Eddie Craven talks Kick gambling content and viewbotting crackdown

Khizar Mundia Published 27/04/2026

Kick co-founder Eddie Craven discussed many things in a recent stream, with gambling incentives being stopped and action against viewbotting the two headline-grabbing revelations.

As soon as livestreaming platform Kick launched, it became famous for two things: its massive payout and the large influx of gambling creators. Many speculated that because the platform co-founders also jointly owned Stake Casino, it made sense. Now, Eddie Craven has revealed the surprising reason why Kick stopped encouraging gambling creators as well as massive action against viewbotters.

Eddie says gambling content was hurting Kick

This discussion happened on a stream with Jason “PirateSoftware” Thor Hall, which started with Eddie asking the streamer what made him start creating content on Kick. PirateSoftware mentioned reasons why he was avoiding Kick previously. The main reason he listed was gambling content and moderation. He claimed Kick was acting as a front for Stake and suggested the platform was allowing streamers to post copyrighted content.

He said once Kick started its partner program and PirateSoftware saw that gambling content would make the payout zero, he understood the platform was changing. The creator also said moderation became strict with streamers posting copyrighted content being banned. The last thing PirateSoftware mentioned for starting to stream on Kick was the platform’s staff treating both big and small creators with respect.

Image credit: Eddie Craven

Eddie acknowledged that people initially felt Kick was leaning heavily into gambling because the parent company, Stake, is a casino. He said if the platform wanted to encourage gambling, it would’ve “doubled or quadrupled KPP” for casino streamers. Instead, Eddie stated the KPP payout for gambling content is set to zero. The co-founder explained that this was because gambling content was beneficial for Stake, but was hurting Kick’s watch hours. Streamers took sponsorships and stopped streaming or became lazy because of the big money. Eddie revealed this is why Kick stopped incentivizing gambling content.

Eddie says Kick had massive breakthroughs on viewbotting

Elsewhere in the stream, PirateSoftware mentioned that solving the viewbotting problem is a massive issue, and he isn’t wrong, as both Kick and Twitch are trying to combat bots. Eddie replied that Kick “got really good wins on that front”. He said he won’t elaborate because he doesn’t want “to jinx it,” but Kick had seen “massive breakthroughs”.

The co-founder revealed that Kick was getting fewer complaints about bots now. PirateSoftware said viewbotting will always remain a problem, with the platform winning something and botters others. However, he praised Kick for improving, and Eddie agreed that fighting bots isn’t an easy task.

Feature image credit: Eddie Craven

Khizar Mundia

About Khizar Mundia

Khizar Mundia has been playing video games for as long as he can recall. Things have come a long way since the many days he spent playing the original NES, though. He now covers a variety of competitive games and esports, as well as the world of streaming, ranging from Twitch to Kick. If it’s of interest to gamers, it’s of interest to Khizar.

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