Cardrooms have been growing around the world at a faster rate than ever. Not only for the experience they provide to their players, but also because they are content machines with a global impact. Cardrooms of all sizes are recognizing the effectiveness of broadcasting the excitement that happens at their tables to the world. A consistent, high-quality livestream that generates a vast library of video content is just what every room needs to build an audience, and our platform allows them to do just that.

As cardrooms grow and poker table technology improves, pursuing livestreaming has become more simple, affordable, and necessary than ever before. Adding a livestream to a cardroom offers significant benefits, such as enhanced marketing opportunities, increased revenue potential, and a powerful, shareable experience for players.

Marketing and Brand Recognition

Livestreaming raises brand awareness and brings more players to the table by providing real-time content for consumption through social media platforms. This not only attracts a dedicated core audience but also boosts brand recognition through online presence. Almost all of the most successful poker cardrooms in the United States have reaped the rewards of livestreaming, building a consistent and engaging online presence that keeps players and viewers coming back for more.

The rooms in Texas pioneered this in the last decade, learning from the worldwide impact shows on ESPN and PokerGo had. Today, the top rooms in every city have a studio. From the four Texas Card House locations to two Lodge Card Club locations to the dozens of smaller rooms across the state, they have all made a global brand from a local network of players raking in 20M+ views a month. Players travel across the world to play in World Series, local tours, and other card rooms representing their favorite players and rooms through merch. This drives new traffic into card rooms and elevates their status as a brand.

Revenue Potential

The visibility and excitement of being on a livestream creates a local competitive advantage, attracting more eyes and bigger games. Moreover, it can allow a poker room to showcase its unique offerings. Vloggers and outside influencers gain a platform on which they can travel to your room and bring their audiences to crossover, either from other areas of the poker sphere or from somewhere with zero prior overlap. Hosting low-stakes games on stream during meet-up games is also effective at driving more footfall. For example, a meet-up game with Brad Owen has regularly brought in a dozen or more additional tables worth of otherwise infrequent players. Adding a livestreaming aspect to your live events is a powerful, yet underutilized tool to connect with your most dedicated players and intrigue the more casual ones. Although most rooms like to provide their stream as an amenity to players, some have high demand and waitlists so added or fees or higher seat rental to play on stream as well.

Multiple online revenue streams can be developed through a poker livestream. With automated systems for content generation like ours, clips of exciting moments seamlessly generate additional ad revenue and boost reach. Legacy media has lost so much ground to social media across all audiences, and marketing budgets are adjusting to match. An estimated $600 billion will be spent on content marketing in 2024, with video content outperforming all other formats. These marketing dollars are focused on high income audiences which has a large overlap with card players. Although the top streams generate $200k+ in ad revenue alone, even the smaller rooms can attract a couple hundred viewers per stream, cover their costs, and build a free marketing engine.

Once your audience is all ears, other activations include relevant sponsorship opportunities and audience donations. Some of our larger customers charge 5 figures a month for sponsorship packages. By getting local brands to show their logo on the felt or get a 30 second ad read from the commentators, they can get in front of thousands of viewers that live in the vicinity. On the other hand, global advertisers can target their ads to specific audiences at the fraction of the cost of generic advertising with higher conversion.

Compared to traditional advertising, the sale of merch has seen high conversions through YouTube channels as well. Many YouTubers and Vloggers have started their own secondary product lines. Small channels averaging 50k monthly views make about $200 in ad sense per month but generate $3k+ in merch sales per month. Larger channels are able to start their own products and create multi-billion dollar companies by using their audience as a starting distribution channel. Vloggers like Rampage Poker make $150k+ a year through ad revenue and even more through his own merch and product lines.

Unique Player Experience

Livestream tables capture shareable moments that players and social media accounts can quickly share, enhancing player engagement. The appeal of being featured on a livestream organically encourages more players to participate, drawn by the prospect of their big hands and their personalities being showcased. Just one viral clip can get everyone talking for days.

From there, your community of players and viewers grows, fostering a sense of belonging and loyalty to your cardroom. The narrative built through the progression of big hands and standout characters keeps viewers invested and eager for more, driving repeat visits. The infamous heads up game with Eric Persson and Phil Hellmuth, the first creator game with Alan Keating, Bill Perkins heading to the airport in the middle of a bluff, and the list goes on. Some of the biggest names in the poker industry started playing on streams, grew an audience globally, and brought new players and viewers into the game.

Jump In!

Adding a livestream to your cardroom delivers top-tier marketing and brand recognition, increased revenue potential, and a compelling player experience. Cardroom owners and managers are increasingly considering these benefits to keep their venues at the forefront of the poker world.