ESL FACEIT Group announced Wednesday that it has entered into a partnership with live streaming platform Kick to run in-person activations for the DreamHack creator community at events in Melbourne, Australia; Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Stockholm, Sweden.
Financial terms of this new partnership were not disclosed.
According to the announcement, Kick will activate in-person and on-site at DreamHack tournaments beginning at the end of April, culminating in activities at the end of November in Stockholm. A “selection of Kick’s content creators” will take part in panel sessions, meet-and-greets, booth activations, and more, according to the announcement.
“We’ve designed this new partnership to help Kick create deeper connections with its community which transcend the online relationship, in order to help it build a better platform and environment so creators of the future can thrive,” said Shahin Zarrabi, VP – Festivals, ESL FACEIT Group.
DreamHack visits Melbourne from April 26 – 28, Dallas from May 31 – June 2, Atlanta from Oct. 4 – 6, and Stockholm from Nov. 22 – 24. More details on all upcoming DreamHack events can be found at dreamhack.com.
Kick.com is run under the company name Kick Streaming Pty Ltd, but is financially backed by gray-market gambling site Stake.com and its co-founders Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven. The site was founded in 2022 by Stake co-founders and content creator Trainwreckstv after Twitch began cracking down on creators engaging in gambling/slots on-stream. Stake holds a gambling license in Curacao, but is not legal in many jurisdictions where gambling and wagering are regulated.
DreamHack is a division of EFG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Savvy Games Group. Savvy Games Group is owned by the Saudi government. EFG also serves as the home to tournament organizer ESL and tournament platform FACEIT.