How To Live Stream Poker Tournaments With Muvi Live

In this blog, we will explore beyond Twitch for live streaming poker tournaments. Twitch is popular among professional poker streamers, but the live streaming platform comes with many limitations and challenges that can hinder the growth and profitability of poker tournament streams.

Explore Muvi Live – The Ultimate Live Streaming Solution designed to deliver a seamless poker streaming experience to global audiences.
No upfront investment required. No coding needed. Sign up to get a demo. 

The Rising Trend of Live Poker Streaming

Platforms like Muvi Live and Twitch have enabled poker players to live stream poker tournaments in real-time, fostering a community of poker enthusiasts to watch, learn, and engage.

The trend of live poker streaming has not only democratized access to high-stakes online gambling games but has also transformed poker into a spectator sport, attracting online viewers who enjoy the strategic depth and psychological nuances of the casino game.

Fans no longer need to travel to casinos—they can watch their favorite poker players bluff, fold, and go all-in from the comfort of home. Today, viewers binge-watch live poker tournaments for hours, not just for the gameplay but also for the personalities and communities built around these poker live streams.

This shift of online poker streaming has given rise to a new breed of content creators: poker streamers who blend entertainment, education, and high-stakes online poker drama.

According to Twitch Metrics, last month (February 2025), Twitch witnessed a record-breaking 1,420,298 watch hours with peak viewership of 10k on live poker streams.

And the most watched poker streamers included big channels like Triton Poker Tournaments (183,896 viewer hours), and Poker Stars 24/7 (56,167 viewer hours).

How Much Do Poker Streamers Earn on Twitch?

Live streaming poker tournaments isn’t just a passion project – it’s a lucrative gig for many professional poker streamers. 

On Twitch, earnings from poker streaming vary widely based on followings, live stream consistency, and monetization strategy.

Poker streamers mostly earn money through subscription fees ($2.99, $5.99, or $19.99 per tier) paid by viewers. Around 50% of the total subscription revenue is paid to the poker streamers. The other apparent ways to make money from poker streaming are through ads, donations, and sponsorships.

According to a leaked news report, Lex Veldhius, with 285,000 followers, tops the field in poker streaming and is paid more than $294,000 on Twitch. Lex is a Dutch Poker streamer who has been an ambassador for PokerStars for many years.

Other popular poker streamers – Brian Davis (True Geordie), the second-highest-paid poker streamer, earned $235,000, and Ben Spragg, with an active 128,000 followers, earned a matching $128,000 from his Twitch fanbase.

Challenges of Live Streaming Poker on Twitch

While the big earning figures highlight the potential profitability of poker streaming on Twitch, it’s crucial to acknowledge the critical challenges, too. 

• Twitch’s 50-50 Revenue Sharing: Twitch typically takes a 50% cut on the revenue generated through subscriptions, advertisements, donations, and Bits (Twitch’s virtual currency). This hefty commission can substantially reduce a poker streamer’s income.

• Platform Restrictions: To prevent cheating, poker streams need a delay (typically 2-5 minutes). But Twitch doesn’t allow this. Moreover, once the poker streams are live on Twitch, the content is subjected to the platform’s Terms of Services, which may affect a poker streamer’s control over their own content.

• High Competition in Poker Streaming Space: With hundreds of poker channels vying for attention, standing out is a constant battle for poker streamers on Twitch. There are more than 200 poker streaming channels on Twitch.

• Technical Limitations: Twitch doesn’t allow any control over the streaming server or CDN configurations, nor on the latency setup, resulting in no control over the lag or buffering during the live poker tournament streaming.

• No Content Security: On Twitch, you’ll never know if any of your viewers are recording the poker tournament streams and sharing them on YouTube or Facebook. Twitch has no policy to battle the illegal usage of poker streams.

These challenges necessitate exploring an alternative platform to live stream poker tournaments with more control, better revenue models, and greater flexibility.

Best Alternative To Twitch For Live Streaming Poker Tournaments

While Twitch dominates the poker streaming landscape, alternatives like YouTube Live, Facebook Gaming, and Muvi Live have entered the space. 

YouTube offers broader reach but lacks Twitch’s interactivity. Facebook Gaming taps into a massive social audience but struggles with discoverability for niche content like poker. 

So, what’s the best alternative to Twitch?

Muvi Live stands out as a premier alternative, offering a scalable & secure live streaming solution tailored to live stream poker tournaments across audiences.

Unlike Twitch, Muvi Live offers full control over content, branding, monetization, and user experience. Anyone without any coding skills or technical expertise can design and launch a completely white-label poker live streaming channel using Muvi Live. 

Here are the key advantages of using Muvi Live:

• All-inclusive Live Streaming Platform: Muvi Live is fully equipped and integrated with everything essential for live streaming poker tournaments in real time, including a streaming server, global CDNs, encoders, an on-screen video player, monetization engines, community features, analytics, and more.

• Easy to Setup: Poker Streamers can easily configure or customize their live poker streaming platform as they want. Both the front end (User Interface and experience) and back end (Streaming and management) can be done using the no-code CMS. No technical expertise or IT Team is required.

• Robust Content security: Muvi Live comes with built-in DRM, watermarking, and end-to-end encryption features. This helps poker streamers to protect their live poker streamings from illegal recording or usage across the internet.

• Explore Multiple Monetization Methods: Poker streamers can monetize live streams with ads or a paywall. They can even sell exclusive tickets to their high-stake poker tournaments or even start a monthly subscription for poker enthusiasts.

• Adaptive Bitrate Technology For Lag-Free Live Streaming: Muvi Live’s built-in encoding engine converts the live stream to optimal video and sound quality as per the viewer’s internet connectivity and device capability. This helps poker streamers to deliver seamless buffer-free live poker streamings to fans.

How To Live Stream Poker Tournaments With Muvi Live?

Muvi Live’s CMS is completely code-free. Anyone can use the CMS to start a live stream on their own. Below here we have listed the steps for how to live stream poker tournaments and monetize them successfully. 

Step 1: Sign up and Set up your Muvi Live Account

Muvi Live offers different subscription plans for poker streams. Select a plan of your choice and provide details about your live streams. Your Poker Streaming Channel will be ready for configurations instantly.

If you’re not sure about taking up a subscription yet, here’s a 14-day free trial for you. In the Free Trial plan, there is 1 GB of bandwidth and 15 minutes of live streaming. Sign up here!!

Step 2: Configure Your Poker Stream Channel Settings

Access the Muvi Live CMS and create a new live stream. Add your live poker tournament name, description, and streaming parameters like bitrate, resolution, or latency preferences. For live poker streaming, we recommend adding a 2-5 minute delay in the latency configurations to ensure fair play among the players.

Step 3: Connect Your Poker Streaming Equipment & Software

If you’re live streaming poker tournaments using camera and audio devices, you can directly use the feed URL i.e. RTMP feed, in the encoder settings. But if you’re using an encoding software like OBS or vMix, you need to input the Stream Key and URL provided by Muvi Live and connect both the platforms. 

Like many poker streamers, if you want to live stream online poker tournaments using screensharing or webcam, you can use Muvi Live’s built-in encoder. This makes it easy for poker streamers to simply share their screen, add scoreboard overlays, give live commentaries (facial expressions), and go live instantly.

Step 4: Customize Your Poker Streaming Media Player

The good thing about Muvi Live, you can customize your media player that’s displaying the poker live stream. Add your brand logo, color schemes, and necessary UX changes to give viewers an ultimate poker streaming experience.

In the player window, you can even enable the built-in chat for real-time interaction and also integrate third-party frameworks like prediction games, scoreboard overlays, or gifts & donations for enhanced fan engagement.

Step 5: Enable Monetization and DRM

DRM and Monetization modules are optional in the Muvi Live streaming platform, though built-in. Poker streamers can easily enable these from the CMS with one click. You can enable poker stream monetization through ads or set a paywall and offer tickets. 

In the same CMS, you also get to setup your analytics for both users and revenue. This will give you clear picture of how much revenue you’re earning from poker live streamings.

Step 6: Test Your Live Stream and Go Live

Once every configuration is done, start your online poker tournament live streams instantly. To avoid any blunders during the live poker streaming, please run a test stream, ensuring the video and audio latency are synced. Then, Go Live in one click.

Share the streaming link with your fans and followers and allow them to watch the live streams on their preferred devices.

Hope our guide to live stream poker tournaments with Muvi Live was simple for you to understand. If at any step, you’re confused with the deployment or integrations, feel free to talk with our experts. 

The Future of Live Poker Streaming

The future of live poker streaming seens really exciting. With technological developments and adoption of end-to-end live streaming platforms, the potentials for poker streaming is boundless.

• Virtual Reality in Poker Streamings: Very soon, you’re going to witness your favorite poker streamers in their Avatars, playing poker in a VR enviornment.

• Interactive Poker Streaming Experience: As the VR technology develops, it’s expected to have more interactive features in the poker streams like live polls, poking, giveaways, and challenges, ensuring viewers a dynamic poker experience.

• More Online Viewerships: Poker Streams currently have a directly on Twitch with 2.6 million followers. This viewership is soon going to rise and explode as poker streaming may continue to get mainstream recognition in the online gaming space.

• New Poker Streamers to Shine: With the ease of live streaming poker tournaments using Muvi Live, many new poker streamers will rise to shine, showcasing their diverse poker-playing abilities and personalities.

Recommended Reads:

OBS Studio Settings for Broadcasting Live Streams

How to Live Stream with OBS and Muvi Live: Step-by-Step Guide

What is Live Casino Streaming? – A Detailed Guide

The eSports Streaming Explosion: Tap into the Future of Online Game Streaming

How to Start Live Streaming – A Detailed Guide

8 Best Ways to Make Money With Live Streaming