Restrictions having an impact

A new independent report has shown that Twitch is still the most popular platform for gambling live streams, despite its ban on certain unregulated casinos.

Casinolytics is a data science company that uses an artificial intelligence-based approach to discover iGaming sector insights. This week, it released a report looking at the impact of Twitch’s new gambling content policy that came into place on October 18. The platform banned casinos it deemed unregulated, including Stake and Roobet.

Twitch still accounts for 74% of viewers for casino-related streams

Despite streamers no longer being permitted to showcase gambling content from these popular sites, Twitch still accounts for 74% of viewers for casino-related streams. Notably, this represents a significant drop from the previous quarter when the reach amounted to 96% before restrictions came into place.

Other platforms benefiting

YouTube appears to have benefited the most from Twitch’s change in policy. According to the Casinolytics report, the reach of its gambling content has increased by 40% since October 18. It also appears that certain streamers have now moved to Twitch competitor DLive. Certain streamers are now even using all three major platforms simultaneously in order to maximize their reach.

Gambling-related content had become more and more popular on Twitch over the past couple of years. In May, the slots category broke into the top ten most-watched categories on the platform for the first time. Viewership for Twitch’s slots category initially plummeted by 97% shortly after the ban kicked in.

Specifics of the ban

Numerous controversies caused concern about the impact of Twitch streamers gambling heavily, ultimately leading the Amazon-owned platform to ban unregulated sites.

extorted more than $200,000 from fans and fellow streamers

One of the biggest controversies was when popular streamer Sliker revealed that he extorted more than $200,000 from fans and fellow streamers to help fund his gambling addiction.

Twitch streamers are also not able to share any affiliate codes or links to platforms that offer online casino games. However, the platform still allows poker and sports betting-related content from unlicensed sites. Popular streamer Trainwreck deemed this stance hypocritical shortly after the ban.