Twitch streamer lost $735,000 on World Cup final
A punter has lost $735,000 after placing a huge bet on France to win the World Cup.
Top 10 Twitch streamer xQc gambled away hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on the final, and ended up cashing out early.
Félix “xQc” Lengyel is one of the highest-earning streamers on Twitch, being the most-watched creator on the platform in 2020 and 2021.
He currently has the fifth-highest followers of any person on Twitch, with more than11 million followers, and his streams regularly attract hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Lengyel bet $500,000 USD (~AU$745,000) on France to win the World Cup final, making the bet on gambling site Stake, which he partnered with earlier this year for a sponsorship deal. He was incredibly confident that France would win the game, saying on Twitter that it would be the “easiest win of [his] life”.
It was not the easiest win of his life.
The World Cup final between Argentina and France saw Argentina take an early 2-0 lead in the first half, and it seems like it was at this point that Lengyel got spooked and cashed out early, earning him a paltry $5000 USD (~AU$7500) in consolation.
If he’d waited just a little longer, he might have lost a whole lot less, however. France’s Kylian Mbappé scored two goals against Argentina in the second half, and both teams scored another goal each in extra time.
The game ended with a penalty shootout, with Argentina taking home its third ever World Cup, and its first since 1986. If Lengyel had waited just a little bit longer to cash out, it’s likely he’d have lost significantly less money on the bet — he certainly couldn’t have lost much more.
It’s unlikely to make much of a dent in the streamer’s bank balance, however, given he’s estimated to earn millions of dollars a year through monthly Twitch subscriptions, donations, and sponsorship deals. Despite that, the top 10 Twitch streamer doesn’t pay his moderators, as was revealed recently.
Other streamers haven’t been so unlucky gambling on the platform. Twitch streamer Trainwreckstv won over $2.3 million betting on the World Cup, after he correctly predicted the outcomes of four back-to-back games.
It comes as Twitch faces heavy scrutiny over gambling streams on its platforms. Many have called for Twitch to ban gambling altogether, and the Amazon-owned streaming company has taken steps to limit the kind of gambling allowed, with games of chance almost entirely banned as of earlier this year.
