The streamer Guy “DrDisrespect” Beahm was permanently banned from Twitch in 2020 and has since been streaming on YouTube without an exclusive contract. Now he hints that he would switch to Kick for $50 million. The CEO of Kick confirms that they are in talks with his team.
This is DrDisrespect’s situation:
- DrDisrespect is one of the most popular shooter streamers in the world. In his persona as “Al Bundy of Gaming“, mourning the former golden times, he is a big brand. But the 41-year-old streams on YouTube without the platform particularly supporting or paying him. This has frustrated DrDisrespect for years.
- DrDisrespect was banned from Twitch in June 2020. To this day, no one knows why. According to a popular theory, Twitch had given him a lucrative exclusive contract shortly before to prevent him from switching to Mixer, which was paying a lot of money for strong streamers at that time. After Microsoft dissolved the platform in June 2020, Twitch allegedly wanted to get out of the contract with DrDisrespect and thus banned him, according to the theory.
- The Doctor says that the Twitch ban cost him about 75% of his income, as many contacts in the gaming industry also disappeared with the Twitch ban.
This number he now mentions: On June 22, DrDisrespect tweeted “$50 million is my number.” The tweet went viral and has already been viewed 21 million times.
The tweet is seen as an offer to Kick that DrDisrespect would switch for $50 million, half of what xQc is said to have received. The Canadian had signed with the new streaming service shortly before.
CEO of Kick says: They are in talks with the team
This is what the CEO of Kick says: The CEO of Kick, Ed Craven, was directly asked about DrDisrespect in an interview on June 24.
I am personally a huge fan of DrDisrespect, for a long time, just like I am a fan of many streamers. I grew up with live streams, I have been a part of the community since I was in high school. The chances of collaborating with these guys are so damn cool. Doc is one of them.
Doc is someone we would love to collaborate with. We are talking to his team. We are talking to everyone.
He says they want to bring people over and give streamers what they are worth.
CEO of Kick is a billionaire at 27, also founded the online casino Stake
Who is the CEO of Kick? Edward Craven is an Australian billionaire. He founded an online gambling site in 2013 where people could bet with cryptocurrencies. Later he founded the companies Easygo and the online casino Stake.
Kick is now his latest project.
As the site Sportskeeda states:
- Stake is technically owned by a company based in Curaçao to circumvent Australia’s anti-money laundering regulations.
- Craven himself is an avid player of the MMORPG Runescape. Here he discovered his love for currencies and cryptocurrencies.
- Craven was declared the youngest billionaire in Australia.
How is this viewed? Apparently, Kick is interested in signing DrDisrespect – but not necessarily for $50 million.
Because ultimately, DrDisrespect’s situation, having been banned from Twitch and streaming on YouTube without a contract, puts him in a much worse negotiating position than xQc or Amouranth, who both had a functioning business model on Twitch.
Even the German streamer MontanaBlack said he does not believe that DrDisrespect is “worth that much money”.
It’s not so much about his viewer numbers or the quality of his streams, but the fact that DrDisrespect currently has no other option to cash in big besides Kick. Otherwise, he would have signed a big contract with YouTube or elsewhere in recent years.
