Brett Abarbanel (International Gaming Institute), Benjamin Burroughs (Journalism and Media Studies), and Mark Johnson from the University of Sydney have published an article titled, "A New History of Poker Spectatorship: Table Chat, Online Forums, Television Piracy, and Twitch" in the journal International Gambling Studies. Histories of poker spectating typically focus on formal and institutional aspects such as television production, professional hosting, and commercial sponsorships. In this paper, however, we describe an ongoing and potentially profound transformation in poker content creation and consumption – live streaming of real-money poker play. We then contextualize this development within a new reading of poker broadcasting’s history, which includes the uploading and distribution of poker broadcasts on online video sharing websites, their circulation and discussion on poker forums, and conversations and spectatorship taking place within online poker sites themselves.
