Jason Somerville to Bring Aussie Millions to the Masses via Twitch

December 23rd, 2016 | by Greg Shaun

Jason Somerville and Melbourne’s Crown Casino will partner up once again to help broadcast the Aussie Millions to a global audience.

As he did in 2016, Somerville will use his experience and following on Twitch to help bring the Australian event to his 193,000+ followers. Last year’s partnership became the most watched poker stream of 2016 and helped Somerville top the 10 million views mark later in the year.

Jason Somerville Aussie Millions stream.

Jason Somerville and Melbourne’s Crown Casino will broadcast the Aussie Millions via Twitch in 2017. (Image: pokerstars.com)

In 2017, the organizers are hoping the popular pro and social media figure can once again work his magic and not only engage existing poker fans, but general Twitch users.

As a streaming platform, Twitch attracts more than 100 million viewers each month.

A New Way to Watch Games

Despite starting out as a gaming platform where pro gamers would show off their skills, Twitch has since diversified to offer other streams, including music and poker. Somerville has been as the head of the poker streaming revolution since its inception and, today, his channel has attracted more than 14 million views.

When his Aussie Millions stream goes live in January 2017, that figure will certainly increase but it will be the casual poker fans that the Crown, moreover poker operators in general, will want to tune in.

As poker continues to grow and evolve, the casual dollar has become increasingly important and Twitch is yet another avenue through which companies are now trying to appeal to the masses.

In fact, alongside his renewed partnership with the Crown Casino, Somerville’s popular Run It Up streams are broadcast in conjunction with his sponsor, PokerStars. In an age where more video content is now consumed via the Internet than TVs, having a presence on a channel like Twitch is essential for poker sites and live tournaments.

More Ways to Attract the Masses

Although smaller tournament organizations have offered Twitch streams in the past, the Aussie Millions is one of the first major festivals to embrace the medium. Talking to Pokernews earlier this year, Aussie Millions Tournament Director Joel Williams reiterated that last year’s partnership with Somerville drew some encouraging numbers.

But, more importantly, he said it exposed viewers to new content and a tournament experience that they may not have seen before.

Encouraged by this, Williams believes that his event is moving in the right direction with regards to live streaming and Somerville’s broadcasts should help the Aussie Millions become even bigger in the future.

As ever, the Aussie Millions will get the 2017 poker calendar off in style with preliminary events starting on January 11 and the Main Event taking place between January 22 and January 29.