On Tuesday, partypoker has announced they have created what they call "Team Online", a group composed of members who are some of the world's most well-known and highly influential online poker content creators and streamers.
The creation of Team Online is just one of the various company strategies set in motion based from a plan set for the next weeks and months in which the key focus is to curate and distribute interesting streaming content across partypoker's main Twitch channel. On February 13 Wednesday, partypoker had already set their plans in motion by announcing an official partnership with "The Thirst Lounge", a Twitch streaming channel established in 2016 by Bill Perkins that is all about ‘poker, having fun and living life to its full potential'.
The first member to join partypoker's Team Online is Matt Staples, a 22-year-old poker pro who over the recent years has attracted a huge following across his Twitch and other social media channels. He was born and raised in Alberta, Canada.
Matt began playing poker at the lowest stakes when he was just 18 years old (the admissible age to gamble) and he eventually managed to build a bankroll that supports him to regularly play mid to high stakes tournaments on Twitch.
Three years ago, when Matt began streaming, he only did it just for fun but he immediately noticed his channel was growing and decided to make content creation a full-time endeavor. Currently, his Twitch channel has over 3 million views with 52,000 followers (and counting).
As an already accomplished poker player in his early twenties, Matt's poker career has allowed him to travel to different parts of the globe. So far he traveled to more than 14 countries already whilst supporting his brother Jaime in a weight loss prop bet (where he agreed to gain weight to meet his brother's weight halfway in a year for $150,000 against Bill Perkins, which they won when they both weighed in at 85.4 kg).
This weight loss/gain prop bet that they won goes to show that Matt works hard in achieving his goals, and he's fully serious in making himself a solid high-stakes player as well as continuously growing his Twitch poker followers.
Matt said, "I am incredibly excited to be entering into a sponsorship with partypoker. Becoming a sponsored pro is something I've aspired to for a while now, and I couldn't be happier about the partnership. There's nothing I like more than streaming tournaments on Twitch and I'm pumped to have the opportunity to showcase and help grow partypoker and their Twitch community."
Matt Staples Twitch account: https://www.twitch.tv/MattStaples
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattStaplesPKR
What Next?
There will be plans to include an all-new partypoker high stakes cash game that will allow the poker community to witness some of the biggest poker personalities coming together and battling it out on the site's virtual cash game tables, streamed live!
partypoker's official Twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/partypokertv
As an added treat, current Team partypoker members such as Fedor Holz, Ludovic Geilich, and Patrick Leonard will take turns in hosting partypoker Twitch streaming sessions to make it more appealing to viewers as well as provide valuable insight on a wide array of poker topics.
partypoker managing director Tom Waters said, "We have been a bit behind the curve when it comes to streaming, but we are hoping to make up for lost time by compiling an elite team that will be able to stream entertaining and engaging content 24/7. We are delighted to have Matt join the team and will be able to announce some more exciting additions to Team Online in the coming days."
In the next days for this week, partypoker shall be announcing new additions to Team Online via their blog and social media pages.