Streamer, YouTuber and all-around Internet celebrity IShowSpeed recently helped one of the biggest broadcasters in Europe, Sky Sports, broadcast English Premier League matches. That is, according to reports, until the channel’s executives discovered a video that went viral in April.
03:51
Halo Infinite Winter Update’s new multiplayer map
Wednesday 4:38 pm
IShowSpeed—more commonly known simply as ‘Speed’—was in the stands earlier this month to see his team Manchester United play Fulham in the league (and then my beloved Aston Villa for the League Cup). While there, he helped introduce segments to their channel and appear on their social feed. Here’s an example (extant):
And here’s another (independently uploaded by someone who saved the footage), showing him not recognizing Jamie Redknapp or Louis Saha:
Speed who has popular streaming games like Fortnite, NBA 2K CZK and FIFAwas probably brought in by Sky to capitalize on his internet following and is said to appeal to young football fans, which at the time of posting reached 13 million YouTube subscribers and 5.4 million Instagram followers (he is permanently banned from Twitch).
G/O Media may receive a commission
As of today, however, nearly all of Speed’s promotional material on Sky’s social media has been removed (except for the single Tweet above), with sport reported that Sky made the decision after they learned of a video of the rings in April—one became so famous that we reported on it—in which Speed makes extremely hostile and misogynistic remarks towards his teammates:
Although Speed later apologized for those comments, they were so bad that Riot Games banned him not only Valuable substancebut League of Legends also. Hwhile it’s a Twitch ban, also for misogyny, just one difference video. It’s weird – since it’s been so widely reported, tweet above yes 180,000 likes and 11.7 million views and just 7 months ago—nobody at Sky even thought of his name on Google before bringing him into the spotlight like this!
