Arteezy was one of several big streamers who made the move to Kick in November, and now the Dota 2 community is voicing mixed feelings over the star’s shift. It isn’t just that his viewers seem to prefer Twitch drawing some ire, but also his pivot to broadcasting gambling.
It was recently reported by multiple big Kick streamers like xQc and NICKMERCS that they either get paid to gamble on stream or gambling is baked into their contract with the platform. While Kick isn’t directly operated by the Australian-Curaçaoan online casino Stake, where all of these streamers spend their gambling time, the content platform’s co-founder Ed Craven does own the gambling operation.
That information about streamers with sizable followings in key markets essentially being signed in part to gamble on Stake seems to hold up since Arteezy has recently spent 11 hours broadcasting in the Slots & Casinos section on Kick. That is just a fraction of his 124 hours streamed to Kick since announcing his deal, of which 111 hours have been spent playing Dota as he has quickly become one of the biggest broadcasters on the platform, according to Streams Charts.
Despite being near the top of Kick’s broadcasters in that time, Arteezy’s average of 2,386 and peak of 4,097 viewers pales in comparison to his 9,482 average and 17,939 peak viewership in just 25 hours on Twitch over the last 30 days. While that does show there is a large portion of his community that isn’t willing to make the jump to Kick when he is live, the bigger reaction seems to be mixed fan sentiment on his gambling.
Gambling has been a touchy subject in the streaming space for years, highlighted by Twitch banning traditional types of gambling from the platform and Kick putting a focus on that kind of content. Arteezy adopting it as part of his broadcasts has some viewers “disappointed” in his decision. “He always felt like the one who didn’t give a fuck about anything else than Dota” and is sad to see. “I think most realize that it’s a good financial move, it’s just disappointing to expose that gambling garbage to the fanbase that has supported him throughout his career,” Reddit user zcen said. It also doesn’t help that it looks like he, along with other big players like Cr1t- and zai are openly pushing some kind of NFT project on socials—though Arteezy did take his post down.
The NFT thing is being panned by consensus, but there are plenty of viewers who are shrugging their shoulders at the Stake streams and just chalking it up to Arteezy getting the bag while Dota goes through some changes for the upcoming season. Sure there are memes about Kick being his eventual retirement home, but some don’t see an issue with him legally earning a paycheck through this deal as long as he continues to advertise it as “18+ u will lose” because his viewer base is likely to skew older.
The reaction has probably been lessened by the normalization of betting sponsors in Dota over the last several years. Most top teams in the space, including the last five International winners—Team Spirit, Tundra Esports, and OG—are all being supported by a sponsor in the betting, crypto, or gambling scene. “Idk why people act like gambling crap in Dota isn’t normal when most teams are being sponsored by them or crypto,” Reddit user reidraws said. It also helps that Arteezy doesn’t just sit for hours at a time gambling but rather mostly spends some time at the start and end of streams playing after playing an average of around six hours of Dota.
There’s also the ongoing discussion of ethical dilemmas in esports regarding taking money from shady sponsors or events like the Riyadh Masters and other Saudi-backed tournaments, which some users were quick to point out had plenty of top Dota players and casters in attendance. Because there are no guidelines in place for what can and can’t be a sponsor in the scene, Dota teams and players can continue to toe the line based on their own decisions—whether fans agree with them or not.