Twitch viewers are baffled after a partnered UFC stream promotes crypto gambling website Stake, going against the platform’s very own Terms of Service.
After weeks of backlash from the streaming community, Twitch finally took action against gambling content on the Amazon-owned platform last October.
The platform’s new policy prohibits creators from streaming sites that contain slots, roulette, and dice games and are unlicensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions.
Twitch listed sites such as Stake.com, Rollbit.com, and more as prohibited. However, users are now calling out the platform’s hypocrisy, as the gambling site was promoted in a recent UFC stream.
In a March 25 LivestreamFail thread, Twitch viewer ‘AbusiveSyndrome’ noted how the platform allowed the UFC to promote Stake on their channel.
Serving as the official betting partner of the UFC, the viewer shared a clip clearly showing Stake’s advertisement on the mat of the octagon — leaving many baffled.
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“Just another hypocrisy from Twitch,” one user hit out. “So Twitch is just going back to gambling again,” said another.
However, one Reddit user noted that the UFC isn’t in violation of Twitch’s Terms of Service. The policy restricts streamers from sharing referral codes with chat, as well as verbally directing viewers or having a banner with a link to banned sites.
“Seems slightly ambiguous, but I would read that to mean they don’t allow streaming on the website, meaning streamers are still free to advertise Stake if they don’t go on the website. So there is no issue with this stream,” they wrote.
Gambling on Twitch has certainly been a controversial topic in the last year. Despite the policy update, the Slots category is still massive on the Amazon-owned platform. But that may change soon as a list of banned sites grows.