Streamer David “TheGrefg” Martínez has the sixth largest channel in the world on Twitch by followers. For Christmas he announced that he would be giving away a Tesla in the style of “Lightning McQueen,” the car from Cars. The car is worth around €110,000. But upon closer inspection, the gift-giving turned out to be a lottery with little chance of winning, except for the streamer himself, who is sure to have a great Christmas.
This was the promise: In a YouTube video from December 25th. TheGrefG kissed a red Tesla painted like Lightning McQueen.
With his usual energy, he wished everyone a Merry Christmas and a great New Year 2025. He gave people something for Christmas: his car, a Tesla Model S plaid – that’s a car worth around 110,000 euros.
Then, like in a promotional video, he talked at length about how great the car is. What made me suspicious was that he suddenly talked about a lottery and that the viewers should watch the entire video to see all the modalities of the lottery.
TheGrefG is a big player in Fortnite, like this young man:
18-year-old Fortnite streamer buys a Lamborghini for €193,000 – when he tries to show it off, everything goes wrong
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Streamer doesn’t give Tesla away at all, but rather raffles it off
What’s the catch? The “gift” that TheGrefg is giving his loyal fans here is not a gift at all, but rather he is organizing a lottery: If you want to get the car “as a gift”, you have to buy a ticket for 1 euro and then keep your fingers crossed that he will is drawn.
What is the reaction?? As the Spanish site 3DJuegos reports, the reaction on social media is not nearly as positive as TheGrefG presumably hoped.
People say: You can’t announce a gift if you yourself benefit more from it than the recipient. Given the enormous reach of TheGrefG, more people would certainly buy a ticket for 1 euro than the car is actually worth.
In addition, the winner of the car would then incur further costs: he would have to pay taxes, register the thing expensively outside of Andorra and much more. What would seem like a great opportunity to win a Tesla is not so great when you look at the modalities.
One user says:
“99% of the people who participate here don’t have enough money to pay the fees for the Tesla and 99.9% don’t have a connection at home to charge the Tesla. A giveaway is free. What you’re doing is a lottery: you’re making so much money that you can afford 5 new Teslas.”
Other users see the whole thing as a stroke of genius by TheGrefG: He spent €120,000 on a Tesla in order to use a lottery to get back double or triple what he invested.
Another added: If I were TheGrefG, I would always do lotteries like this. It’s probably three times more profitable than the price – the guy is a genius, he always wins.
A third said: “I’ve been following you for years. But this seems more like a gift for you than for us.”
TheGrefG says: Raffle causes enormous costs for him
This is what the streamer says: Incidentally, TheGrefg was already expecting the reaction to the video, which was fully monetized with advertising. He asserts the enormous costs the raffle is causing him. A website would have to be set up and a notary and all that – oh, the costs that would come with that.
And he doesn’t even know how many people actually take part in the campaign and buy a ticket. He hopes that it goes well, but he is taking the risk here. Oh, by the way: The car hasn’t even been driven 2,000 kilometers yet.
The love for Christmas and the community obviously doesn’t go so far as to simply cover all the costs yourself.
Streamer TheGrefG became internationally famous after receiving a skin in Fortnite, but the love has now cooled: Twitch streamer becomes famous through Fortnite, now he breaks with Epic: “Lost all respect”