PokerStars: linking your gaming account to Twitch

PokerStars and Twitch accounts can be linked

Until now, PokerStars has used fairly standard methods to expand its audience on streaming platforms, focusing on Twitch: 

• An official channel was created on the platform;
• Most PokerStars Team Pro members stream regularly;
• Held exclusive contests for streamers, engaging the most promising ones in a new PokerStars Streamers Team.

This week PokerStars decided to go one step further with the launch of two completely new features for Twitch users. The first of these is the possibility of linking gaming accounts in the room with the streaming platform (right now, it's available by paying a $4.99 subscription).

Soon, this option will be added to the poker client, and all players will be able to use it. According to Scott Goodall, Head of Poker Comms, Engagement, and Communities at The Stars Group, players can expect individual promotions and rewards after signing in. At the moment, players get a unique chest once a month.

The second feature is called Chat Plays Poker. This interactive option allows the viewers 30 seconds to vote for a particular bet in the current hand. So far, it has only been tested in small live cash games.

PokerStars "chief" streamer Jason Somerville said that Chat Plays Poker would allow all "chat professionals" to realize themselves. It will be interesting to see how PokerStars avoid trolling to streamers from users deliberately choosing an EV- option.

Goodall also commented that these were only the first steps to integrate PokerStars and Twitch. In the future, players will have the option to test several new features.

Summary

Most likely, all the new features launch by the poker room in the future will focus on increasing the entertainment and interactive component of poker streams, something that can be called "making poker fun."

By analogy with other online games, it's possible to introduce different ways of interaction between streamers and the audience: holding challenges, voting, etc.

Of course, all this will be far from the concept of online poker as a skill game, but it will surely attract recreational players and engage new Twitch viewers, helping to increase the influx of so-called "new blood" into the industry.

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