Twitch’s recent ban on gambling streams that feature sites unlicensed in the US and other regions has rocked the content creator world. But, one streamer is seemingly ready to stand in defiance.

TrainwrecksTV, also known as just Trainwreck, is a top creator who made a name for himself during the golden gambling stream period. With Twitch’s recent policy change, he’s made the statement that he wants to start his own platform.

While he’s certainly not the first to do so, there’s a lot of reason to believe that he may have a reasonable shot at making good on his word.

How does the gambling ban on Twitch affect Trainwrecks?

As a streamer with over 2 million followers on Twitch, Trainwreck was one of the platform’s most prominent gambling creators. According to his own statements, streaming slots earned him over $360 million paid out to him by his biggest sponsor, Stake. While he claims that $70 million was given back to his community, he still made a pretty penny.

So, it stands to reason that Twitch’s recent ban on non-US licensed sites with slots, dice, and roulette games will make a significant dent in his earnings. Even with a sizable following like Trainwreck’s, making over $250 million is not easy without the backing of an entity like Stake. And it’s likely that the Twitch streamer knows this fact well.

Shortly after the ban, he called out the Amazon-owned company for being “corrupt”. In a tweet on September 21, he justified his claim by calling out Twitch’s “inconsistency to not ban sports betting” as they had a “$13B NFL deal”. But it seems that Trainwreck is optimistic at the same time.

During an October 5 stream, he expressed a belief that even with the gambling ban “nothing was going to change”. He pointed out that several other streamers were using sites that had the same operators as the ones that were targeted by the ban. This implies that he and other creators affected by the new policy might be able to transfer their sponsorships to licensed sites.

That may well be the case. The providers of these sites are not likely to just abandon the revenue generated by creators like Trainwreck. But even if that were not to happen, the Twitch slots streamer seems to have a contingency plan in the form of making his own platform.

What’s known about his new platform?

In a tweet posted on October 20, Trainwreck boldly stated that he is going to “create a platform or team up with one”. The post garnered a fair bit of activity with replies skewing towards positivity. Some have even raised legitimate questions, such as one user asking how he intended to get eyeballs on the platform when others had “failed doing so”.

Trainwreck’s response to such questions shows a fair bit of confidence in his reach and his ability to attract people. However, he’s also being a fair bit realistic. He acknowledged in one tweet response that “the chance for failure is high”. However, he also said that he thrives under such conditions.

So, clearly, he has his mind set on building some sort of streaming platform to rival Twitch. Beyond that, though, not much else is known about it. In his aforementioned tweet, he shouted out to all mid and small-sized streamers as being the ones he would target for contracts. This comes from his own belief that they are the “backbone of the industry”.

Trainwreck also stated in a livestream on October 24 that he has one feature in mind that will “revolutionize” streaming. He didn’t mention what it is but he expressed it would blow people’s minds and that he “can’t wait to announce it on Twitter”. So far, there hasn’t been any news since.

The top-dog streamer hasn’t name-dropped any partner platforms either so his plans are still up in the air. It’s a familiar tale and it wouldn’t be surprising if nothing materialized out of it. There have been other creators in the past who made claims or even took initial steps to create their own Twitch competitor. However, the Amazon-based behemoth remains unshakeable.

If Trainwreck does in fact manage to pull it off, though, it could be quite big for him.

What might the benefits be for him?

Platforms are a finicky business. YouTube remained unprofitable until 2015 when Alphabet stopped posting financial reports and there’s little doubt that has changed. Twitter has also flip-flopped between making decent earnings and catastrophic losses. That’s all to say that running a platform is like a child that never hugs you.

However, where the return on investment may not be good, the benefits to one’s popularity and social credit are quite high. Even if this new platform Trainwreck wants to build were to be modestly successful, that would make him a very attractive person for companies to invest in. Sites like Stake would be back in the game and likely would not hesitate to sponsor Trainwreck and his top streamers.

He could even manage to poach some of Twitch’s best creators like xQc and that could bring a ton of viewers to his platform.

That all being said, success in such an endeavor requires one to be the unlikely exception and not the rule.

Will he succeed with his plan and who supports him?

Though Trainwreck has a ton of support from his community, he’s fighting a steep uphill battle. Even with the right amount of investment, platforms for live-streaming video require a bonkers amount of tech to work well. If you’re going to rival Twitch and its Amazon backing, you need to be at least on par in terms of video and audio quality.

And even that’s not enough. Mixer was owned by Microsoft, the company that merely needed to sneeze to buy Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard, and even that tanked eventually. In Trainwreck’s case, he’s going to need a bit more than a solid experience and a few high-profile streamers to get things going.

The one saving grace is that Twitch needs more competition. There’s a clear appetite for platforms that have creators like Trainwreck. But, with just one site ruling the roost, there’s bound to always be some bias. In that respect, he may have a shot at being the first content creator to get a rival streaming platform off the ground.