What's that coming over the hill? Is it a (Stake) monster?
An intro to several pieces that I will scribe related to the above, and gaming x esports x gambling led content.
I’d like to apologise for being away for a little while. Sometimes that thing called real life comes at you fast and furious, and puts things in perspective rather quickly. It’s not and continues to not be an ideal time, but with recent activity I thought it’d be a good idea to polish off the first in what needs to be a series around gambling (and not necessarily esports).
The storylines emerging from different spheres that I have seen are as follows:
The emergence of Kick.com as a ‘competitor’ to Twitch
Neymar broadcasting on Twitch in partnership with crypto-Curacao based Blaze.com without punishment
iGaming regulation in the US being so slow compared to sports betting that this will not just disappear
There’s a lot to dive into, and each deserves an individual discussion with very pertinent underlying themes that need to be considered by the industry en masse. Nonchalant brushing off doesn’t work, and the ‘warning signs’ are far from new.
Stake.com, Kick.com, gambling on streaming platforms and responsible gaming
Those of us that have worked in the gambling industry over the last 12-24 months will probably be sick of the words ‘responsible gaming’.
The pandemic undoubtedly accelerated gambling channel shift from retail to digital. Where retail venues closed, those looking to have a wager were automatically required to head online to have a dabble.
I shan’t go too far into cash economies or adoption (Nordics, UK are already very digital) but economies such as Germany had to pivot from predominant cash economies to cashless.
As a result, where everything retail was closed, online moved under the microscope and transition from retail to digital profits were examined and pointed to as an example of the ‘toxicity’ of gambling.
Broadcasting gambling on Twitch
Being involved in the UK gambling industry, the anti-gambling lobby is potentially over-the-top prohibitionist, and the pro-lobby a little too lenient, I’d say most were blissfully unaware of the crap going down on Twitch for quite a while.
With the Gambling Act under review in the UK, the UKGC being made aware of multiple youngsters broadcasting to a broadly young, un-age-verified audience at a whim would not have done anything in favour of the pro-gambling lobby, nor is it something that quite fit the rhetoric of the anti-gambling lobby.
Nonetheless, the Gambling Act review is in place surely to bring a very analogue piece of legislation up to being fit for purpose in a digital age. Will it do that? Probably not.
Most of the arguments come around football shirt sponsorship and stadium banners for advertising. ASA complaints target washed-up Premier League footballers like Micah Richards without success. Meanwhile, children could have been watching $100m+ losses in a session on online streaming platforms for months. Plus the glamorisation of victories are endless. Thousands of people “Pogging” in chat when you win the max jackpot after previously spaffing $4m up the wall.
But of course, the issue is significantly more technical. Twitch even clamping down, with very vague “rules” on gambling streams made an Amazon-based company a quasi-regulator for the gambling industry, where it shouldn’t need to be - or has no place to be.
Malta is the self-acclaimed “blockchain island” and a gambling industry business destination, yet not a single effort has been made or raised as to how the industry regulates a crypto based casino. Setting up a crypto-wallet, from my zero understanding, is ‘anonymous’, ‘quick’, ‘painless’, ‘safe and secure’.
There are a host of regulators in the gambling space, and each seems to yield as little power as the next. There is a hierarchy defined for ‘legitimate licenses’ but the lack of safeguarding for consumers from nefarious actors goes to prove that…. it’s not quite figured out yet.
Time really flies. Here’s a thread I made on Twitter, on the fly approx. 2 years ago, with little research but just outraged at what I was watching.
It was the height of xQc and TrainwrecksTV’s streams on Twitter. After I made assertions about their streaming from Texas, given Stake.com explicitly prohibited use from TX in their T&Cs, xQc stopped streaming with Stake and TrainwrecksTV moved back to Canada.
This is also when Stake.com paid for Adin Ross, then under the legal age of 21, to fly to Mexico, to stream their platform to his audience from a legal destination. If you watch these streams, or watched some of them - they’re ill-advertised as gambling streams. Sponsorship is rarely displayed. There are no limits, and the balance seems to be topped up in “roll-backs” or however the crypto casinos remunerate with “clawbacks”.
xQc revealed in 2022 that over $119m had gone through his ‘affiliate link’ (aye small and nothing, right?).
For most of these sites, KYC doesn’t exist. Not only are they not just advertising hoardings, they’re these intoxicating personalities yelling “bonus, bonus, bonus bitch” and buying entrance to the slot bonus features for $150k+ in front of an un-age-verified audience all spamming their favourite emojis.
While we continue to complain about Betway on advertising hoardings, there’s a f*cking behemoth on the way. And you can only close your eyes for so long.
This has barely touched anything other than introduced a topic I’ve been vocal about for years. In coming weeks there’ll be plenty more.
Covering:
Stake.com owned Kick rivalling Twitch
Neymar streaming another Curacao crypto on Twitch
Kick being championed by users
How stunted iGaming regulation in the US will continue to see these sites thrive
The whole bloody “age” point is being missed again, and it’s inevitable that esports somehow gets bundled in with all of the aforementioned crap -- which it is not.
Drop me a free sub, a paid sub, or if you have any work that needs doing please feel free to email me: oliver.adam.ring@gmail.com
Or send a comment. Let me know what you’d like covered.
Much love.