Popular Twitch content creator Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt recently reacted to some viral Reddit posts suggesting that the gaming and live streaming platform Kick is “reserving spots” on the gambling-related streams’ recommended list. The association between the website and gambling has caused much controversy in the streaming community, with popular streamers such as xQc, HasanAbi, and Pokimane, having heated debates on gambling-related live streams.
Asmongold, who is a well-known content creator on Twitch, a leading live video content streaming platform and a major rival of Kick, has recently urged his fellow streamers to boycott the platform over the recent restrictions imposed on its branded content policy.
The 33-year-old streamer has also been quite open about Kick and his presence there. While streaming a reaction to Reddit comments on his channel, he came across a post that claimed that specific spots on the new live streaming platform, namely the third and the fifth, were reserved for gambling content. As Asmongold explained to his viewers, keeping “reserved spots” for gambling-related streams was something the platform was expected to do, because it was linked to the Stake.com crypto-gambling website. He described the decision to promote it as “smart” because, after all, this type of content is something that brings money to Kick.
At the time of the stream, Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt did not criticize the move and further noted that Amazon, which is the parent company of Twitch, has also partnership agreements with the online betting and DFS company DraftKings in place. According to him, denouncing Kick in such case would simply be hypocritical.
Twitch vs Kick Debate Still Ongoing, Amid Gambling Content Controversy
Asmongold has shared thoughts about a potential move to the Kick platform in the past, and has so far remained impartial in the Twitch vs Kick debate. As mentioned above, he dismissed any criticism of the new live video streaming platform, highlighting the fact that sports betting is more popular than slots and criticizing Kick would be a manifestation of hypocrisy.
As previously reported by CasinoGamesPro, there is a connection between Stake.com and the live streaming platform Kick, but the founders of both platforms, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, having claimed that the crypto-gambling casino has no impact on the streaming platform and the content displayed on it. Despite that, some popular streamers, such as Pokimane, have publicly objected to the recent deal inked between the company and another top Twitch streamer, Félix “xQc” Lengyel.
Some platforms, like Reddit, have seen users comment on the matter, suggesting that Kick may have been reserving certain spots on its recommended content list for gambling-related streams, and promoting gambling content and services to viewers. For the time being, however, these claims seem to be true, according to Kick website’s home page. As a quick check of the platform shows, the individual channels displayed on the platform’s home page may change, but the third and the fifth spots on the recommended content list are always gambling streams.
