Tyler “Trainwreckstv” Niknam, the 35-year-old co-owner of the iGaming-friendly streaming platform Kick, suffered a record-breaking losing streak in his first live streams after a three-month break. Broadcasting high-stakes gambling sessions on the Curacao-licensed crypto casino Stake—where he holds a paid streaming deal—Niknam lost over $10 million across two sessions. A $4 million win on Keno only partially offset the damage.
“This has to be the worst I’ve ever run in my entire career. Pay is gone, it’s all personal now. I need something crazy or it’s going to be a very sad stream,” he posted on X on April 1.
From Twitch Icon to Kick Co-Owner
Trainwreckstv built his massive following on Twitch between 2018 and 2022 through marathon gambling streams, regularly betting between $1,000 and $10,000 per spin on slots for 12-hour sessions. He became one of Twitch’s most-watched yet most controversial figures, drawing criticism for exposing a young audience to gambling content while insisting he never promoted affiliate codes. When Twitch restricted gambling from unlicensed casino sites in October 2022, Niknam migrated to Kick—a platform he partially owns and helped launch as a gambling-friendly alternative. Kick’s 95/5 revenue split and permissive content policies allowed him to broadcast without restrictions.
$10M Downswing: Historic but Not His Worst
This week’s loss is among the largest he has broadcast, though it still falls short of his reported $40 million loss in a single month back in 2022. A separate run in November 2025 was described as his second-worst streak. During one of this week’s streams, fellow influencer Adin Ross joined via live call. Ross has faced intense scrutiny after Bloomberg’s investigation into statistically anomalous win rates on Stake’s in-house games. He signed a $50 million signing bonus deal with rival crypto gambling platform Rainbet last September, five months before the Bloomberg report. On stream, Ross asked Niknam for a loan, which Niknam immediately declined, citing his recent losses.
The exchange highlights the volatile reality behind high-stakes crypto casino streaming: eight-figure swings can occur within days, platform pay structures can be exhausted in a single bad run, and handshake deals unfold live in front of tens of thousands of viewers. At the time of his losing streak, Niknam was playing Pragmatic Play’s slot title The Dog House at $1,000 per spin on Stake. The platform reported nearly $2.6 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2024, according to the latest available public figures.