Twitch Sets Streaming Sights On Internet Gambling

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Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015 | Written by Charles Washington

Streaming technology allow individuals to view whatever they please via an internet connection, with one such service, Twitch, having long been the preferred choice for watching players dominate the opposition at their favorite computer games. Founded in 2011, Amazon then bought the video-game streaming service last August for $970 million, and now the company has its sights firmly fixed on gambling, with internet poker proving a particularly popular attraction. As a recent article by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explains:

“Twitch draws 100 million users each month to watch others play online games such as Minecraft and League of Legends. Now, it has begun broadcasting online poker players, including several sponsored professionals.. Adding poker promises to bring Twitch more young, male users, a demographic coveted by advertiser.”

Poker Innovation of the Year

Last weekend, the inaugural American Poker Awards was held in California, and receiving an accolade for Poker Innovation of the Year was Twitch, with Twitch’s Poker Partnership Lead Scott Ball subsequently picking up the award at the SLS Beverly Hills. Commenting that the relationship between Twitch and poker has developed quicker than anyone might have anticipated, Ball then explained that the partnership between Twitch and poker was part of a long term plan, with the beauty of the platform being the unique nature of the content which allows anyone to stream, or view the individual streams that they connect with the most. Already popular draws amongst fans include the streams of such poker pros as Jason Somerville, Jaime Staples, Randy “Nanonoko” Lew, and Betrand Grospellier,

The Somerville Effect

Without a doubt, the player who has done more than anyone else so far to promote the popularity of Twitch is US pro Jason Somerville, who has been streaming via Twitch.tv his ‘Run It Up’ challenge to turn a $50 starting bankroll into $10,000. The 27 year-old regularly has tens of thousands of fans tuning in to watch him play poker online, as well as benefit from the valuable strategy advice he shares with his many followers. Somerville’s importance in cultivating this new approach to poker was soon picked up by PokerStars, which subsequently offered him a lucrative sponsorship deal at a time when poker sites have been trimming away their roster of pros. Needless to say, there are now high hopes that the streaming service could help revolutionize internet poker in much the same way that the “Moneymaker effect” managed to do between 2003 and 2006.

Treating Poker Like An E-sport

Elaborating further on his vision for the future of poker and live streaming, Somerville said that platforms such as Twitch help widen the attraction of poker beyond the interest of just hardcore fans, to also reach a whole new group of players. Somerville said that in his opinion poker streams in the past have been sub-optimally based upon what seemed to have worked on TV poker broadcasting and poker training videos, but by “treating poker more like an e-sport” and designing live streams which put Internet viewers first, Twitch could now help usher in the next big thing in online poker. As he then explains:

“We’re in an interesting time in poker right now. I don’t think televised poker really evolved too much after the hole-card camera was introduced, especially in America. Poker players want to see four or five days of coverage and be engrained in the play as it goes. Meanwhile in America, the World Series of Poker [coverage] doesn’t even start until Day 4 now! I feel like poker’s best fit is on the Internet where you can stream whatever you want, whenever you want, for as long as you want. And not only is it cheaper and more cost efficient, but it makes more sense for poker.”

Twitch Now A Key Strategic Partner

Another visionary with big plans for the future of poker is the Global Poker Index CEO Alex Dreyfus, who last weekend organized the inaugural American Poker Awards. The entrepreneur has also indicated he intends to use Twitch to feature the upcoming Global Poker Masters event, and he further highlighted the importance of the platform as a key strategic partner of the industry, especially with 100 million people visiting the site every month, and 80% of those visitors being 18+ years old.

Echoing Somerville’s comments from earlier, Dreyfus also iterated that while the internet has changed over the past 10 years, the way poker has been presented to the media has not. Stating that poker’s target audience can be found online and on Twitch, Dreyfus stated that the industry has “to be proactive and look for new channels and new platforms to reach new audiences.”