SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Twitch has announced that it will update its community guidelines to no longer allow the live streaming of unlicensed gambling websites on its platform.
This morning, the live streaming platform issued a statement acknowledging that gambling content on Twitch had become a “big topic of discussion in the community”.
As a result, Twitch has undertaken a further review of its gambling policy, since its last update in August 2021, which saw the streaming platform ban link referrals promoting gambling promotions.
Despite implementing restrictions last year, Twitch stated that a number of streaming channels had circumvented its rules and continued to promote illegal websites.
Following its review, from the 18 October Twitch will no longer allow users to stream gambling websites that feature slots, roulette, or dice games, if the website doesn’t hold a license in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide “sufficient consumer protection.”
The statement cited cryptocurrency operators Stake.com, Rollbit. Duelbits, and Roobet.com as online casinos that had broken Twitch’s community rules.
Twitch pledged to share the specifics on the updates to gambling policy soon to make sure everyone is clear on the changes before their implementation.
This summer a Bloomberg exposé revealed multiple instances of Curacao-licensed operators breaking Twitch’s community rules, promoting online gambling games to US viewers, who lost thousands of dollars playing on unlicensed websites.
Last May, it was reported that Stake-sponsored rapper Drake had lost over $20m gambling via live streams on Twitch, with his gambling streams attracting live audiences of +200,000 viewers.
