JASON SOMERVILLE INTERVIEW
cool must be going on,’” he says. “The next thing you know you’re hooked watching me play a tourney and you’re like, ‘Wow, I want to learn how to play.’ To me that’s the power of Twitch, that’s the power of
RunItUp.tv. We’re touching people that would would otherwise never be touched by poker content – especially in America.”
Somerville says there are always new players
dropping in on his stream to check out the action. Twitch skews to younger viewers, many of whom missed the original poker book in the 2000s that propelled the game’s popularity.
“So many of the people who are watching on
Twitch are the people who are 18 to 24 years old who never saw the golden days of poker like I saw,” he says. “So bringing them to poker now, they go, ‘What is this?’ You know how many times I have to answer on my stream: ‘What’s the button?’, ‘What’s the blind?’ or ‘Is this real money.’
“That’s how I’ve always seen Twitch generally.
We’re building new poker fans, we’re finding players who fell out of love with the game over the last few years find poker again and be like, ‘Wow this is interesting.’”
BEYOND THE TWITCH FELT In the last few years, RunItUp has grown from
merely a Twitch stream to a unique poker brand. His company has undergone a natural progression from
beyond merely playing poker for a living, but playing to build the brand. No longer is he reliant on revenue from the felt, instead alternative streams keep RunItUp rolling on.
“It’s like its own small TV network,” he says. “I guess at this point I put in close to 2,500 hours of broadcasting on Twitch, reached just over 25 million visits, and served almost a billion minutes of content served worldwide. Those numbers are absolutely astronomical. I’m pretty sure only the World Series of Poker beats me for raw numbers – and it’s become a bit of a phenomenon.”
That phenomenon has evolved into
RunItUp.tv. The
website offers fans a link to the Twitch stream and much more.
RIUStats.com offers a complete library of every single session he’s ever played and tracks of your wins and losses. Viewers can watch poker sessions via video on demand.
The system has created a platform that continues
to grow and has become much more than just online poker. Along with revenue derived from poker winnings, Twitch also runs its own video ads and Somerville gets a percentage of that ad on his stream. Twitch also allows for advertising for individual streamers and some even have other deals with the company.
Somerville has his own advertisers, but has also expanded to promoting poker tournaments. Many of
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