Making moves
This week, Twitch introduced a ban on streams featuring unregulated casinos such as Stake and Roobet. One of the main content creators impacted by that measure is Tyler Niknam, better known as Trainwreck. The streamer has secured a strong following through his high stakes gambling exploits.
make his own platform or team up with one
Niknam has been vocal in his disapproval of the ban – something he earlier deemed an “inconsistent” measure made by a “corrupt” company. Now, with that measure finally in place, Trainwreck has gone one step further by pledging to either make his own platform or team up with one.
The Arizonian proposed the idea on Twitter Wednesday night:
The ban has also seen other popular streamers such as Roshtein and Xposed end their gambling output. Niknam is the most popular of these gambling-focused creators with around 2.1 million followers. On Wednesday, he claimed that he had made $360m over the past 16 months by promoting gambling on his streams.
Twitter responds
Trainwreck’s tweet received a largely supportive response from his followers. Ewokttv, a streamer with 331,000 followers on Twitch, replied: “as a small streamer thank you.” Meanwhile, one user named @coolmusicguy88 said: “Twitch is on its path to ruin itself anyway so this could be the perfect moment.”
Others on Twitter were more inquisitive regarding Trainwreck’s plan. Questioned on how he hoped to compete with Twitch, the streamer replied:
Some users even offered to help Trainwreck in his ambitious undertaking. Kristian Sturt, head of influencer marketing and talent management at marketing firm Colossal Influence, urged Niknam to get in touch. “I’ve spoken about this in length on podcasts, worked in influencer marketing for 10 years and have on boarded micro creators for a live streaming app already,” Sturt noted.
Finally, Classify, a Twitch streamer with 118,000 followers, shared a gif representing what it might feel like to get a contract with his fellow streamer:
A regular voice
Trainwreck has consistently used his large following on social media to speak out on certain issues. For instance, in February this year, he took aim at fellow streamer Roshtein in a rant about transparency. Niknam argued that other streamers were misleading followers by lying about their profits and losses.
After Twitch announced its gambling ban earlier this month, Trainwreck took to Twitter for another scathing rant. He said: “The inconsistency to not ban sports betting is corruption considering the fact you have your hands in the $13bn NFL deal cookie jar &the fact you virtue signaling streamers act like you care about ‘gambling’ are silent when it’s 100x the market & more prevalent are just as corrupt.”
After the ban came into place on Wednesday, Trainwreck visited social media once more to share a video of the final scene of ‘The Dark Knight.’ In the clip, in which Trainwreck presumably means to portray his own situation, Gary Oldman describes Batman as “the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.”