Felix “xQc” Lengyel and Corinna Kopf have featured gambling content on the platform. Oftentimes, creators are not spending their own money in these streams with Kick providing the funds they use on the Stake platform. Nickmercs said he is hoping to use those funds to give back to the community through giveaways.
xQc calls out Nickmercs over gambling in Kick deal
xQc accused Nickmercs of lying about any gambling clauses in his Kick contract.
After the announcement, xQc called out Nickmercs, claiming he has dealt with Kick and Stake. According to xQc if there is a clause on Nickmercs’ contract stating that he must gamble, it is because the streamer added it himself.
“Not only did he sign for Kick, he asked for a Stake deal, he got a Stake deal and he tries to say ‘oh guys, I’ve got to gamba, it’s part of the contract’ when it’s not…Nick has got to fix this s— up, ok. I don’t know what’s going on with Nick,” xQc said on stream while reacting to Nickmerc’s announcement.
Kick is not slowing down. The platform is trying to position itself as a direct competitor to top livestreaming platform Twitch and keeps signing major names to sizable, non-exclusive contracts. Kick offers a 95/5 revenue split which is attracting content creators and has also become the main landing spot for streamers punished by Twitch for posting problematic content. Nickmercs signing with the platform and promotion of cryptocurrency gambling sites came after anti-LGBT tweets where he expressed concern over the safety of children.
