Felix Lengyel, the streamer known as xQc, has signed a two-year deal worth $70 million with Twitch rival Kick, according to a New York Times report.

"Thanks to Kick, I can try things I couldn't do before," Lengyel said. I'm very excited to make the most of this opportunity and to generate new creativity and fresh ideas over the next few years."

xQc's agent, Ryan Morrison, told PC Gamer that he believes Streamer's deal with Kick is "one of the top 25 talent deals of all time, including sports." [xQc can continue streaming on other platforms, and in fact, he plans to maintain a presence on Twitch, though not as much as he has in the past.

In terms of audience size, Kick is much smaller than Twitch, but the rewards are much better: while Twitch takes a 50% cut from most streamers (recently adjusted to 30% from a few streamers with some limitations), Kick taking only 5%. It is also more permissive with respect to certain content: while Twitch has very strict guidelines for gambling streams, Kick has a category dedicated to it.

This is not entirely surprising: Kick's co-founder and CEO Ed Craven is also a co-founder of Stake.com, an online crypto-casino incorporated in Curacao. But in a twisted way, it is also a perfect venture for xQc, who is known for his love of gambling: in May 2022, he admitted to losing about $2 million in the previous month alone on an unfair bet, but a few weeks later he said he had no intention of changing his ways

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"I love to gamble," he said. I gamble because I love to gamble." End of story."

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In December 2022, former Twitch creative development director Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham called the kicks "fake." It may not work: the Mixer paid $50 million to keep Ninja off Twitch, but announced its closure less than a year later.

But at least for now, the deal is getting attention: just over an hour after announcing the existence of the kick, the platform's xQc authenticated channel already has over 50,000 followers.