Heelmike, a well-known Twitch streamer, was recently involved in Twitch’s gambling stream ban and as a result has been banned from the streaming service.
Numerous streamers have been adversely affected by the current crackdown as a result of Twitch’s strong efforts to remove gambling-related content off the website. With creators like Trainwreckstv and xQc using gambling sites on stream, many of the top talent on the platform had heavily incorporated gambling in their material. Twitch has now banned Heelmike, one of the creators associated with the trend on the network.
Heelmike first gained notoriety on Twitch as a streamer who mostly focused on Fortnite and “Just Chatting,” and he currently has over 7 million subscribers to his Twitch channel. While Heelmike has included a range of games on his show since the beginning of his channel in 2018, he has recently established himself as a well-known caster of slots.
The site implemented stringent policies to forbid gambling sites from being featured on streams, even though other creators have not yet seen bans related to gambling on Twitch. Heelmike has now been permanently banned from the website, while the reasons for the ban are unknown. Tuesday night will see the ban of Heelmike’s channel from Twitch, according to the Twitter account Streamer Bans, which keeps track of these bans. Heelmike would confirm the ban via his own Twitter account, confirming that Twitch had suspended him indefinitely.
Heelmike has announced that he would contest the ruling and that he has appealed Twitch’s decision to revoke his suspension. Heelmike and Streamer Bans did not provide an explanation for the suspension; rather, they described it as a “violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service” on the streamer’s Twitch website.
Heelmike was suspended without explanation, but the Twitch ban wouldn’t be the first time the streamer had to deal with trouble. It was discovered that Heelmike’s explosive rise to fame in 2021 was related to follow-botting, with botted accounts mass following his Twitch channel. Another prominent broadcaster, Trainwrecks, recently asserted that botting is a widespread issue and that the vast majority of Twitch’s Top 100 users engage in it. Despite the allegations, it is not thought that Heelmike’s ban has anything to do with botting. The removal of Heelmike from Twitch comes at a time when there has been a lot of debate on the site in the second half of 2022. Along with the ban on gambling on Twitch, numerous serious allegations of sexual harassment and cover-up were made against some of the largest creators on the network.
ItsSliker, a Twitch streamer, also came under fire after admitting to defrauding viewers and other streamers of $200,000 in total. The expulsion of Heelmike adds to the turbulent year that the well-known streaming service has experienced.
