Twitch adds two more gambling firms to blacklist
Streaming platform expands prohibited list with additions of Blaze and Gamdom as it also strengths gambling-related marketing rules
Twitch has added Blaze and Gamdom to its prohibited list of gambling websites as the platform continues to clamp down on unlicensed firms.
The addition of the two sites follows last year’s October 2022 ban on unlicensed gambling sites, which saw Stake, Rollbit, Roobet and Duelbits all banned from the site.
Gamdom is a Curaçao-licensed crypto operator that boasts Usain Bolt as a brand ambassador. Blaze is also licensed in Curaçao and focuses on the Brazilian market. The operator sponsors PSG forward Neymar and Brazilian football clubs Santos and Goianiense.
Announcing the news on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Twitch said the move was made to make the site safer and that there had been a significant drop in gambling viewership after the updated policy.
Twitch said: “Today, we’re adding two additional gambling sites – Blaze and Gamdom – to our list of prohibited sites and sharing learnings from last year’s policy change.
“Our goal now, as it was last fall, is to protect our community, address predatory behaviour and make Twitch safer.
“After updating the policy – prohibiting streams of certain sites that include slots, roulette or dice games – we saw gambling viewership drop by ~75%.
“This meant the change had an immediate impact, and that our community has been better protected from scams and related harms.
“Since then, we’ve observed some new trends and are updating our list of prohibited sites to better protect our community. It’s important that the policy continues to meaningfully prevent harm.”
CEO Dan Clancy said back in June that gambling was allowed to be streamed on the platform but that it had to be regulated.
He later added that there was a potential route back for currently unregulated operators on Twitch.
Twitch adding to its ban list came after it had updated its community guidelines to ban the promotion or sponsorship deals relating to skin gambling on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) streams.
The popular first-person shooter game is known for having lucrative skins for weapons that players can unlock via playing the game, trading old skins for new ones or buying them on various third party websites.
Skins change the appearances of weapons in the game and have been sold for between six and seven figures in the past.
Skin gambling in CS:GO’s community is extremely popular, whereby players bet on the outcome of professional matches using the skins as a virtual currency.
In an update to Twitch’s prohibited gambling content FAQs, the site now clearly states under the question, ‘Is sponsorship of skins gambling, such as for CSGO skins, allowed on Twitch’, the response now reads: “No, promotion or sponsorship of skins gambling is prohibited under our policy.”