With things taking a slight turn for the worse when it comes to PokerStars, it hasn’t taken the PartyPoker platform long to prove how much it’s willing to improve its own standing. In fact, it was only recently that we reported on the sponsorship of the Poker Series in France and Spain.
Yet, PartyPoker isn’t finished there, because it has also announced its Team Online concept, making moves towards becoming a key player in the live streaming market. It’s probably the biggest and best move that the brand has made recently, considering that even the Managing Director of PartyPoker claimed that it has been quite lacking in terms of streaming.
While ambassadors of the PartyPoker brand may have taken a slight paddle in the live streaming waters before, there hasn’t really been any consistency behind such. Therefore, any kind of interest that may have been garnered previously has swiftly fizzled away to nothing. PokerStars has been gripping players in the live streaming market since 2015 when it signed Jason Somerville. And what’s more, since that time, the brand has been completely at the forefront.
Well, not anymore, if PartyPoker has anything to do with it.
With the creation of its Team Online, which will be made up of some of the world’s very best and high-profile poker creators as well as streamers, the brand aims to cement its own legacy in the sector.
Matt Staples Comes Aboard
The well-known poker aficionado Matt Staples has claimed the first seat at the Team Online table, building on his relationship with the PartyPoker brand. It was just on Sunday that Staples made an announcement to his 12,000 followers on Twitter, that he had been gifted a seat worth $5,000 at the brand’s KO Series $1 million guaranteed event.
Matt is actually the brother of a former PokerStars Team Pro – Jamie Staples. He recently went his own way, separating from PokerStars, and now looks to potentially be a shoo-in to join Matt in the Team Online conglomerate.
Yet, for now, Matt remains as the first and sole member to be a part of Team Online. He began playing poker at the age of 18 and also started streaming just a year later. Since that time, he has built up a supreme following of 52,000 avid fans on Twitch, with his stream being watched over 3 million times already.
In actual fact, his audience number grew considerably thanks to the exposure that he gained via a prop bet with Bill Perkins. That bet was for he and his brother, Jamie to weigh within one pound of each other after one year. That became known as The Ultimate Sweat and saw both brothers win the $150,000 wager weighing in at 85.4kg exactly.
PartyPoker then went on to sign a partnership with Perkins, sponsoring his Thirst Lounge streaming experience in the process. This sees him select ten streamers to create content that is designed to be able to appease people who seemingly have a “thirst” for life.
More additions to Team Online are expected to be announced in the upcoming weeks and months.
