Twitch’s Gambling Dilemma

Twitch is the world’s most popular streaming platform. Throughout the years it has constantly changed its approach to gambling content. We discuss how this has impacted the platform in the article below.

Poker has always been an extremely popular category on Twitch. Yet over the past few years, other types of gambling content have become available. This has led to many changes and, in some cases, big developments for the company. In the article below, we discuss how Twitch has changed its gambling content policies over the last few years and what the results have been.

The Changes Made by Twitch

Twitch has made numerous changes to its content policies over the years. Yet one of the biggest changes was to its rules on gambling content. This was aimed at audiences in the United States and those who streamed gambling content from US soil. However, pressure had also come from the United Kingdom after British streamer ItsSliker reportedly scammed viewers through his channel to fuel an addiction. At this time, Twitch banned the sharing of any links and referral codes to sites that included slots, roulette, and dice games. The ban did not cover poker, as this is deemed a game of skill. Nor did it ban sports betting.

It also banned any content that was not from licensed US casinos, and this was where the problem began. In the United States, each state has its own laws on online casinos, with some allowing them and others having an outright ban. This has led to many using unlicensed offline casinos, accessible though technically illegal in their state. When people streamed from them, they and Twitch were breaking the law.

The result was that many gambling streamers, and some with huge followings and revenue, were banned from streaming. With involvement from crypto casino companies and sponsorship, some had to move abroad. For example, streamer Trainwreck moved his operations to Canada. While gambling laws are more relaxed here, casinos are regulated and licensed. These streamers could now use the most trusted online casino platform in Ontario to choose providers and stream games without having to worry about fragmented US laws. However, it was a big loss to Twitch, which saw a large part of their gambling community leave.

The Rise of Kick

Part of this exodus was welcomed by one of the platform’s big rivals: Kick. Founded in 2022, it has been gaining viewers ever since.  It is also backed by people behind some of the biggest gambling companies. The platform allows the streaming of games of all types, which are labeled into different categories. It has quickly risen in popularity for its creators, as it only takes a small percentage of subscription profits, around 5%. This is a huge difference between the 50/50 split on Twitch and the 70/30 split on YouTube Live. Trainwreck was the first big-name streamer to move from Twitch to Kick. He was soon followed by players like Roshstein and Hikaru Nakamura.

The figures themselves show just how quickly it gained popularity.  In the four months beginning in 2023, its viewership grew by 404%. It also gained a huge 58,000 streamers in the same time period. In the same year between May and June, watched hours increased to 84.1 million. Twitch now had a rival.

Ofcom’s Recent Praise for Twitch

Most recently, the United Kingdom entered into a disagreement with Twitch over the labeling of adult content, which included gambling. After the implementation of a new system, the regulator Ofcom stated that the correct labeling of gambling content had risen by 22%.

In 2023, Twitch changed its policies once again, this time regarding the labeling of streams.

Tags became more specific and could be added or removed at any time during a stream. This saw creators more accurately labeling content as mature. This was taken from data analysis of three million streams over a nine-month period. Before this, it was estimated that around 65% of streams featuring gambling content were incorrectly mislabeled.

Kick Changes Its Policies

Despite showing itself as a more relaxed alternative to Twitch with fewer regulations, even Kick has had to change tact. After building a reputation for gambling content and pulling in some of the most popular streamers, they have recently announced they will also adapt their views on content that may be deemed harmful. All these changes have been done in conjunction with the Internet Watch Foundation.

Gambling is the third biggest category on the platform behind Just Chatting and IRL streams. However, people will not be able to stream gambling content from any site they choose as of next year. The sites must have age verification. This should effectively ban underage users from accessing sites and streaming them.

It is highly likely that Twitch and Kick will change policies as the years progress. With the industry becoming more popular and new game types becoming available, more legislation is inevitable. Yet both platforms will have to tread carefully or risk an exodus to less regulated platforms for content.