2015 in Review: Twitch turns poker into a video game
Our final recap of 2015 looks at how the marriage of online poker and video games happened because of streaming site Twitch.
At the start of 2015, only hardcore video gamers knew the word 'Twitch', by the end of the year it had changed the poker world forever.
Twitch got its start in 2011 as a spin-off from the video streaming website Justin.tv. Justin.tv was a general interest site which broadcast anything, but Twitch was a surprise hit after it exclusively streamed video games.
In February 2014 Twitch was the fourth largest website in terms of traffic in the United States. Over 100 million people visit the site every month. In September 2014 Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million.
In November 2014 Twitch introduced poker to the list of games that can be broadcast there, and in the small space of time it has been around, it has become very popular.
Embraced by all corners of poker
The biggest Twitch success story has to be Jason Somerville, who signed an exclusive deal with PokerStars on the strength of his Twitch channel. He also became an official Twitch Partner in 2015, which is no surprise as his channel is so popular it made poker the number one game for a day in September with 37,000 simultaneous viewers.
Elsewhere organic Twitch success Jaime Staples managed to parlay his successful Twitch account into a PokerStars sponsorship, meanwhile established PokerStars Pro ElkY became the first player with a joint-sponsorship, also signing with Team Liquid to play Hearthstone.
Online poker becomes spectator sport
Beyond that, the entire poker industry has embraced Twitch to further demonstrate its potential. Some of the biggest names from the TV era of poker, including Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu, have hosted popular streams. Live events like the Global Poker Masters, the WSOP and the EPT have also broadcast exclusive content on the website.
Twitch has turned online poker into a genuine spectator sport, which was perfectly demonstrated in September when PokerStars changed their WCOOP schedule so that the final tables were broadcast at popular Twitch times.
In the 12 months that poker has been broadcast on Twitch, the game has changed significantly. Most notably how online poker has become considered more like a spectator sport and paradoxically also like a video game. It's hard to envision what comes next for poker on Twitch, but it's hard not to imagine it will be anything but positive.
Do you now consider poker more like a video game? Let us know in the comments.
