James “PhantomL0rd” Varga has reportedly won his lawsuit against Twitch, which began more than two years ago in San Francisco.
The former streamer, who sought damages after he was banned from Twitch in 2016, claimed on Twitter he had won the suit “on all counts,” and that his victory was a win for “ALL streamers.”
Streaming reporter Zach Bussey tweeted that Varga was awarded nearly $21,000 in the verdict, although this figure, Bussey says, “seems like a bit of a win financially” because Twitch could have lost more after a ruling in October 2019 that removed the $50,000 cap for damages.
Twitch banned Varga on July 19, 2016. Varga was reported to have owned CSGO Shuffle, a website that allowed players to gamble on weapon skins. Varga allegedly obtained betting percentages and house money to use on the website without disclosing this to his viewers on Twitch or YouTube.
Varga claimed in his initial filing Twitch had “never provided any formal explanation for his suspension; instead, Twitch has made only vague and ever-changing allegations of breaches of the Terms of Service.” He also said Twitch allowed him to stream gambling content for 30 minutes at a time.
Twitch, however, said in a 2018 cross-complaint Varga “began abusing Twitch’s services to scam other Twitch users and its community for his own financial gain.” It said it banned him after about a year of various warnings and penalties to “ensure the integrity of its rules and the content broadcast on its services.”
Dot Esports has reached out to Twitch for comment on the ruling.
