Casino & Slots Take Twitch & Youtube By Storm

The rise in popularity behind Twitch and Youtube Casino/Gaming Channels

With Millennials raised on big brother and reality shows, it was only a matter of time before this trend started to spread to other areas. The majority of people under 30 have been brought up watching Reality TV. The benefits of watching others ensures authenticity and engagement; two elements crucial to an immersive gaming experience. When you add genuine emotions experienced during gambling, the pleasure of gaming gets even more intense. This has paved the way for the coming of age of the eSports and Live Casino streaming phenomenon.

Twitch

Twitch is a fast growing platform which first appeared in 2011 offering live, streamed content about everything under the sun. It soon grew from 20 million viewers in 2012, to an astonishing 220 million users in 2016. Amongst other things, Twitch shows feeds of people playing video games. In 2014, Twitch was taken over by Amazon who paid almost $1 billion. Google had also been interested in buying Twitch, which is testament to its potential. This streaming platform already had 45 million active users. 2016 saw further impressive results and Twitch instituted an in-chat tipping system and enabled game sales directly on its channels. This has created a bustling Twitch economy. With an eye on the future, Twitch recently rolled out Chat Replay, which allows players to view recorded live streams complete with a rolling chat feature. In effect, this is exactly like watching a live broadcast. Twitch introduced a better private messaging system last October called Whispers 2.0. and will shortly be introducing video uploads, giving players the opportunity to bypass live streams altogether.

Casino streamers have jumped on the Twitch bandwagon, show casing live their online slots and casino experience for viewers to see in full flow. Whether its gamblers betting £0.10p a spin or other high rollers going up to £50 bets and roulette spins in the thousands of pounds, there seems to be an overwhelming interest from viewers who are firmly engaged with the streamer and community audience. 

YouTube

YouTube Gaming was launched in 2015 to challenge Twitch’s domination of the live streaming market. It is strongly positioned to eat into Twitch’s market share whilst utilizing its own massive viewership. With such easy access to YouTube worldwide, the possibilities are endless. Whilst YouTube’s eSports streaming service has fewer viewers in comparison to Switch, the growth figures over the last year have been much higher than Switch. Even more interesting is the fact that YouTube is courting older and more affluent users with a average viewer age of 28 compared with Twitch’s 21.

Most, if not all twitch streamers will beam out their content via youtube live service simultaneously, but Youtube has the added advantage of being able to upload and produce content that is pre recorded. This is a strategy employed by hundreds of casino and slots channels. Having the freedom to produce content in your own time, edit it how you want and not be restricted to streaming schedules clearly offers lots of advantages. On top of this it takes away the daunting prospect of live streaming to a new or small audience.

From the other end of the table viewers do not need to sit thorough and watch long live streams that may produce few or limited ‘exciting’ moments such as big bonuses, instead they can consume bit sized and condensed footage of all the best bits and bonuses from someones gambling session.

eSports

Enter eSports, also known as competitive video gaming. This new trend of watching other people play games, learning from them and even picking up tips is spreading across generations like wildfire. Learning tips and tricks through live streaming has the potential to be huge in the very near future. With eSports currently experiencing a surge in popularity, prize money and revenues are reaching impressive levels with an estimated $600 million to $800 million gambled on eSports events in 2016.

Total Immersion at Online Casinos

Live streaming can be considered as the casino of the future. The Live casino experience is already making its way onto many online casinos due to the immersive atmosphere the games create. Staple online casino games such as blackjack, baccarat, poker, and roulette are perfect for live casino gaming and streaming through eSports. Another major advantage for eSports and online casinos operating together, is the higher level of genuine interaction you get with other players and dealers. Online casinos are at a crossroad right now. The road has already been paved by eSports and Poker, now it’s time for online casinos to take full advantage of this unique and crucial niche in the market that is fast becoming a large gap.

Poker

None of this would have been possible if it weren’t for the worldwide popularity of Poker, which is by far the most popular gambling game, with more followers than any other game. Poker is not easy to play. There are many small details to remember and techniques that can be learned and used. That is exactly why eSports and Poker fit lIke a glove. One compliments the other and they both increase users by combining their synergies. If you take the popularity of Poker within the online gambling industry worldwide, it has an estimated value of $40 billion!

Conclusion

With such easy access to YouTube and Switch, eSports as a form of competitive gaming is gaining in popularity. The eSports industry has seen phenomenal growth over the last couple of years with an expected 1 billion viewers and $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2017. eSports has the unique ability to reach millions of people all over the world with relative ease and it has evolved concurrently with the Internet, making it is easily accessible, cheap (or free). This allows people to tune in to Twitch or YouTube Gaming to watch and learn from their favourite eSports players, live and in real time. It also allows interaction between viewers all in real time. This has opened up the doors to players being able to wager on these events, often through an online casino, providing the jurisdiction allows it. Online casinos are the perfect (virtual) place and natural home of eSports.

The synergies between esports streamers and gambling streamers are close in some respects but miles apart in others.

Professional esports players and teams can make a very lucrative living through sponsorship, endorsements and career earnings as successful teams. casino players do not have these luxuries, however monetisation does exist for them through both affiliation and sponsorship, much like esports streamers.

Gambling channels would not be able to survive without these fundamental prerequisites  to stream. Lets not beat around the bush, if you gamble you will enviable lose. if you gamble as much as some of the streamers do ( neaerlt every day ) you will go broke. Its as simple as that. However, advertising deals ( casinos pay streamers to play and promote their sites ) along with affiliate revenue goes a long way to offset the cost of gambling make their channels. Coupled with attractive and exclusive bonuses the streamers are receiving ( typically 100% deposit match on EVERY deposit ) all of a sudden the casino odds have almost turned in favour for the streamer.

Final thoughts

A word of warning. Don’t try this at home…..

Despite the popularity and rise of so many gambling channels, the longevity and successful nature of streamers remain to be seen. Its a very new niche and i would guess that ‘only the strongest will survive’. Gambling is a dangerous game so to make a success of it and any channel takes more than just good content. having a good head and a strong eye and sense for business are fundamental ingredients for a successful Twitch or Youtube gambling channel. Luckily we at Fruityslots believe we have the relevant experience ( in both gambling and online marketing in this sector) to make a good go at it, creating engaging and exciting content for viewers to soak up!