Rich Lister accused of encouraging ‘incredibly inappropriate’ behaviour
Ed Craven, the young Rich Lister and founder of one of the world’s biggest online casinos, Stake.com, has been accused of encouraging inappropriate behaviour towards a woman on his live-streaming platform, Kick.
Kick, which was only established in Melbourne last year, was founded by Craven and his business partner, Bijan Tehrani, and is the main competitor to Amazon’s Twitch.
Stake.com’s Ed Craven and American internet personality Paul Denino, known as “Ice Poseidon”.
The multibillion-dollar live-streaming industry boasts of tens of millions of users worldwide who upload videos or provide commentary as they play video games and go about their daily lives. It has attracted some 20 per cent of US teens to Twitch, Kick’s rival, according to Pew Research Centre. It has also created niche celebrities with avid fan bases.
Mr Craven’s Kick has sought to boost the platform’s popularity further by sponsoring the Alfa Romeo F1 Team and Everton Football Club.
In late September, Mr Craven met streamer Paul Denino, or “Ice Poseidon”, when he visited Australia. Famous for distasteful stunts and a fan base called the “Purple Army”, Mr Denino has hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Kick and his videos clock millions of views.
Mr Denino and two others live-streamed themselves on the Kick platform hiring an escort at an apartment in Brisbane in which they showed her face online. An account in Mr Craven’s name posted laughing emojis in the chat section of the stream while it took place.
Marcus Graham, a former top executive at Twitch and veteran live-streamer, described the behaviour as “incredibly inappropriate and incredibly unsafe”. “Those who can’t see what is wrong with it is the audience Kick is trying to go after,” he said.
Mr
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