The following has been released by Wrestle Circus:
Wrestle Circus Brings Livestreamed Wrestling to Twitch with Launch of Official Channel
AUSTIN – June xx, 2017 – Wrestle Circus, a local family-owned promotion company and home of the biggest and best collection of independent wrestling stars from around the world, today announced the launch of a new channel (twitch.tv/wrestlecircus) on social video platform Twitch in order to livestream their events. As Twitch continues to expand into new areas of emerging content, Wrestle Circus represents the platform’s first foray into wrestling.
The first Wrestle Circus event being streamed on Twitch will be Dive Hard With A Vengeance on Saturday, June 24th at 800 Congress Avenue in Austin Texas. This is one of the largest cards to date with fans of both the promotion and wrestling in general salivating over the stacked card of international talent.
Due to word of mouth and social media buzz, interest in Wrestle Circus has gone beyond local and visiting attendees. To meet the viewing demands of the widespread wrestling fanbase, Wrestle Circus are looking to Twitch’s platform for livestreaming upcoming events. Twitch also offers a number of exciting monetization options which will enable Wrestle Circus to not only grow, but help the scene and the talent as a whole. This includes leveraging Twitch’s Cheering feature.
Cheering is a way for viewers to support broadcasters while celebrating moments they love with other community members directly in chat. Viewers Cheer by using Bits, virtual goods that come in the form of animated emotes when a viewer types “cheer” followed by a number. Bits can be purchased directly from the chat window and come in different colors and sizes based on their monetary worth. By leveraging Twitch’s Cheering feature it will give remote viewers a chance to interact with and support the talent, with 100% of the Bits used in chat going to the wrestlers and talent performing during the time of the cheer.
“It’s no secret that recent changes at one of the other major platforms have made it difficult for independent wrestling promotions to monetize their content,” said Al Lenhart, Owner, Wrestle Circus. “By moving over to Twitch, it is a major step into uncharted and exciting territory that allows us to reach a global audience and monetize in both traditional and creative ways, without the hurdles we’ve experienced in the past.”
“We frequently look to our community to guide us toward the content they want to see on our platform,” said Eric Brunner, Sports Partnerships Lead, Twitch. “In the case of Wrestle Circus, they had been looking for a livestreaming platform where they could effectively monetize their content and help the broader wrestling scene, and it was members of our community who rallied them on social media to consider using Twitch. Since Wrestle Circus has the same passion for their fans and talent that we do for ours, it’s really cool seeing them lead the charge with this new vertical.”
— Tickets for the event are sold out, however the stream will be available to anyone absolutely free of charge at Twitch.tv/WrestleCircus
— For more information on the event or in general please visit Wrestle Circus’ Official Twitter @WrestleCircus
