The Coronavirus lockdown has impacted virtually every business in different ways. For some companies, moving online has worked, for others, it’s been a case of changing the key ways in which they operate to survive. But what about one of the industries who were already online?  

Poker has resisted a hit on the online side of the industry, but the live side has been hit badly, with many casinos closing for months on end and now having to return to a completely altered set-up, costing them vital numbers on their bottom line. Online tournaments have had to take up the challenge of keeping poker brands not just afloat but providing profits and that’s happened for virtually all poker sites with a strong online presence.  

A good example of this – and potentially a guide to how strong poker will be in an uncertain future – is the way that the game has come across on Twitch.  

The popular game-streaming platform has seen a boom in recent weeks for poker viewers. From the World Series of Poker, brought to life by players such as Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow, to the PokerStars Stadium Series, with events won and streamed by popular Twitch streamer and Stars pro Lex Veldhuis, it’s been a phenomenal few weeks, as Veldhuis himself summed up on Twitter: