PokerStars Links Up with Team Liquid of eSports Fame

When I saw that PokerStars had announced a major link with esports giant Team Liquid, I definitely considered calling this piece “PokerStars have been Liquidated”, but alas, I resisted. Poker players have been through enough stress over the years, so I decided to spare you this time. You can thank me later!

Poker streaming on Twitch—which is utilised to great effect by professional poker players like Jason Somervillewho this week had 30,000 viewers as he final tabled a major online poker tournament—has launched the careers of many poker streamers, most notably the very affable and watchable Jaime “Pokerstaples” Staples. Poker on Twitch is now a major part of poker online. More and more players are choosing to live stream as they play and thousands of eager viewers are tuning in to watch their favorite players and pick up tips and tricks to improve their own poker game.

In many ways, Twitch is upgrading the traditional poker railbird as you not only get to watch the poker action as it unfolds, but you get to see and hear the players react to the situations that play out in front of them. Add in the additional bonus of being able to interact with the players in their Twitch chat, albeit with the required time delay to protect the game's integrity, and you can see why poker viewing on twitch is exploding in popularity and replacing the old railbird.

In light of the growing popularity of poker on Twitch, PokerStars announced their link with Team Liquid. Initially, three Team Liquid stars, Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen, Jeffrey "SjoW" Brusi and Dario "TLO" Wünsch, will stream their poker play on twitch and wear the PokerStars logo at a number of high profile live tournaments including the European Poker Tour.

It turns out that opportunities in the largely untapped gaming market came to the attention of PokerStars some time ago. Team Liquid’s Victor “Nazgul” Goossens revealed that the plan to form this partnership has not been a sudden decision, as discussions were taking place as far back as 2012.

Nazgul said:

The route to their partnership was facilitated by the existing relationship Team Liquid has with well-known poker professional and PokerStars pro Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. Elky was a trailblazer for competitive gaming when he travelled to Korea many years ago to pursue his dream of being a professional gamer. His decision to pursue gaming as a career was many years before competitive gaming hit the mainstream and in late 2015 Elky announced his comeback to professional esports when he announced he was rejoining Team Liquid to help them in their quest to dominate the card game Hearthstone.

Elky said at the time;

The esports market could potentially be huge for PokerStars. Team Liquid have already begun to tweet to their 135,000+ followers about special offers and it is clear PokerStars see the link as the beginning of a long-term strategy to tap into the esports market and attract many gamers to poker.

It makes perfect sense. Team Liquid’s supporters are already dedicated gamers who have demonstrated the transferable skills of playing card games and spending many hours mastering the subtleties of the games. The market is largely made up of young people who are happy to chase the dream of professional play and seek an alternative path to the standard 9-5 life. Does this sound familiar to you as poker players? Their commitment to learning and practising their chosen game for many hours a day is exactly the traits PokerStars will be looking for in potential poker players. The Team Liquid supporters are a perfect fit for them.

It is clear that Twitch and Poker is a hand-to-glove fit. The Global Poker League this week announced a partnership with Twitch to livestream their playoffs further improving links between the two entities and I expect further links between other poker rooms and esports teams to be announced in the near future. Only last month I noticed how big esports is becoming when the final of the FIFA 16 World Championships was replayed on Sky Sports.

Securing a sponsor like PokerStars is a major success for Team Liquid and only serves to highlight that esports and professional gaming are enjoying growth and an emergence into popular culture at a phenomenal rate. There is little surprise then, that their high profile professional players are now associated with the world’s largest poker room.