Have you heard the biggest streaming news this decade? Felix “xQc” Lengyel has just signed a record-breaking $100 million deal with live streaming platform Kick. According to the New York Times, the retired “Overwatch” pro turned live streamer signed a non-exclusive two-year “roughly $70 million contract, with incentives that could push the total to about $100 million.” That makes him one of the highest-paid entertainers in all media, commanding a yearly salary higher than those of sports superstars like Kevin Durant, Aaron Judge, and Mike Trout.
But things might be a little less awe-inspiring than the splashy headline suggests. Kick itself is backed by the Australian gaming site EasyGo and the crypto gambling site Stake. The new live-streaming site popped up around October 2022, just one month after Twitch changed its rules banning unregulated crypto gambling on the platform. Gambling is now popular on Kick, with its “Slot and Casino” section often having tens of thousands of viewers.
And Lengyel absolutely loves to gamble. …
