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Today’s News

TAKE A GAMBLE

It’s YouTube’s turn to crack down on the gamba meta

The context: It’s been a couple years since Twitch cracked down on the “gamba meta,” an ethically questionable ecosystem in which offshore digital casinos like Stake.com paid streamers millions to gamble on stream. Now, it’s YouTube’s turn to put the kibosh on “unapproved” gambling content.

The update: The platform announced this week that it will no longer allow creators to direct users to unapproved gambling websites (aka those that don’t meet local legal requirements and haven’t been deemed legit by YouTube or Google). Content prohibited under that update includes verbal references, URLs, affiliate codes, images, text, or logos related to unapproved sites. Creators who link out to those companies anyway will likely get a TOS violation—and too many of those can lead to permanent channel deletion. “Sensational language” that promises things like guaranteed winnings or loss prevention is off-limits, too, even in relation to approved sites.

YouTube also plans to age-restrict all videos that depict and/or promote online gambling sites (including approved ones), meaning users who are logged out or under the age of 18 won’t be able to watch them.

The potential impact: YouTube’s updated approach to gambling resembles the steps Twitch took in 2022, when it banned gambling websites that weren’t “licensed either in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient customer protections.” Although that policy didn’t apply to all sites, it was enough to oust players like Stake.com, which is based in Curaçao (and whose owner Ed Craven also owns Kick).

A similar ousting could be on the horizon for YouTube, where content related to sports betting and sites like Polymarket and Kalshi (which allow people to wager on anything from election outcomes to asteroid strikes) has risen in popularity.

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Become a Spotter Studio member and gain access to an exclusive webinar with Tejas Hullur on March 11

Tune in on March 11th at 10 AM PT for an exclusive webinar with YouTube creator Tejas Hullur.

In this session, Storytelling that Sticks: How to Produce Impactful YouTube Series, Tejas will break down the power of episodic storytelling and why it’s the key to creating a binge-worthy YouTube series that keeps audiences coming back for more.

RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW.

Tejas will share how he transformed his channel by transitioning from short-form content to highly engaging, TV-style series. During Tuesday’s webinar, he’ll walk you through:

• Why YouTube is prioritizing episodic content (and how to take advantage of it)

• How to structure a compelling, high-retention series

• The secrets to scripting, storytelling, and making episodes irresistible

• The real results from his latest series—including audience engagement, subscriber growth, and the future of long-form content

This is a must-attend for creators looking to level up their content, build deeper audience connections, and explore the potential of high-quality, episodic videos.

Space is limited. An active Spotter Studio Membership is required to attend.

From real-time data insights to personalized collaboration tools, Spotter Studio makes it easy to brainstorm your next viral hit. Become a member today—or if you’re already part of the team…

Register for the webinar → 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• MrBeast’s primary hub ranked as the most-subscribed U.S. YouTube channel in February, outshining the competition by hauling in 13 million new subs in just 28 days. (Tubefilter)
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• Google is introducing an experimental “AI Mode” to Search that “expands what AI Overviews can do with more advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities.” (Google)
  
  

• The creators of Tweetbot and Ivory have announced the development Phoenix, a new Bluesky app set to launch this summer. (The Verge)
  
  

• A federal judge has denied Elon Musk’s request for a preliminary injunction that would block ChatGPT parent company OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit organization. (Ars Technica)

THE BIZ

TikTok’s next U.S. expansion sounds a lot like Groupon

The context: TikTok wants to give U.S. creators the ability to hand out coupons for local businesses. According to Axios—which cited job listings and “sources familiar with [TikTok’s] plans”—the platform is hiring workers in Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York to form a “local services” team. Those staff members will coordinate with small businesses and creators to facilitate promotional opportunities.

The arrival of TikTok’s local services operation in the U.S. would expand an initiative that originated in Southeast Asia. Since last year, the platform has worked alongside creators in countries like Indonesia and Thailand to offer vouchers for restaurants, hotels, and flights. This isn’t the first time TikTok has looked to introduce brick-and-mortar shopping opportunities to the West, either. In 2023, the app began operating as a fulfillment service by selling and shipping products; a grocery delivery service that resembles Instacart started receiving attention later that same year.

The potential impact: Bringing a local services operation to the U.S. would help TikTok solidify its reputation as a support system for small businesses. That framing has been a pivotal aspect of the platform’s attempt to stave off federal regulatory efforts. At the start of 2025, for instance, TikTok suggested that U.S. small business owners would lose $1 billion if the app was subjected to a nationwide ban.

Beyond PR and small business benefits, the platform’s push into local services would introduce new partnership opportunities for creators by allowing them to dole out discounts for their favorite businesses. The move would also reduce TikTok’s reliance on its namesake app, which has received significant scrutiny from not only the U.S. but global authorities.

DARK AND MYSTERIOUS

Ballen Studios is building a business that turns creators into career storytellers. Its next star? Nexpo.

The studio: Over the last few years, more and more pro creators have launched their own studios—not just to support their personal production efforts, but also those of fellow creators. One of those entrepreneurial pros is MrBallen (aka John Allen), a true crime podcaster and former Navy Seal whose “strange, dark, and mysterious” videos have captivated 10 million YouTube subscribers.

Allen and his manager, Nick Witters, joined forces in 2022 to launch Ballen Studios, a production studio designed to be the campfire around which storytelling-savvy creators hone their craft for new audiences.

Ballen Studios now produces seven creator-led podcasts, including two that have generated significant success. Last year, the production studio tapped Marine veteran Luka Lamana to host Wartime Stories and REDACTED: Declassified with Luke Lamana. The former went on to become one of 2024’s top ten new podcasts (per data from Edison Research), while the latter was tapped for a video partnership by Amazon-owned Wondery.

The new show: Now, Ballen Studios has introduced its latest creator-led podcast: Late Nights with Nexpo. Hosted by titular YouTuber Nexpo—whose eerie, documentary-style videos have attracted 3.6 million subscribers—the show will chronicle “some of the most bizarre and chilling true stories and mysteries from around the world” (per Ballen Studios). First up: the tale of a 1993 hiking incident in which seven people ventured into the Khamar-Daban mountain range, and only one returned alive.

That premiere episode dropped yesterday as a special video edition on Nexpo’s YouTube channel. Upcoming installments will live as audio-only presentations on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music (at least for the foreseeable future). Late Nights with Nexpo as a whole is repped by Ballen Studios’ management arm (which Nexpo signed with in 2023) and United Talent Agency worldwide in all areas.

WATCH THIS 📺

Will people Digg a new front page of the internet?

“Old Rivals, New Vision”: Back in the early aughts, Digg was a popular content aggregator that collected the internet’s top stories on a centralized front page. The company reached an impressive 40 million monthly users at its peak—but by the 2010s, it had lost market share to social media platforms like Reddit. In 2012, Betaworks acquired Digg for just $500,000.

Now, more than a decade later, Digg co-founder Kevin Rose has reacquired his old stomping ground. He plans to revive the platform with the help of AI—and one of his long-time rivals, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Given the competition between Digg and Reddit, Rose and Ohanian make for strange bedfollows. The two execs acknowledged their bygone beef in an introductory video, which described the 2025 version of Digg as “the front page of the internet—now with superpowers.” (For the uninitiated, one Reddit’s most famous taglines was “The Front Page of the Internet”.)

Check out the full clip here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.