Twitch Streamers Making a Killing Driving Folks to Crypto Casinos: Service May Stop Gambling Promos
Bloomberg this past week featured an article on how "slots" is now the number 7 most popular content category on Twitch, ahead of the video game Fortnite.
Streamers are driving their audience to crypto gaming sites, and making a killing doing so.
One popular streamer said he makes “much more” than $1 million a month as part of his sponsorship with Stake to crypto gamble in front of live audiences on Twitch.
Stake, a Curacao-licensed crypto casino, is pouring a ton of sponsorship money into Twitch.
From the U.S., gamblers can bet anonymously with Stake using the cryptocurrency wallets and addresses.
A Stake spokesperson tells Bloomberg is is about to change this by implemented “stringent compliance processes” that prevent people using VPNs from depositing funds in countries where it is not allowed.
The Bloomberg article profiles an individual who lost $20,000 through the Stake website after receiving a promo code via Twitch.
The social media streaming site may not be allowing gambling promos for much longer.
A Twitch spokesperson says the company is “currently in the midst of a deep-dive look into gambling behavior on Twitch.
The Changing Landscape for Sports Handicappers
WazBettorIQ on Twitter had an excellent observation over the weekend regarding the changing landscape in the sports handicapping sector.
He has made the following observations:
- Pure handicappers who incorporate more qualitative elements have seen increases in their edge as the quality of information improves.
- All "winning" models eventually converge to the same point (using similar metrics, statistical tools, techniques, etc) and the market becomes much more efficient as a result.
- Finding good qualitative information is more of a “needle in a haystack” type of exercise.
The sports betting landscape has started to shift.
— Waz (@WazBettorIQ) August 7, 2022
The edge for modelers as a whole has been slowly diminishing over the last 5+ years. Pure handicappers who incorporate more qualitative elements have seen increases in their edge as the quality of information improves.
The main reason: all "winning" models eventually converge to the same point (using similar metrics, statistical tools, techniques, etc) and the market becomes much more efficient as a result.
— Waz (@WazBettorIQ) August 7, 2022
Finding good qualitative information is more of a “needle in a haystack” type of exercise. You might read for 10 hours and only find one actionable nugget, or maybe none at all. You also need to invest time understanding the idiosyncrasies of every team, which can be exhausting.
— Waz (@WazBettorIQ) August 7, 2022
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
