888Poker has entered the competitive world of eSports after partnering with FlowEsports in a deal that will see the team expose their Twitch audience to online poker.
Technology is advancing at such a rate Elon Musk believes that it’s highly likely we exist in a Matrix-like computer simulation, and the philosopher Nick Bostrom hypothesises that Artificial Intelligence could one day turn us all into paperclips.
And when I read all of this alarm over the future of our race I don’t worry about the paperclip transformation, or living in a world overrun by androids – all I think about is the future of football.
If all that technological stuff kicks off, and the math suggests it’s inevitable, then the world of sport will look very different as it does today.
The transformation has already begun.
For the first time in my lifetime, a new sport has emerged that has the potential to rival any that has gone before or currently exists. And bizarrely, you don’t even have to leave the house to play.
In 2015, experts valued global eSports revenue at $612 million, with 134 million viewers worldwide. Those numbers are expected to grow at the rate of 30% over the next five years.
One of these eSports is Hearthstone, a card based game played by over 40 million users generating 1.7 million Twitch views per month.
If the purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer, then if I owned an online poker room I would be sending my sniffer dogs into this kind of market.
888Poker Has Released The Hounds
888Poker doesn’t want to become a paperclip – their database of 10 million plus users is about to get bigger after the online poker room agreed on a collaboration with eSports outfit FlowEsports.
The team consists of Daniel “C4mlann” Markisch (a Hearthstone player who attracts over 10,000 weekly viewers when he sits down to stream live on Twitch), Tobias Graap (TwoBiers), Vetle Stubberud (Xzirez) and Johannes Steindl (JonnyStoneHS). All four players will wear the 888Poker patch during live streams and at live events.
The team are also keen poker players and will use the 888Poker platform when streaming poker sessions to their fans at least once per week. Markisch recently finished 20th at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event in Rozvadov. Johannes Steindl has recorded five WSOP cashes and once came 31st at the Season 6 European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in Snowfest.
888Poker isn’t the only online poker room to notice this largely untapped reservoir of fresh fish. PokerStars Team Pros Randy Lew, Lex Veldhuis, Daniel Negreanu and Bertrand Grospellier all show a keen interest in eSports with both Lew and ElkY representing Team Liquid in Hearthstone events.
What are you waiting for Dominik Nitsche?
Stop messing around and learn how to play Hearthstone before someone turns you into a paperclip.
