Multi-platform is the name of the game in today’s online poker world. As a growing operator making news, GGPoker now offers its own Twitch channel for viewing the action.
Dubbed GGPokerTV, company officials hope the new media option becomes much more than just a typical poker stream. GG offers poker fans a chance to check out the action online in some of the site’s biggest events.
The site is hoping to set itself apart from others in the medium and continued streaming final tables this week of the GGPoker WSOP Super Circuit Online Series.
GGPoker goes live on Twitch
John Scanlon leads the Twitch media efforts as GGPoker director of partnerships, ambassadors, and live events. He joined the fastest-growing online poker brand in early April.
He comes to the role from a live events background, most recently heading up Aspers Poker in the United Kingdom. The momentum for the GG stream was already underway when he came on board. But Scanlon hopes some recent key additions make it a player-friendly experience.
“Things really started to pick up pace once ElkY [poker pro Bertrand Grospellier] decided to join the GGPoker family,” Scanlon tells USPoker. “The project came together so fast, from concept to reality in a matter of days.
The original idea for GGPoker.TV came from James Barrett (JamesPkr), Gary Cunningham (UPAY4DINNER) and Andy Lowin (TwosNeverLose), longtime leaders within the GGPoker Discord community. They approached GGPoker management with this concept, and provided many of the core elements that were optimized into the final GGPoker.TV product.
“It was really quite remarkable to see how all the different departments worked together along with external resources to put this together, especially considering, we were also in the middle of $50 Million Guaranteed GGSeries.”
Something different with ElKY and others
With its new media offering, GG hopes to be more than an average poker channel. The goal is to focus on poker but also plenty of entertainment.
That includes analysis and insight from great poker minds. Grospellier brings plenty to the table in his role and is excited to grow the Twitch channel.
“Twitch is an awesome platform and I joined GGPoker as head of streamers, so I’m really glad to be fully implicated with the growth of GG on Twitch,” Grospellier says. “Joining GGPoker feels awesome. I really share their ambition and vision, about making poker fun again, and the importance of software excellence.”
That focus on fun is definitely part of the goal, Scanlon notes, and that includes promotions and prizes for viewers. The site’s software already features some unique features like the ability to stake other players.
“From the very first broadcast, we don’t want to just be another poker Twitch channel, we want to showcase what GGPoker is all about – the unique features and the fun we want to put back into poker,” he says. “As we progress we will be adding more and more content to the channel.”
That goes beyond traditional Texas Hold’em events and could include unique games like “All In or Fold” and entertaining high stakes cash games.
Cards up, entertaining commentary crews, and all in at GGPokerTV
One of the highlights of televised poker has always been the ability for viewers to see players’ hole cards. For the first time, viewers could actually see how great players play their cards.
That has carried over to GGPokerTV. Players checking out the channel’s first stream noticed hole cards were visible
Along with ElkY, recent commentators have included Joe Stapleton, Matt Berkey, Christian Soto, and Felipe Ramos. Daniel Negreanu has also been a key signing for Team GG and served as a commentator as well.
For Negreanu, showing cards is a game changer for the new stream and makes it unique.
“Personally, I think this is incredibly cool,” he says. “Watching poker without access to hole cards is less entertaining as far as I’m concerned, so being able to watch the GG Masters with cards up, and great commentary in addition to that, makes for a great stream.”
Scanlon says more GGPoker ambassadors will be featured as well as popular Twitch streamers from around the globe.
The site plans to use the new medium to add some value for fans. GG recently gave away $10,000 to viewers over a weekend as part of the live streams. The stream also offers some options should GG begin offering live tournament events after the Coronavirus pandemic.
“We have many things in the pipeline, but unfortunately I can’t say too much at this time,” Snanlon says.
“We have some really massive announcements in the coming weeks and GGPoker Network will be the place to play and GGPokerTV will be the place to watch the action unfold.”