ESL Announces Kick Deal which sees Exclusive Tournament for Platform
ESL Faceit Group has partnered with streaming platform Kick to broadcast its Counter-Strike and Dota 2 tournaments. The deal marks the latest major exclusive content agreement for Kick, which has been actively securing tournament rights from multiple esports organizations over the past year.
The partnership begins with IEM Rio 2026, currently streaming on Kick alongside existing broadcasts on Twitch and YouTube. This dual-broadcast approach reflects ESL’s strategy to maintain broad platform availability for its flagship tournaments, ensuring maximum reach and accessibility across streaming services.
Most ESL tournaments under the Kick partnership will follow this non-exclusive model, appearing across multiple platforms to maximize viewership. However, the ESL Challenger League represents a significant exception to this approach—all ECL products, including ECL Cups, will become exclusive to Kick under the agreement. This exclusivity provides the platform with dedicated esports content that cannot be found elsewhere, a differentiation strategy Kick has been employing with other tournament organizers to compete in the competitive streaming market.
The move reflects Kick’s broader effort to establish itself as a destination for esports content, particularly as it continues expanding its tournament and partnership portfolio.