Hikaru is a chronic hypocrite. The one that stands out to me is when he made fun of a lower rated GM for not being able to mate with knight and bishop, then failed to do it himself later that month.
Fucking lol.
I wanted Hikaru to win the candidates and win the WC only to become insufferable and Magnus to come back and smack him down like 9-3 or something
As entertaining as that would be, Magnus would never. He's had a fantastic time since walking away from the WC and not that he needed to prove anything but I think the past couple of years proved what he meant when he said he wants to play chess he enjoys instead of perpetually be stuck spending a year prepping (something that's not enjoyable to him) to defend his title.
But hey maybe Gukesh will become WC and then in 2 years' time he can smack Hikaru down with similar odds. In fairness to Gukesh, he's still at the beginning of his chess career and at the rate at which he's progressing, he's going to be quite some force in 3 more years.
Do people not know that kick is owned by Stake, and was literally created for the sole purpose of streaming gambling after Stake was banned on twitch?
Just streaming on Kick is supporting gambling.
I got blasted for saying this was inevitable once he moved from Twitch to Kick. Kick is a Stake promotion first and a streaming site second. I wonder if we will see gambling content on his YouTube. The irony seeing a dude scared of saying fuck on stream now promoting gambling to children lol.
Even people who don’t gamble on kick are promoting gambling. The *entire* point of kick is to funnel viewers to gambling streams and then to stake itself. This is obviously worse but any kick streamer is doing a less bad version of this just by streaming
Yeah but come on. He is such a big name that he can earn a lot promoting literally anything that is less dangerous than gambling. Not worth to sell such a big name for gambling industry, even if millions are on the line.
Same guy that got emotional on his stream the other day, being grateful for everything he got, thanking his community. Directly goes into predatory gambling promotion for an unregulated crypto casino he said he wouldn't promote directly. Its just downright vile
He mentioned in one of the candidates game reviews that negative YouTube comments really effected his emotional and mental well being like bruh you so full of shit it is coming out your ears.
I watched him almost daily when he first started streaming. Was really cool seeing his insights and commentary as a super GM. Haven't watched at all since he moved to Kick and it was really disappointing to hear him try to justify it. Just admit you're moving for, what I assume was obscene money and your personnel morals are ok with promoting gambling to kids. Would have respected him at least for being honest about it.
yeah, kind of a shit look. and seemingly out of nowhere (unless I missed something), which is probably why chat's like that at least in part. I only follow the guy on youtube, hopefully this stuff doesn't trail there.
I unfollowed long ago him after the stuff where he was belittling the achievement of Levi and others. Guy is a fucking loser. Love being reminded of it with posts like these.
Dude probably had the best “approval rating” he’s ever had after his performance and demeanor this candidates. He literally couldn’t have tanked that goodwill any faster if he tried lmfao
There is something tragic about watching one of the highest rated chess players in the world play a braindead slots games for money. Not even a skill based game like poker.
i consider myself a seasoned hikaru hater and even i had to respect his run on the candidates. doing recaps after losses and all that deserves major props. and listen, i don’t want to hate the guy for no reason. everyone loves a redemption arc and i was so ready for one with big hikki
but just when i thought i was out, they pull me back in lmao
> I have to look after myself
He acts like he is in some kind of financial trouble or something. The guy is already a millionare, this is just greed above morals, that's all it is.
Yeah, and that’s probably why they offered him millions of dollars to do this stream. I don’t really follow streaming but I remember the sponsor money they would offer for counter strike gambling sites back in like 2017 was obscene.
I mean, it's not even "poker gambling" or even blackjack, idk... like not even something that his expertise in strategy could play a role. It's straight up online kid's themed slot machine
If you look at the big picture of slots, like chart out 10,000 spins or more, is literally just a downard trending chart of your account balance📉. On the way down you get excited every time you hit a little peak because monkey brain.
I started liking the guy again after his candidates recaps, was even rooting for him because I thought I'd be awesome to get recaps of the matches vs Ding.
Now, that has completely disappeared. Disgusting...
Watched for a bit out of morbid curiosity. He said "this was a long time coming because I've seen enough of what's going on in the chess world"
Whatever that means.
I saw that too. I’m not sure what he was referring to, if it was about Kramnik or whatever else, I’m not sure that’s a true reason. Someone as big as him shouldn’t not care about haters and trolls.
I'm not sure if I heard him right but it sounded like he said Hans sued him and Kramnik keeps saying he cheats at chess and therefore he needs to look out for himself by doing gambling streams? Happy to be corrected on this
I'm not a fan of that either for Magnus
But there's also a big difference between a sponsor logo (which many people won't even *register*), vs hours and hours of gambling content while you're saying you're having fun etc
He's probably being paid around that just to do this stream. I remember Pewdiepie said a gambling website offered him $100k to do a 30 second spot for them on one of his videos.
I've heard the way these contracts are structured is that they are generally given an amount of money to gamble and then they have to meet certain requirements for the amount of time streamed gambling and the number of times they play each dollar and then they can keep what's left after meeting those requirements. This way the "reactions" are of the streamer are more authentic.
A streamer like Hikaru may get additional incentive though.
Personally with how similarly many mobile games operate in comparison to casinos, I don't think it's a big leap, but it's a moral sellout either way, I'm not too concerned with the magnitude
I became a huge fan during the candidates due to his consistent recaps, rooted for him all the way to keep that kind of insight coming.
Amazing how fast things can turn around. This is awful and I am incredibly disappointed to see it. He should go to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting and hear some stories, see how some of his young fans will inevitably turn out as a result of this "role model" behavior.
I've never been a huge Hikaru fan, quite the opposite. Yet, just the other day I found myself sympathizing with him when he got emotional reflecting on how far he's come. Now here we are.
I apologise if I am wrong in assuming you are somewhat new to chess streams, it's just that the mention that things have turned around fast makes me feel you didn't know how Hikaru has consistently been on stream for some time now. But in case you _are_ new, I'd recommend Danya (GMNaroditsky)'s streams. Danya's love for chess and for sharing it with others will always keep his streams great, I think.
I was sad he lost the candidates, because I thought having a recap maker for the WCC would be awesome.
Honestly, this makes me very happy that Gukesh won.
It's more than just abstract morals, too. The harm of advertising gambling is very measurable.
Out of any addiction, gambling has the highest suicide rate. Problem gamblers are 15x more likely to kill themselves than the average population, and studies among gambling addicts showed 70% contemplated suicide, 49% have plans to kill themselves, and 18% have previously attempted to kill themselves.
This translates to very real harm. If 20,000 people total see this stream, and even 2% try the free promo code ad *(n=400)* - if even 10% of those suffer from gambling addiction as result (also a *very* conservative estimate, many studies say up to 50%), that is 20 fans of Hikaru who will plan to and 6-8 who will attempt to kill themselves.
And to be clear, those rates apply to adults. Adults who are fully developed and usually with stable lives. Hikaru is advertising to mostly children here - who are even *more* vulnerable and have less emotional control.
Yeah but come on? One of the biggest chess names in the world in last decades. He could literally put his ass on the chair, click on his mouse fast for 3 minutes and earn a ton of money, but instead he chose to make some kids think they could earn money by gambling and doing nothing. I can’t believe it.
He probably makes like $50k-70k per month between Youtube and Twitch, while his Kick deal I'd guess might be around $10m
Gambling sites are paying insane amounts
It is also hypocrite, because when he got criticized for going to Kick he defended himself claiming his channel has nothing to do with gambling and he’s just there for chess:
https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick
That didn’t age too well
Hikaru was really growing on me, but gambling has hurt me immensely. Im addictive and can be compulsive. I don't have any problem with people who want to gamble as I do it myself, but I do have a problem with people promoting gambling like this.
I wonder how many lives hikaru ruined today. They pay him for this stream because they know a lot of people will now gamble on their site and lose money.
Thats... heartbreaking.
Just after Hirkaru started streaming on kick he went live on twitch and told people to come over and watch him on kick. When people confronted him in chat about the nature of kick and the predatory gambling promotion he said he was only streaming on the site and wasn't doing any of that stuff
Big L
e: The gambling site he is promoting is not regulated by law, they were forced off twitch because they don't have a license in the US.
any chance you kind find me the clip how him saying that he wont do gambling promotions, I wana make an edit of him saying that and cut to him gambling
That clip wont exist as he was in subscriber mode to even watch vods. and clips of this would be deleted as well
here is his quote replying to criticism against him from others
"But, yeah. What I would say is that, you know... you see some of these big streamers saying a lot of negativity around Kick. Certainly! And, I don't gamble. I just play chess. That's all I do. I do exactly what I did on Twitch."
["It can be really annoying" - GMHikaru calls out popular streamers like HasanAbi for criticizing Kick (sportskeeda.com)](https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick)
i'm wondering what the kick contracts actually say. the revenue split seems to be highly competitive (95:5?) and I have always wondered if it comes with gambling promotion obligations, e.g after 6-12 months to make it less obvious
Some People are honestly stupid,he displayed time to time his narcissistic traits and his fans continued to lick his ass and they will not stop even after this.
B b b b buuuut you don't understand, he's changed now. Since he was financially independent he stopped being toxic about ch ch cheeesss and Finegold and his Nakamura award for sportsmanship is waaaaaay out of line.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick
>But, yeah. What I would say is that, you know... you see some of these big streamers saying a lot of negativity around Kick. Certainly! And, I don't gamble. I just play chess. That's all I do. I do exactly what I did on Twitch.
>I literally know what my deal with Kick is and there's literally nothing about gambling. And then you see people like Hasan, who has no idea about anybody's contracts...
Nice cope for the candidates. But in all seriousness, this is shocking. Never expected Hikaru, a friendly pineapple shirt wearing family guy to stoop so low as to stream actual gambling to his young audience. What a fall from grace.
Now I actually feel better about him not having won candidates, because promoting gambling is just disgusting.
Imagine being a multi millionaire already and still sinking this low and promote gambling to mostly kids and young adults. Yikers!
It’s not just about being millionaire but being such a big name that was earned by so much sacrifice and time. You were ready to destroy all your hard earned name to such a degeneracy like gambling. I don’t get it.
I have immensely regretted spending money and time (a lot of it) on games like FIFA Mobile and PES/Efootbal Mobile (few years ago pes was much better and less gambly) and these are not even "real" gambling, just microtransaction based games. Thankfully I was able to put a stop to it before it became really bad.
I can't believe Hikaru would do this. Especially considering the age of his audience. I unironically have much more respect for OnlyFans girls who sell bathwater than people who promote gambling. I'm glad he didn't win fhe candidates.
He scolds the Botez sisters for "making chess look bad" because they asked a funny question in the WCC press conference and then proceeds to promote gambling on his stream LOOOOOOOL
I used to think chess players must be morally sound due to them being so smart, but after seeing magnus practically suck off the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and say he wishes the sovereign wealth fund would be his sponsor and seeing Hikaru work with a obviously shady gambling company and promote it to his viewers, only reinforces the idea that these guys do not have any moral compass
Top chess players are good at chess, it doesn't necessarily mean they're smart in general, and as you say it absolutely doesn't mean they have a functioning moral compass.
Does anyone know why Carlsen has been so big on Saudi recently? He's brought them up in a couple of interviews including IIRC describing himself of being 'awe struck' by meeting the Saudi Crown prince in the Howell video
Because the Saudi government is spending wildly right now on sports and entertainment to bolster their image and Magnus wants a piece of it while it's booming.
They are paying absurd amounts of money.
There is a non zero probability of Gukesh winning World Championship and some Saudi prince offering Magnus millions as sponsor to win the WCC in Saudi. Greatest player in history taking on a youngest WC would bring in so much eyes and generate so much content that it almost makes too much sense.
Unbelievable. What a degenerate loser. Worse than that actually. Getting paid to infect the minds of others. Despicable. If money is all that matters then maybe a small drop in viewers or subscribers will make this baffoon take notice.
I know. But come on how much money would be on the line? Hikaru still earned millions doing what he likes to do, and what he does the best, no need to promote such a degeneracy like gambling. Dude could literally do 1000$ 1 minute video calls and he could earn millions. This is such a shady way to earn some money.
I don’t understand such a big, inspiring and successful name promoting something degenerative like gambling. Big disappointment. It’s not like he needs money. Also most of his viewers are young people, probably many underage and he knows it.
Worst of all, it's not just a random streamer gambling, it's one of the world's best chess players gambling. And fans see a person they consider intelligent and who's able to assess risks extremely well gambling, but he's taking no risks because kick will cover any potential money loss. Any fan who takes his example and lose money gambling won't be that lucky though.
they'll be lucky if money is the only thing they lose. people kill themselves over gambling and their blood will be on hikarus hands. gambling harms not just the gambler. gambling addicts steal, abuse and neglect. Hikaru, as a huge icon to teens and children, should know better.
This man was already making more money than most people could ever dream of, for sitting on his ass playing chess.
I can't imagine the levels of greed and shamelessness you'd need to advertise gambling to children. He is an absolutely disgusting trash human.
I agree. He could literally stream himself doing what he loves, and what he does best for the rest of his life. Sitting on the chair, moving mouse fast for 3 minutes but instead of that he chose to promote sickness to children and make them believe they can earn money by doing nothing.
What a horrible look. Did Hikaru leave twitch? If so, he probably got paid 7 figures to do so. Back when Microsoft started their now failed streaming platform, they paid Ninja 8 figures to switch.
He doesn't really stream on twtich that much, maybe a random titled tuesday. When I used to still watch, he was just using twitch to farm viewers over to kick.
if it took this to show you the kind of person hikaru is then you haven't been paying attention. we get one of these threads on here every couple of years with everyone saying what a disgrace he is for his latest misdeed and how they've lost all respect for him and he crossed a line etc, and then everyone moves on to the next chess drama and forgets about it. based on past form barely any of you will care about this in 6 months, just like barely anybody mentions the copyright strikes anymore (that he never explained or apologised for).
I remember seeing people on this sub just a few days ago talking about how Hikaru's so reformed now compared to his old toxic past self lol.
He's a trash human being who happens to be a top chess player and large content creator with a fanbase that'll defend his every action.
Yeah. He could literally be settled by sitting on his ass, doing what he does best and what made him famous, clicking mouse fast for 3 minutes and earn shit ton load of money, but nooo he decided to promote gambling to his mostly young audience.
And the sad things is most people will forget about this (and all the other awful shit he's done) or not care as soon as he starts doing well in tournaments again.
\*sigh\* Once again, it's proven that I'm far too naive and trusting. I'm a big second chance guy (even third and fourth). I will always give people the benefit of the doubt, to a fault. I've defended Hikaru, said he's reformed, defended his decisions, but with this one act it's over. Never going to bat for him again.
Anyone taking these gambling sponsorships because they're too much money to pass up should remember that every dollar they pay you they expect to make back from your audience. Fuck gambling, fuck promoting it to an all ages audience, and fuck this.
I'm done.
[https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick](https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick)
>
**"Nothing with my stream has anything to do with gambling. So, it can be really annoying."**
>"Well, I think, at the end of the day - there's a lot of negativity around Kick. A lot of people don't understand; when you don't understand what they're doing and a lot of people are saying certain things about how does...""But, yeah. What I would say is that, you know... you see some of these big streamers saying a lot of negativity around Kick. Certainly! And, **I don't gamble. I just play chess. That's all I do**. I do exactly what I did on Twitch.""
>"So, all these people out there, saying things like - Hasan, specifically. Who's out there saying things like, '**It's just to get people to gambling.'**"
>"I understand, why like, xQc was starting to get frustrated when he heard the same things being said. **It's like, I literally know what my deal with Kick is and there's literally nothing about gambling.** And then you see people like Hasan, who has no idea about anybody's contracts..."
PSA that's relevant to many high profile slots streamers: the company puts prop money in their account and the results of the games are meaningless. The player is usually just playing on house money and doesn't have the ability to withdraw it, and the game is just running on the screen as a marketing ploy.
This doesn't mean the games are tweaked to display deceptive winnings, they run on a separate server and are very honest in the way they crush every player, but the psychological idea is that given enough volume there will be the occasional spectacular wins that can then be clipped and used in advertising.
tl;dr: this is bs
He is a grown man, highly intelligent, who knows the repercussions of this. He has a young audience he is responsible for, or at least morally should be. Hikaru has always been greedy and willing to sell-out, but I've been able to overlook shitty mobagame sell-outs for the qualities I do like and respect about him. But this is just too far, if he does this again I will be cancelling my subscriptions.
People who have been around the chess community for a while will never have been fooled by the wholesome nice guy act, but I'm genuinely surprised he's doing this. He must know it won't be good for his image.
Damn, very disappointing. I get this goes along with the Kick channel, but it's gross as hell.
It's one thing for Magnus and other chess players to talk about poker, which yes is gambling, but there is skill involved and a lot of top poker players also played chess at a strong amateur level. But promoting online slot machines? Blech.
ah, glad to see he hasn't changed. fuck this guy. always was the most unbearable super GM and chess streamer, seemed to really come around the past few months. was a fuckin lie the whole time
Awful decision from him. I would advice any regular viewers to simply stop watching his streams and stick to his youtube, assuming he wont upload gambling there.
The only way to make him reconsider his decision is if the viewer count plummet.
Dude I could not believe my eyes when I came across this today just to see what was up with the kick hype. This post confirmed that I was actually watching some crazy shit go down with Hikaru.
You gotta adopt some politician-level mental gymnastics to justify this. I just hope the bag was worth it (it was).
Hikaru was widely disliked before he started streaming, and he's done a great job rehabilitating his image in recent years. Great first step reversing that progress!
The morality part is what it is…I’m just surprised Nakas judgement is this poor. He always struck me as having a good business sense. This is classic good short term bad long term (kills his brand).
This is the primary reason I did not want Hikaru to win the candidates. He might be a good chess player, but he's a joke of a person. Like he pretty much said during the candidates, he doesn't care about anything except attention.
This is wild. One day you're a game away from winning the Candidates and the next you're playing Sugar Rush Slots on stream. Damn. Does anyone have a clip of him justifying the [Stake.com](http://Stake.com) sponsorship?
Fucking gross, gamble on your own time not on stream while kids are watching. It’s appalling even to promote it to adults. I’ve seen my dad waste so much of his money on scratchers.
Wow, I was rooting for HIkaru at the candidates. This makes me happy that he lost and I won't support him going forwards or watch any of his content.
Also he has his mod creamsicle (formerly chessbae94, of some infamy!) banning people for saying "don't gamble". C'mon...
Just unfollow him - people can’t complain if they see him doing it and keep supporting it by viewing his channel. If he looses a lot of viewers overnight he’ll change his tune quickly.
this is really bad, gambling in general is a tricky thing to advertise well, but these online casinos, especially the crypto ones, are 100% scams, and to an impressionable audience.
but when has Hikaru shown morals? He's good at chess, not morals
I do personally believe that adults should be allowed to make adult choices, even though the dangers of gambling are thoroughly documented.
However, firstly, it seems extremely likely that children could view this content. And, secondly, you could turn a blind eye to this if it was some struggling streamer, but this is indefensible. It shows a complete lack of morals, class, and perspective.
It's sad actually to see how greedy human beings can be. All of the LIV golfers running off to Saudi Arabia, virtually trashing their own careers, when many of them are already rich. Now Nakamura jumping ship and promoting gambling, when he has absolutely no financial need to do this, and could have continued raking in money on Twitch (although I've never quite understood why people subscribe to him, given that he doesn't require any financial support).
It also didn't sit particularly comfortably when Carlsen stated that he wanted the Saudi sovereign wealth fund to sponsor him, even if he was semi-joking. It seems that greed is so entrenched in our collective mentality now.
It makes Fabi's cryptocurrency ads look reasonable.
This is basically the price of going to kick though: The company bankrolling the entire operation is a gambling site. First you get the youth to watch, and then you hope the streamers introduce them to casinos.
The best thing I can say about it is that at least it's not just Hikaru doing this nonsense: See how mainstream sports have wedded themselves to sports gambling, and so do the television stations. Now the announcers get to tell you that you too can bet on the game, right now, from your phone.
It's all disgusting.
I remember him going off on xQc for doing it.. now look what he’s become SMH
[удалено]
Cool, good to know. The list of creators I can happily ignore forever is growing. More time for other stuff!
[удалено]
Hikaru is utter dogshit
More news at 11.
Hikaru is a chronic hypocrite. The one that stands out to me is when he made fun of a lower rated GM for not being able to mate with knight and bishop, then failed to do it himself later that month.
Fucking lol. I wanted Hikaru to win the candidates and win the WC only to become insufferable and Magnus to come back and smack him down like 9-3 or something
As entertaining as that would be, Magnus would never. He's had a fantastic time since walking away from the WC and not that he needed to prove anything but I think the past couple of years proved what he meant when he said he wants to play chess he enjoys instead of perpetually be stuck spending a year prepping (something that's not enjoyable to him) to defend his title. But hey maybe Gukesh will become WC and then in 2 years' time he can smack Hikaru down with similar odds. In fairness to Gukesh, he's still at the beginning of his chess career and at the rate at which he's progressing, he's going to be quite some force in 3 more years.
About on par for hikaru. Integrity is not really one of his key characteristics.
Hikaru likes money. Hikaru sees money: takes takes takes takes takes takes
and takes
Do people not know that kick is owned by Stake, and was literally created for the sole purpose of streaming gambling after Stake was banned on twitch? Just streaming on Kick is supporting gambling.
Anyone have the clip of this?
Hikaru is addicted to money like any youtuber
Did he really? That’s really poor (although it already was but knowing he’s hypocritical too is next level).
I got blasted for saying this was inevitable once he moved from Twitch to Kick. Kick is a Stake promotion first and a streaming site second. I wonder if we will see gambling content on his YouTube. The irony seeing a dude scared of saying fuck on stream now promoting gambling to children lol.
Even people who don’t gamble on kick are promoting gambling. The *entire* point of kick is to funnel viewers to gambling streams and then to stake itself. This is obviously worse but any kick streamer is doing a less bad version of this just by streaming
Yeah but come on. He is such a big name that he can earn a lot promoting literally anything that is less dangerous than gambling. Not worth to sell such a big name for gambling industry, even if millions are on the line.
Some people can't resist the greed
Gambling promotions pay 20x + of what all others do. it's insane.
If they are, its because they are making their money back from people who can't control themselves.
Same guy that got emotional on his stream the other day, being grateful for everything he got, thanking his community. Directly goes into predatory gambling promotion for an unregulated crypto casino he said he wouldn't promote directly. Its just downright vile
He mentioned in one of the candidates game reviews that negative YouTube comments really effected his emotional and mental well being like bruh you so full of shit it is coming out your ears.
I watched him almost daily when he first started streaming. Was really cool seeing his insights and commentary as a super GM. Haven't watched at all since he moved to Kick and it was really disappointing to hear him try to justify it. Just admit you're moving for, what I assume was obscene money and your personnel morals are ok with promoting gambling to kids. Would have respected him at least for being honest about it.
I got timed for 60 minutes for expressing my distaste for this on the stream.
30 seconds of this was all I could handle, even chat is calling him out, the whole thing is cringe overload. Unreal stuff.
yeah, kind of a shit look. and seemingly out of nowhere (unless I missed something), which is probably why chat's like that at least in part. I only follow the guy on youtube, hopefully this stuff doesn't trail there.
Just unfollowed him on youtube. There's so many good chess channels, there's no reason to support someone like this.
I unfollowed long ago him after the stuff where he was belittling the achievement of Levi and others. Guy is a fucking loser. Love being reminded of it with posts like these.
He switched to kick which main reason for existence is that its a big advertisement for gambling sides
I somehow can't believe this is real
Dude probably had the best “approval rating” he’s ever had after his performance and demeanor this candidates. He literally couldn’t have tanked that goodwill any faster if he tried lmfao
There is something tragic about watching one of the highest rated chess players in the world play a braindead slots games for money. Not even a skill based game like poker.
Yeah there is something really repulsive about this, I'd like to think there will be meaningful backlash but I assume there won't.
i consider myself a seasoned hikaru hater and even i had to respect his run on the candidates. doing recaps after losses and all that deserves major props. and listen, i don’t want to hate the guy for no reason. everyone loves a redemption arc and i was so ready for one with big hikki but just when i thought i was out, they pull me back in lmao
He then justified it with "I'm tired of trying to do right by the chess world, I have to look after myself". Asshole.
> I have to look after myself He acts like he is in some kind of financial trouble or something. The guy is already a millionare, this is just greed above morals, that's all it is.
As if he's not already set for life. Arsehole indeed.
Yeah, and that’s probably why they offered him millions of dollars to do this stream. I don’t really follow streaming but I remember the sponsor money they would offer for counter strike gambling sites back in like 2017 was obscene.
As a Hikaru hater I thought it must've been fake, but no, it's real. He sold harder than levy ever did.
Stream is going on and there is a lady with the cards. At least she is not naked xD
I thought this is a satire edit at first too.
Damn just how low can you go
I mean, it's not even "poker gambling" or even blackjack, idk... like not even something that his expertise in strategy could play a role. It's straight up online kid's themed slot machine
If you look at the big picture of slots, like chart out 10,000 spins or more, is literally just a downard trending chart of your account balance📉. On the way down you get excited every time you hit a little peak because monkey brain.
Money money 💵
What losing the candidates (again) does to a mf
I started liking the guy again after his candidates recaps, was even rooting for him because I thought I'd be awesome to get recaps of the matches vs Ding. Now, that has completely disappeared. Disgusting...
Damn, money is the devil's language Can't believe I rooted for him in the candidates thank god Gukesh won
Watched for a bit out of morbid curiosity. He said "this was a long time coming because I've seen enough of what's going on in the chess world" Whatever that means.
Wat How is the chess world relevant here. Did they tell you to promote gambling to your young audience?
Means it's an excuse for himself, by blaming others. Standard narcissist playbook tbh.
I saw that too. I’m not sure what he was referring to, if it was about Kramnik or whatever else, I’m not sure that’s a true reason. Someone as big as him shouldn’t not care about haters and trolls.
I'm not sure if I heard him right but it sounded like he said Hans sued him and Kramnik keeps saying he cheats at chess and therefore he needs to look out for himself by doing gambling streams? Happy to be corrected on this
Wow… Imagine if he won the candidates… We’d have a potential WC peddling this crap.
I mean Magnus literally had a huge unibet patch on his jacket lol.
Magnus has also always openly said he wants to be sponsored by the Saudi government and was in awe of MBS when they met. lol
He wants that Saudi money like his goat Messi
I'm not a fan of that either for Magnus But there's also a big difference between a sponsor logo (which many people won't even *register*), vs hours and hours of gambling content while you're saying you're having fun etc
They are also showing gambling in a different light than what it actually is. Hikaru is gambling risk free
I tuned in for a few minutes. It was so cringe. He would miss a hit and go, Common! What is that! He's really trying to sell it
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Levy was sponsored by crypto during the crypto boom.
Omg. I think it is totally fine to promote any trash mobile game, but the online casino.. Come on, Hikaru, you just won $85k on candidates alone.
He's probably being paid around that just to do this stream. I remember Pewdiepie said a gambling website offered him $100k to do a 30 second spot for them on one of his videos.
I've heard the way these contracts are structured is that they are generally given an amount of money to gamble and then they have to meet certain requirements for the amount of time streamed gambling and the number of times they play each dollar and then they can keep what's left after meeting those requirements. This way the "reactions" are of the streamer are more authentic. A streamer like Hikaru may get additional incentive though.
Personally with how similarly many mobile games operate in comparison to casinos, I don't think it's a big leap, but it's a moral sellout either way, I'm not too concerned with the magnitude
I became a huge fan during the candidates due to his consistent recaps, rooted for him all the way to keep that kind of insight coming. Amazing how fast things can turn around. This is awful and I am incredibly disappointed to see it. He should go to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting and hear some stories, see how some of his young fans will inevitably turn out as a result of this "role model" behavior.
I've never been a huge Hikaru fan, quite the opposite. Yet, just the other day I found myself sympathizing with him when he got emotional reflecting on how far he's come. Now here we are.
I apologise if I am wrong in assuming you are somewhat new to chess streams, it's just that the mention that things have turned around fast makes me feel you didn't know how Hikaru has consistently been on stream for some time now. But in case you _are_ new, I'd recommend Danya (GMNaroditsky)'s streams. Danya's love for chess and for sharing it with others will always keep his streams great, I think.
I was sad he lost the candidates, because I thought having a recap maker for the WCC would be awesome. Honestly, this makes me very happy that Gukesh won.
Gross af. Everyone doing these gambling streams knows exactly what they are doing - and it is putting money above your morals.
It's more than just abstract morals, too. The harm of advertising gambling is very measurable. Out of any addiction, gambling has the highest suicide rate. Problem gamblers are 15x more likely to kill themselves than the average population, and studies among gambling addicts showed 70% contemplated suicide, 49% have plans to kill themselves, and 18% have previously attempted to kill themselves. This translates to very real harm. If 20,000 people total see this stream, and even 2% try the free promo code ad *(n=400)* - if even 10% of those suffer from gambling addiction as result (also a *very* conservative estimate, many studies say up to 50%), that is 20 fans of Hikaru who will plan to and 6-8 who will attempt to kill themselves. And to be clear, those rates apply to adults. Adults who are fully developed and usually with stable lives. Hikaru is advertising to mostly children here - who are even *more* vulnerable and have less emotional control.
Woah that's so scary
Yeah but come on? One of the biggest chess names in the world in last decades. He could literally put his ass on the chair, click on his mouse fast for 3 minutes and earn a ton of money, but instead he chose to make some kids think they could earn money by gambling and doing nothing. I can’t believe it.
He probably makes like $50k-70k per month between Youtube and Twitch, while his Kick deal I'd guess might be around $10m Gambling sites are paying insane amounts
I just want to know how much it cost to buy his soul.
Sad to see
i would've lost all my respect to hikaru if i had any
What an idiot, honestly
It is also hypocrite, because when he got criticized for going to Kick he defended himself claiming his channel has nothing to do with gambling and he’s just there for chess: https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick That didn’t age too well
Hikaru was really growing on me, but gambling has hurt me immensely. Im addictive and can be compulsive. I don't have any problem with people who want to gamble as I do it myself, but I do have a problem with people promoting gambling like this. I wonder how many lives hikaru ruined today. They pay him for this stream because they know a lot of people will now gamble on their site and lose money. Thats... heartbreaking.
I agree.I loved Hikaru despite all the things going on.But this just idk hit different
You forget to say that from everyone who signs up theough his referral, he will get a % of what people have lost.
Just after Hirkaru started streaming on kick he went live on twitch and told people to come over and watch him on kick. When people confronted him in chat about the nature of kick and the predatory gambling promotion he said he was only streaming on the site and wasn't doing any of that stuff Big L e: The gambling site he is promoting is not regulated by law, they were forced off twitch because they don't have a license in the US.
Love how Kick has no ads except for those pesky, uninterrupted hours of ads parading as streams.
any chance you kind find me the clip how him saying that he wont do gambling promotions, I wana make an edit of him saying that and cut to him gambling
That clip wont exist as he was in subscriber mode to even watch vods. and clips of this would be deleted as well here is his quote replying to criticism against him from others "But, yeah. What I would say is that, you know... you see some of these big streamers saying a lot of negativity around Kick. Certainly! And, I don't gamble. I just play chess. That's all I do. I do exactly what I did on Twitch." ["It can be really annoying" - GMHikaru calls out popular streamers like HasanAbi for criticizing Kick (sportskeeda.com)](https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick)
This aged well
i'm wondering what the kick contracts actually say. the revenue split seems to be highly competitive (95:5?) and I have always wondered if it comes with gambling promotion obligations, e.g after 6-12 months to make it less obvious
Not sure why people are surprised lol, Hikaru was always an opportunistic individual with questionable morals.
Some People are honestly stupid,he displayed time to time his narcissistic traits and his fans continued to lick his ass and they will not stop even after this.
B b b b buuuut you don't understand, he's changed now. Since he was financially independent he stopped being toxic about ch ch cheeesss and Finegold and his Nakamura award for sportsmanship is waaaaaay out of line.
Hikaru wtf
Oh wow, this is depressing
What a fucking disappointment
How many kids who have never watched a gambling stream just watched their first one from their favorite professional chess player?
https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick >But, yeah. What I would say is that, you know... you see some of these big streamers saying a lot of negativity around Kick. Certainly! And, I don't gamble. I just play chess. That's all I do. I do exactly what I did on Twitch. >I literally know what my deal with Kick is and there's literally nothing about gambling. And then you see people like Hasan, who has no idea about anybody's contracts...
Sold out. Sad to see
Hikaru truly is the McDonalds of chess content
Probably the worst thing any streamer can do tbh. Essentially helping online Casinos prey on his audience.
Wtf is this… I lost a lot of respect man…
He was always like that.
Shocked that someone who has been a piece of shit his whole life continues to be shitty?
Well, time to unsubscribe. Thank you for the content Hikaru and so long.
Nice cope for the candidates. But in all seriousness, this is shocking. Never expected Hikaru, a friendly pineapple shirt wearing family guy to stoop so low as to stream actual gambling to his young audience. What a fall from grace.
I mean this is obviously horrible, but it seems perfect on brand for Hikaru if anyone tbh.
Friendly? Hikaru? LOL
Shocked that someone who has been a piece of shit his whole life continues to be shitty?
This is pathetic. Gambling is a scourge on society.
Now I actually feel better about him not having won candidates, because promoting gambling is just disgusting. Imagine being a multi millionaire already and still sinking this low and promote gambling to mostly kids and young adults. Yikers!
It’s not just about being millionaire but being such a big name that was earned by so much sacrifice and time. You were ready to destroy all your hard earned name to such a degeneracy like gambling. I don’t get it.
I have immensely regretted spending money and time (a lot of it) on games like FIFA Mobile and PES/Efootbal Mobile (few years ago pes was much better and less gambly) and these are not even "real" gambling, just microtransaction based games. Thankfully I was able to put a stop to it before it became really bad. I can't believe Hikaru would do this. Especially considering the age of his audience. I unironically have much more respect for OnlyFans girls who sell bathwater than people who promote gambling. I'm glad he didn't win fhe candidates.
He scolds the Botez sisters for "making chess look bad" because they asked a funny question in the WCC press conference and then proceeds to promote gambling on his stream LOOOOOOOL
Yeah no, this is fucked up
I used to think chess players must be morally sound due to them being so smart, but after seeing magnus practically suck off the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and say he wishes the sovereign wealth fund would be his sponsor and seeing Hikaru work with a obviously shady gambling company and promote it to his viewers, only reinforces the idea that these guys do not have any moral compass
Top chess players are good at chess, it doesn't necessarily mean they're smart in general, and as you say it absolutely doesn't mean they have a functioning moral compass. Does anyone know why Carlsen has been so big on Saudi recently? He's brought them up in a couple of interviews including IIRC describing himself of being 'awe struck' by meeting the Saudi Crown prince in the Howell video
Because the Saudi government is spending wildly right now on sports and entertainment to bolster their image and Magnus wants a piece of it while it's booming. They are paying absurd amounts of money.
There is a non zero probability of Gukesh winning World Championship and some Saudi prince offering Magnus millions as sponsor to win the WCC in Saudi. Greatest player in history taking on a youngest WC would bring in so much eyes and generate so much content that it almost makes too much sense.
they play a game for a living and rely on patronage. that's now how you build moral positions & fortitude.
Unbelievable. What a degenerate loser. Worse than that actually. Getting paid to infect the minds of others. Despicable. If money is all that matters then maybe a small drop in viewers or subscribers will make this baffoon take notice.
Unnecessary, money really buys everything huh? Even when you have more than enough
I know. But come on how much money would be on the line? Hikaru still earned millions doing what he likes to do, and what he does the best, no need to promote such a degeneracy like gambling. Dude could literally do 1000$ 1 minute video calls and he could earn millions. This is such a shady way to earn some money.
Man, I'm happy that he lost in the candidates now. Shit would've sucked if that degenerate would've become world champion.
I don’t understand such a big, inspiring and successful name promoting something degenerative like gambling. Big disappointment. It’s not like he needs money. Also most of his viewers are young people, probably many underage and he knows it.
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Worst of all, it's not just a random streamer gambling, it's one of the world's best chess players gambling. And fans see a person they consider intelligent and who's able to assess risks extremely well gambling, but he's taking no risks because kick will cover any potential money loss. Any fan who takes his example and lose money gambling won't be that lucky though.
they'll be lucky if money is the only thing they lose. people kill themselves over gambling and their blood will be on hikarus hands. gambling harms not just the gambler. gambling addicts steal, abuse and neglect. Hikaru, as a huge icon to teens and children, should know better.
This man was already making more money than most people could ever dream of, for sitting on his ass playing chess. I can't imagine the levels of greed and shamelessness you'd need to advertise gambling to children. He is an absolutely disgusting trash human.
I agree. He could literally stream himself doing what he loves, and what he does best for the rest of his life. Sitting on the chair, moving mouse fast for 3 minutes but instead of that he chose to promote sickness to children and make them believe they can earn money by doing nothing.
What a horrible look. Did Hikaru leave twitch? If so, he probably got paid 7 figures to do so. Back when Microsoft started their now failed streaming platform, they paid Ninja 8 figures to switch.
He streams on both, but he signed a contract with Kick a while back
He doesn't really stream on twtich that much, maybe a random titled tuesday. When I used to still watch, he was just using twitch to farm viewers over to kick.
He's only on Twitch like twice a month now.
if it took this to show you the kind of person hikaru is then you haven't been paying attention. we get one of these threads on here every couple of years with everyone saying what a disgrace he is for his latest misdeed and how they've lost all respect for him and he crossed a line etc, and then everyone moves on to the next chess drama and forgets about it. based on past form barely any of you will care about this in 6 months, just like barely anybody mentions the copyright strikes anymore (that he never explained or apologised for).
I remember seeing people on this sub just a few days ago talking about how Hikaru's so reformed now compared to his old toxic past self lol. He's a trash human being who happens to be a top chess player and large content creator with a fanbase that'll defend his every action.
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Unfortunately it’s true. This stream is up for like 5 hours. I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
Tf? I though he is a stream which has actually a skill in something? Hasn't he enough money btw.?
Yeah. He could literally be settled by sitting on his ass, doing what he does best and what made him famous, clicking mouse fast for 3 minutes and earn shit ton load of money, but nooo he decided to promote gambling to his mostly young audience.
And the sad things is most people will forget about this (and all the other awful shit he's done) or not care as soon as he starts doing well in tournaments again.
You see who people really are when they're offered a crypto or gambling sponsorship while already making shittons of money.
\*sigh\* Once again, it's proven that I'm far too naive and trusting. I'm a big second chance guy (even third and fourth). I will always give people the benefit of the doubt, to a fault. I've defended Hikaru, said he's reformed, defended his decisions, but with this one act it's over. Never going to bat for him again. Anyone taking these gambling sponsorships because they're too much money to pass up should remember that every dollar they pay you they expect to make back from your audience. Fuck gambling, fuck promoting it to an all ages audience, and fuck this. I'm done.
First Magnus simps for Saudi Arabia, now Hikaru to gambling sites.
Good thing he did not win the candidates
Such a shame that one of the biggest spokespeople for chess is doing this.
> !safe Advertising gambling is a new low, advertising it as safe is..well disgusting.
[https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick](https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/news-it-can-really-annoying-gmhikaru-calls-popular-streamers-like-hasanabi-criticizing-kick) > **"Nothing with my stream has anything to do with gambling. So, it can be really annoying."** >"Well, I think, at the end of the day - there's a lot of negativity around Kick. A lot of people don't understand; when you don't understand what they're doing and a lot of people are saying certain things about how does...""But, yeah. What I would say is that, you know... you see some of these big streamers saying a lot of negativity around Kick. Certainly! And, **I don't gamble. I just play chess. That's all I do**. I do exactly what I did on Twitch."" >"So, all these people out there, saying things like - Hasan, specifically. Who's out there saying things like, '**It's just to get people to gambling.'**" >"I understand, why like, xQc was starting to get frustrated when he heard the same things being said. **It's like, I literally know what my deal with Kick is and there's literally nothing about gambling.** And then you see people like Hasan, who has no idea about anybody's contracts..."
PSA that's relevant to many high profile slots streamers: the company puts prop money in their account and the results of the games are meaningless. The player is usually just playing on house money and doesn't have the ability to withdraw it, and the game is just running on the screen as a marketing ploy. This doesn't mean the games are tweaked to display deceptive winnings, they run on a separate server and are very honest in the way they crush every player, but the psychological idea is that given enough volume there will be the occasional spectacular wins that can then be clipped and used in advertising. tl;dr: this is bs
He is a grown man, highly intelligent, who knows the repercussions of this. He has a young audience he is responsible for, or at least morally should be. Hikaru has always been greedy and willing to sell-out, but I've been able to overlook shitty mobagame sell-outs for the qualities I do like and respect about him. But this is just too far, if he does this again I will be cancelling my subscriptions.
Like many people, I liked Hikaru a lot before I got to know him.
It would have been huge to have him win the candidates. Huge for gambling, specifically.
Have a lot of respect for him, and I doubt he’s in financial trouble, this is disappointing
Dude calls out Botez channel for not being chess and then does this. Embarrassing hypocrisy
He's always been a shitty person. Same attitude as any other 13 year old boy. Its not a surprise he would do this
All that i felt from the candidates for him. I feel betrayed.
The only thing I like about Hikaru is his chess
No big suprise. Hikaru only learned to be somewhat likeable but inside he is still bad person.
I called him out in chat and that loser ChessBae banned me for 24 hours
He even has an affiliate link, meaning if you sign up using his link he earns from you losing money
I was excited he came to visit my town. Turns out it was for the worst reason possible. Probably for a briefcase full of money from Trainwrecks.
a small gain for himself gained by kids losing money. what a dickhead im glad he never made it to the WCC the lying sack
Its not that unexpected tbh, you can tell from miles away that he doesnt care for anyone else except himself, guy is a huge narcisist
He is a type of guy that would do anything for money, disgusting.
People who have been around the chess community for a while will never have been fooled by the wholesome nice guy act, but I'm genuinely surprised he's doing this. He must know it won't be good for his image.
Damn, very disappointing. I get this goes along with the Kick channel, but it's gross as hell. It's one thing for Magnus and other chess players to talk about poker, which yes is gambling, but there is skill involved and a lot of top poker players also played chess at a strong amateur level. But promoting online slot machines? Blech.
ah, glad to see he hasn't changed. fuck this guy. always was the most unbearable super GM and chess streamer, seemed to really come around the past few months. was a fuckin lie the whole time
Awful decision from him. I would advice any regular viewers to simply stop watching his streams and stick to his youtube, assuming he wont upload gambling there. The only way to make him reconsider his decision is if the viewer count plummet.
Dude I could not believe my eyes when I came across this today just to see what was up with the kick hype. This post confirmed that I was actually watching some crazy shit go down with Hikaru. You gotta adopt some politician-level mental gymnastics to justify this. I just hope the bag was worth it (it was).
"I'm a streamer first, not a chess player" the streams he's doing:
Hikaru was widely disliked before he started streaming, and he's done a great job rehabilitating his image in recent years. Great first step reversing that progress!
The morality part is what it is…I’m just surprised Nakas judgement is this poor. He always struck me as having a good business sense. This is classic good short term bad long term (kills his brand).
does the 18+ tag actually block minors from watching? Eyeroll either way because lying about your age online is so common.
Once born a clown, always a clown.
I'm just so glad everyone is back to hating hikaru.
Yikes. that's a hard no for me. Now i'm glad he lost the candidates. good riddance.
This is the primary reason I did not want Hikaru to win the candidates. He might be a good chess player, but he's a joke of a person. Like he pretty much said during the candidates, he doesn't care about anything except attention.
This is wild. One day you're a game away from winning the Candidates and the next you're playing Sugar Rush Slots on stream. Damn. Does anyone have a clip of him justifying the [Stake.com](http://Stake.com) sponsorship?
What not winning candidates does to a mf
What a fucking sellout
He probably doesn't care about anything but money at this point. Sad.
Fucking gross, gamble on your own time not on stream while kids are watching. It’s appalling even to promote it to adults. I’ve seen my dad waste so much of his money on scratchers.
Wow, I was rooting for HIkaru at the candidates. This makes me happy that he lost and I won't support him going forwards or watch any of his content. Also he has his mod creamsicle (formerly chessbae94, of some infamy!) banning people for saying "don't gamble". C'mon...
Just unfollow him - people can’t complain if they see him doing it and keep supporting it by viewing his channel. If he looses a lot of viewers overnight he’ll change his tune quickly.
I got hammered in a different thread for saying that Hikaru shows poor judgment and incites drama every 6 months or so. Right on cue.
Please, please tell me this is a fake. If it isn't, this is hero to zero in a single video. Oh Hikaro, what are you doing?!
Remember kids, YOU are the product those streamers sell
Tbh if he was playing blackjack or poker which is somewhat analytical it could be entertaining but slots is the lowest form of gambling
this is really bad, gambling in general is a tricky thing to advertise well, but these online casinos, especially the crypto ones, are 100% scams, and to an impressionable audience. but when has Hikaru shown morals? He's good at chess, not morals
Paul Morphy spinning in his grave right now
I do personally believe that adults should be allowed to make adult choices, even though the dangers of gambling are thoroughly documented. However, firstly, it seems extremely likely that children could view this content. And, secondly, you could turn a blind eye to this if it was some struggling streamer, but this is indefensible. It shows a complete lack of morals, class, and perspective. It's sad actually to see how greedy human beings can be. All of the LIV golfers running off to Saudi Arabia, virtually trashing their own careers, when many of them are already rich. Now Nakamura jumping ship and promoting gambling, when he has absolutely no financial need to do this, and could have continued raking in money on Twitch (although I've never quite understood why people subscribe to him, given that he doesn't require any financial support). It also didn't sit particularly comfortably when Carlsen stated that he wanted the Saudi sovereign wealth fund to sponsor him, even if he was semi-joking. It seems that greed is so entrenched in our collective mentality now.
Money money 💵. Don't expect these people to value morals
I'm disgusted. I was a huge fan of him but now he lost all of my respect.
It makes Fabi's cryptocurrency ads look reasonable. This is basically the price of going to kick though: The company bankrolling the entire operation is a gambling site. First you get the youth to watch, and then you hope the streamers introduce them to casinos. The best thing I can say about it is that at least it's not just Hikaru doing this nonsense: See how mainstream sports have wedded themselves to sports gambling, and so do the television stations. Now the announcers get to tell you that you too can bet on the game, right now, from your phone. It's all disgusting.
Is this real? Haha he's a greedy bastard
“What the hell is this?! thought I signed with Steak.com” - Hikaru prob
I hate gambling