The Vegas Golden Knights have had quite the year. After drafting their team less than a year ago, the NHL’s newest franchise went 51-24 to capture the Pacific Division title.
Now, just days after sweeping the L.A. Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they’re rewarding their loyal fan base with a dedicated Twitch channel replete with interactive fan-driven content. The channel was launched on April 20, the team announced in a press release.
The first content available on the channel will be a TV series hosted by Shane Hnidy, the Golden Knights’ color analyst on AT&T SportsNet. Hnidy will welcome guests—celebrities, players, team officials, and fans—to play video games, with viewers able to chat live with the host and guests and watch their gaming antics.
The first episode of “Shane’s House,” as the series is aptly titled, is available on Twitch, but additional episodes and other programs are yet to be announced.
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SportTechie Takeaway
The Golden Knights are leveraging Twitch to increase their digitally inclined fan base, and it is fitting that the first series would revolve around video gaming, considering Twitch is a massive platform for esports. Twitch isn’t the limit of the Golden Knights’ digital footprint, though; in November, just a month into their inaugural season, the Knights were featured in a Facebook Watch series surrounding the team’s creation and its role in Las Vegas following the Route 91 concert shooting in October.
Nor are the Golden Knights the only NHL entity to use Twitch to interact with fans. The Tampa Bay Lightning’s J.T. Brown, who is also competing in the playoffs on the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed, uses the platform to livestream his personal gaming sessions during team road trips. Since June 2017, when SportTechie profiled his gaming lifestyle, Brown has accrued another 4,000-some followers of his channel.
Should the Lightning and Golden Knights meet in the Stanley Cup Final, Twitch would stand to gain significant exposure among NHL fans.