Lex Veldhuis is a Dutch professional poker player who for more than a decade now has been leading the charge on online streaming platforms like Twitch , where he reached an astonishing number of almost 300,000 followers.
While he may not be the best poker player in the world, when compared to other pros who consistently land high stakes titles both online and offline, he has become arguably the face of this growing eSports online.
Here we take a look at how Veldhuis got to where he is in the world of gaming and why he will continue to be an online force to be reckoned with, as his personal brand only grows in strength.
Net Worth and Brand Sponsorships
Veldhuis’s net worth is thought to be in the region of $1 million with him raking in returns from his Twitch stream community as well as from lucrative sponsorship deals. The reason this online poker grinder is so marketable for a variety of companies and brands is because he is viewed as something of an institution, which virtually any online gamer will have heard of.
Added to this he has a personality and streaming persona that match perfectly with what many brands connected to gaming and the online sphere are looking to portray themselves, and some of these include MadMonq, PokerStars, and Raise Your Edge.
With all these gaming brands on board, who continue to thrive alongside Veldhuis’s stream, the Dutch card player is thought to be earning well over $8,000 per month, although it could be significantly more than that depending on what his long term sponsorship agreements are worth and whether he ships a big online tournament or two.
Still Breaking Twitch Records
2020 was a year in which online poker and other eSports saw huge upticks and Veldhuis played a large part in making it happen. His stream hit new heights during one gaming session in which he broke the record for the number of people watching a poker stream on Twitch.
With his viewership only growing month on month, there could be more records broken in 2021 and beyond.
Age, Residence, and Early Years
At the time of writing Veldhuis is 37-years of age and lives in Rotterdam, where he launches his gaming streams from a custom built broadcast studio replete with special gaming monitors, keyboard and chair.
In his early days as an online personality Veldhuis was known for publicity stunts. One of these included taking part in a kickboxing match against fellow eSports pro Elky, which Veldhuis duly won. The fight was all recorded on Spanish TV and was the talk of the poker world at the time.
Veldhuis is also known for dating fellow pro Evelyn Ng, which at the time set tongues wagging because she had also been romantically involved with high profile player Daniel Negreanu.
Branching Out into Other Esports
While Veldhuis has always mainly been a poker streamer, he has also occasionally dabbled in other eSports and even joined Team Liquid as a pro StarCraft player for a time.
However, as his profile as a poker pro began to skyrocket, he soon parked his ambitions of becoming a video game champion and focused on his card playing full-time.
Often Called Upon to Commentate
Apart from gaming himself, Veldhuis can regularly be found on the commentating teams for major online and offline tournaments.
He is the ideal person for such roles, given his expertise when it comes to the game of poker as well as broadcasting for long periods of time.
It will be interesting to see if a job in the eSports media is something that will lure Veldhuis away from his Twitch comfort zone in the near future. For now, though, he will continue his reign as the number one poker streamer out there today.