Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin, a well-known Twitch streamer from Ukraine and a professional Dota 2 player, will be streaming on Kick. The esports competitor took to Twitter to announce his switch to the new platform. In addition to streaming on Kick, Dendi's team, B8 Esports, will now receive sponsorship from Stake, the bookmaker company that owns Kick.
Renowned Dota 2 player Dendi won the first The International tournament series as part of Natus Vincere. He is among the top ten richest Ukrainian esports athletes in terms of prize money winnings, with around $825K. In 2020, he founded his own eSports team, B8 Esports, on which he continues to compete in tournaments. It is now a fully established organization with rosters for Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, and Valorant.
Apart from his esports career, Dendi is renowned for being a popular broadcaster. With more than a million followers on Twitch, he is currently the fourth most popular Ukrainian streamer on the platform. He is also among the most popular English-speaking Ukrainian streamers. The most followed Dendi’s stream in 2023 attracted 9K Peak Viewers.
In December 2022, Kick, a brand-new streaming platform, was introduced. It differentiates itself from competitors such as Twitch and YouTube Live by providing the lowest subscription commission and more comfortable rules for streamers. Kick only keeps 5 percent of each subscription, whereas other platforms take 30–50%. Kick is currently one of the streaming services with the fastest rate of growth. It signed non-exclusive contracts with a number of prominent Twitch streamers in 2023. For instance, the platform paid streamer Felix 'xQc' Lengyel $70 million for a two-year deal; this amount is comparable to contracts for NBA players.
