For years, Vegas casino online real money gaming has involved Big Tech companies who battled to bring in the top competitors and the highest number of viewers. Facebook, Google/YouTube and Twitch were the platforms that dominated the gaming scene for video and online casino gaming live streams and competitions and everything else was compared to these tech giants.
New platforms have now emerged and it’s worth checking them out.
Discord
The Discord text and voice chat app started out as a platform for individual gamers but it is now attracting new creators and tech brands who appreciate the ability to create and manage communities on the platform. Its interface that makes it easy to link multiple devices together as you communicate with real-life friends when playing a virtual game together.
Discord offers a number of features such as channels, Slack teams and WhatsApp groups so communities can organize around topics like video games, bitcoins, etc.
A lot of gamers like Discord because, as a platform centered around private groups, it feels like its the best online space to get personal with friends – you can live stream events, host discussions, set up calls, promote projects and bring new ideas to life. When you set up a Discord community you can foster the community as you see fit.
Discord is especially popular with blockchain users because brands can build their own community on the blockchain.
One of the main reasons that people choose not to use Discord is that it’s difficult to moderate. It involves real-time communication and that’s difficult to control. Video and audio streams disappear right after they happen. Some moderators are more on top of things and better able to control their group while others are lax and the group can become a forum for harassment and cyberbullying.
TikTok
TikTok launched in 2016 and since then it’s become a valuable tool for gamers. Using TikTok, gamers can create and share short video clips of their gaming activities to build their audiences and attract new viewers and followers. TikTok videos have many useful tools including text, music, filters and special effects. TikTok creators can develop sub-communities and niche audiences, connect remixes of ther TikTok or YouTube videos.
As of August 2022, half of TikTok users were watching gaming-related short video content daily. The platform is popular with creators because they engage with their audience as they share their love of gaming through cosplay, tips, stories, sharing gaming tips and tricks, reenactments, comedy skits and other interactive content. Simultaneously, viewers connect to their favorite gaming creators.
Two of TikTok’s most useful features are the “duet” and “stitch” features that allow users to repurpose content published by other creators. For businesses, this money-saving feature lets them launch campaigns at a low cost by using other creators’ content.
For streamers, TikTok is a good solution because the TikTok algorithm supports new accounts in order to draw more diverse content and attract more users. In addition, by joining the TikTok Creator Fund you can easily monetize your content and once you hit 1000 followers you can start livestreaming content.
Like Discord, TikTok isn’t for everyone. The TikTok algorithm is hard to predict, complicating efforts to push yourself up in the rankings. Also, similar to Discord, the platform hosts hate speech, harassment and cyberbullying activities that can attract thousands of views before it’s taken down. Many of the user accounts are fake.
DLive
DLive was launched in 2017 as a place where content creators could post value-sharing, live-streaming content. It is used by gamers as an alternative to Twitch and has come under fire for lax content moderation which has made it a forum for people posting undesirable content.
It empowers creators and viewers through a rewards system that operates through blockchain technology. Viewers and creators receive rewards for participating or being actively involved in the platform.
Rewards for content creators include 80% of revenue from monetary features and subscriptions while rewards for viewers include “lemons” for their own interactions including simply watching videos on the site.
Content creators like DLive because it features high-quality streams, greater audience potential than with other streaming platforms, mobile streaming and analytics tracking. Some of the reasons that content creators choose to bypass DLive include its “DLive-Video” notification in front of all tags, lack of ability to embed a video in a post, lack of subscriptions feature and conspicuous “Thunbs-Down” (down-vote) icon.
How To Choose the Right Streaming Platform?
In general, if you’re trying to choose the right live-streaming platform for your content, you need to consider:
- The type of content that you want to stream so that you can identify where your audience is and which platform will provide maximum presence and engagement for your brand.
- The monetization models that you plan to use so that you can be sure to cover the streaming services prices.
- The user experience and your own ability to navigate the software and hardware needed to stream on each platform.
- The visual elements supported on each platform so, if you want text runners, virtual backgrounds, music, video players, custom logo headers, screen-sharing or other elements, you’ll have access to them as needed.
