Live poker streamers may be facing a problem that other content creators have faced in recent years – their business model is based on being available on YouTube, and that can be put in jeopardy with the whims of the company.
The team behind the Hustler Casino Live (HCL) show announced this week that the live cash game’s channel had been suspended. The suspension is only for a week but comes as YouTube is apparently cracking down on channels that also feature gambling-related advertising and sponsorships.
“We had an issue with our YouTube channel where we’re suspended for a week,” HCL noted on Twitter. “We did nothing wrong, and we can’t get in touch with anyone.”
HCL co-owner Ryan Feldman told PokerNews the suspension “has to do with advertisers they (YouTube) don’t like.” The changes may mean more issues for videos of previous cash games as well.
“We’re afraid it’s gonna trigger the algorithm with all our old videos,” Feldman told PokerNews.
Moving To Twitch For Now
The cash game has now moved to Twitch for the time being. On YouTube, the show regularly sees anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 viewers during live streams and boasts 361,000 subscribers.
By contrast, Monday’s stream on Twitch attracted only about 2,600 viewers, although that could increase as more fans learn of the switch. The stream has just 552 followers on Twitch as of Tuesday afternoon.
The suspension could be a challenge for streamers beyond HCL. A crackdown on gambling-related sponsorships could be bad news and possibly upend the business model of streamers and vloggers more reliant on YouTube. Twitch may be an option, but YouTube has a much larger audience, allowing for monetization of a channel.
“YouTube offers more advantages over Twitch in terms of growth as it is more accessible and has a better algorithm that allows small content creators to grow their channels quickly,” video services firm Wondershare advises content creators. “However, Twitch mainly focuses on popular content streamers and offers fewer growth opportunities for newbies.”
Poker vlogging and streamed games have become extremely popular in recent years, and it will be interesting to see if this change at YouTube has a major effect on the industry.