Kick is not just poaching Twitch stars. It’s also investing in its own homegrown talent.

With big-name signings like xQc, Amouranth, and BruceDropEmOff, Kick has taken the streaming world by storm. But wooing Twitch stars is only one part of Kick’s strategy. The gambling-oriented platform has become big enough to produce its own homegrown talent, and as those streamers grow, Kick is making sure to do right by them.

Case in point: Snoh. The 23-year-old creator doesn’t have a major presence on Twitch or YouTube Gaming, but on Kick, she is off to a solid start. Only a few months into her streaming career, she already counts more than 8,000 followers.

Kick recognized that Snoh (whose real name is Tee) was cultivating a passionate audience, and its partnerships team connected with her to offer her a contract. Going forward, she will be paid for her broadcasts on the Stake-affiliated platform.

The Head of Strategic Partnerships at Kick, Andrew Santamaria, uses his social channels to discuss major happenings on the platform. After the ink dried on the Snoh signing, Santamaria celebrated the young streamer’s tenacity. “From all accounts Snoh is the first Kick-Home-Grown creator to hit ‘Go-Live’ to get signed,” Santamaria wrote

. “She asked for zero handouts. She leaned on her community and her talent. This, IMO, is our top signing.”

That superlative may seem out of place when Snoh’s contract is compared to the $100 million deal Kick gave to xQc. On the other hand, the importance of homegrown talent cannot be understated. As YouTube Gaming poached several of Twitch’s top stars, Ludwig Ahgren questioned whether YouTube was doing enough to organically build its streaming community. “They’re not getting enough people switching over without signing,” Ahgren said at the time, “and I don’t think we’re going to see that change for another couple of years.”

Kick isn’t having that problem. By any measure, the Twitch rival is gaining on its competition, and the rise of streamers like Snoh shows how far it’s already come.