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The Wall Street Journal on Thursday featured an article about Amazon Twitch and how it is betting on Web poker to give the video uploading platform a nice boost.
Gambling911.com readers may have already have watched some of the Americas Cardroom CEO Twitch videos that are accompanied by a live chat display.
Twitch focuses heavily on the video-gaming community and they have now begun drawing their attention towards online poker.
“Like videogames, poker is a game and we’ve grown that into a huge business,” said Scott Ball, hired in November from gaming hardware-maker Razer Inc. to oversee Twitch’s expansion into poker. Some of the poker channels have already attracted a million views.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Adding poker promises to bring Twitch more young, male users, a demographic coveted by advertisers. An estimated 150 million people play poker world-wide, according to some estimates. The World Series of Poker drew 1.2 million viewers on average for its most recent live televised event in November on Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, according to Nielsen.
Twitch broadcasts have a video feed of a player narrating hand-by-hand the action in an online game, pitting players against one another from their computers. The broadcaster’s cards are visible to viewers, though a four-minute delay prevents online opponents from using the information.
Poker pro Jason Somerville was interviewed for the piece as well. He plans to broadcast his poker games for up to six hours a day for 10 weeks starting in March.
“I think fans will find the potential of playing with me or another broadcaster from the comfort of their own home to be very appealing,”
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
