
3 minute read
GOING THE STREAM
from SiGMA Issue 17
by SiGMA Group
Darlene Zammit sits down with Vasylyna Shyshova and Nikita Novikovskyi, streamer and producer of the Vasylslot Twitch channel, to talk about the new competition - streaming, and their business model based on followers.
Vasylyna Shyshova and Nikita Novikovskyi’s idea to create a channel came up in January 2021, a month later they started streaming. They were courageous enough to start streaming during the pandemic, which resulted in a positive aspect for their business.
Since the beginning, their strategy was to go for “organic growth” and this is the strategy they decided to adhere to. In the last six months, they have seen a quick organic audience increase. They believe that the quality of their followers is much more important than the quantity, as it is the quality that renders any channel “more unique and notable”. This was a new experience for both of them, and they learned from their own mistakes. All their moves were spontaneous, based on their feelings and on some experience in working with other streamers and open-source information.
.ةيجيتارتسلاا رثكأو ةظوحلم" ةانق يأ لعجت ام يه ةدوجلا نلأ ،مكلا نم .امهئاطخأ نم املعتو ،امهيلع ةديدج ةبرجتلا تناك ."ادرــفــت رعاشملاو سدحلا ىلع دمتعت ةيوفع امهتاوطخ لك تناك يف نيرخآ صاخشأ عم لمعلا م اهاتبستكا يتلا ةربخلا ضعبو .ردصملا ةحوتفم تامولعملا نمو ىوتحملا ثب رايتلا دض ةحابسلا لعجت ام يه اهنلأ مهلأا يه ةدوجلا ادرفت رثكأو ةظوحلم ةانقلا ةحئاجلا ءانثأ ثبلا انأدب Q&A ج & س 93 WINTER/SPRING 2022
مهأ نيعباتملا ةدوــج نأب نانمؤت امهف
Nowadays, streaming has become a competition, and on Twitch there is a lot of that. To rank any channel in the top positions and for it to be successful, one needs good SEO. In their opinion, “SEO is mostly about content; if you create unique content, your SEO grows”. They added that “titles and descriptions also have value; however, to increase your subscribers’ retention, content is the most important factor”. Their aim is to also improve their SEO optimization, but they will first work on content. They do not agree with those who believe that streaming disrupts traditional SEO. In their view, these two are completely different sources. They add that streams might take away part of the audience from SEO traffic, but this is such a small part that one cannot talk about disrupting the SEO source.
In their view, a company needs to test both streaming via Twitch and having a good-ranking SEO website as these are different sources of traffic. They add that SEO requires more cash investments at the beginning; however, it depends on the goals and path chosen. The approaches are completely different, different types of traffic, users’ behavior, and growth strategies.
To the question of how big their business model is, based on followers compared to the more traditional SEO sites out there, they said that from the get-go, like SEO, a traffic channel demands a lot of investments. For their streams, most of the investments are from deposits to play at casinos. Their first streams catered only for a few people but eight months later they had risen to 2.5k subscribers.
On average, their streams last 3 hours, which, in their opinion, is currently the optimal time. They arrived at this conclusion organically, because it is neither long nor short. They are currently streaming in Russian; their native GEO. The audience of their channel is divided approximately 50/50 between Ukraine and Russia. Their plan is to expand into other GEOs, and for this they created the Vasilinaplay channel, where they have a couple of streams and about 100 subscribers. They say that these are test streams in English and that there are plans to develop them further.
Their Vasylslot Twitch channel differs from other streamers in the way it was initiated. They say that most casino streamers created their channels because they already played casino, so they decided to show it on their streams. In their case, they first decided to start streaming and only then did casinos become the most interesting vertical for them. Moreover, Vasylyna’s passion for casinos only came after they started streaming.
Twitch has recently introduced restrictions on gambling with reference to slots, roulette, and dice games. As per Twitch’s Community Guidelines (last accessed 09.12.2021): "Linking to sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games, or sharing affiliate links or referral codes to such sites is not allowed". Vasylyna and Nikita told us that these restrictions affected everyone, including them. However, in comparison to other streamers (according to their audit), this did not really affect them nor put pressure on them. They told us that they know of cases where large Twitch channels with more than 30k subscribers were banned. “It is sad, but you have to comply with the rules of the game”. Their plan is to enter other streaming platforms where the policy is not so tough.