Lex Veldhuis Drops Twitch to Have More Freedom and Options

07:17
24 Nov

Top Twitch streamer Lex Veldhuis has relinquished his Twitch Partner status to have more options and freedom going forward. The Dutch tournament player announced the shocking news on stream explaining that he was unhappy at not being allowed to stream on multiple platforms at the same time as well as some other concerns restricting him.

“I'm giving up partner on Twitch to have more options multistreaming. I'll still continue to stream! Don't sub anymore, because Twitch hasn't turned partner off yet and I don't want you to waste $.”

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$60,000 Decision!

This decision by Veldhuis obviously wasn’t taken lightly as he revealed that Twitch Partner status to him was worth around $60,000 a year. Not exactly chump change for even the well-off.

This life of a streamer has been Lex Velduis’s life focus for the past seven years and made him arguably the top poker streamer in the world today. More than 300,000 followers regularly tuned in to see him grinding and those who were around early enough have seen his life change dramatically.

First came a wife, then a family and then, as has happened in the poker world before, local legislation got in the way and changes were forced upon him. The situation in the Netherlands regarding the withdrawal of PokerStars led to the Team Pro being forced to pack his bags and head to Belgium to work and only able to return home when it was time to rest.

In fact, it looks like it was this change that was the impetus for this sudden decision to leave Twitch. Veldhuis’s wife was sat at home with two young children and he was feeling more and more that he should be there.

“Nights were hard. This is pretty rough. What if I’m going to be in Belgium on a night like this? I just started thinking to myself, ‘This is just not possible.’ I just can’t go to Belgium four days a week. It’s not something I want emotionally. I want to be present.”

It hasn’t been said yet, but are we to take this as a given that Veldhuis is to leave the PokerStars stable and return home full-time?

He tweeted that he will still be streaming on Twitch but now also on YouTube at the same time while having one eye on different kinds of content creation.

“Want to emphasize again, I will still stream on Twitch, but now simultaneously on Youtube as well. On top of that going to dive in tons of other content-creation as well.”

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Lex Veldhuis Takes Swipe at Twitch

There was one more reason why Lex Veldhuis has decided to part ways with his Twitch Partner status: Twitch’s perceived lack of interest in poker.

Veldhuis fears that poker is no longer being pushed to the same degree as before following the cull of unregulated gambling sites from the platform.

“I think there is a big fear that poker is being lumped in with slots which has a lot of negative connotations. It made me think: I don’t see a reason to be exclusively streaming on Twitch. I think content should be open and for everyone. I know that poker is not getting recommended to anybody. There is sort of a stigma on it. And it’s a stigma that poker players have been fighting their whole lives. I just didn’t really feel Twitch deserves to have a stranglehold on where you show your poker.”

The plan for now seems to be to do more content creation at home and only travel to Belgium for monster Sunday sessions when the weekly majors are in play. He says he still loves the game and is now ready to start a new chapter in his life with more creative control.

We wish him the best of luck.