Pokimane RTS Talent Management and Brand Consulting Explored

Pokimane is one of the world’s most recognisable streamers, amassing a huge following on a number of platforms. However, the streamer is going beyond just content creation. This week, a new partnership has been announced with Pokimane / RTS.

Pokimane is going to be moving past content creation, serving as the CCO and co-founder of RTS. That’s a new talent management and brand consulting company. The details released so far position the agency as one made to put content creators first, but is there anything more to this story than yet another brand management firm hoping to set themselves up as a middle man in gaming, streaming and esports?

RTS

RTS is a new venture, but one with a board full of those experienced in gaming, streaming, and esports. Along with Pokimane, the CEO Stuart Saw previously ran esports at Endeavor Talent management. Former Blizzard director Kim Phan will be the COO, and both Sue Lee and Kevin Lin will both be joining the company from Twitch. Each of these people has a senior position in their old roles, especially those coming from Twitch. Naturally, this positions them well in this industry with established connections.

The board appointments at RTS definitely make clear they’re going after content creators who are mainly in esports and Twitch. The firm will be managing ‘talent’, like content creators. However, they do also have interests elsewhere in gaming.

RTS was the co-partner that took over the EVO fighting game esports tournament alongside Sony earlier this year. So clearly this company has been in the works a lot longer than this Pokimane RTS announcement seems to imply. Since they took over one of the biggest esports tournaments months ago, in a deal that must have taken some time to organize. They also have Epic Games and Facebook on board for future partnerships.

What does Pokimane do at RTS?

Pokimane’s role in the company is a little hard to determine. The streamer has said: “my goal is to take my years of experience and make it accessible to newer creators, so they don’t have to go through the process I have endured”. Essentially, she’s taking a role at this company and has a history of being a streamer, so not much new here. In terms of trying to help new content creators avoid pitfalls, that all obviously comes at the price of being part of this talent management company.

Pokimane’s role is high profile since she is one of the most popular Twitch streamers. However, it isn’t the first of its kind. In the past, streamers and popular figures have paired themselves up with talent management agencies. It pays off for the streamer and helps the agency appeal to other streamers by having such a successful one on board.

RTS has some interesting partnerships lined up. However, outside of the corporate-speak of their PR materials, they appear to be a pretty standard promotional company for streamers. They haven’t exactly made clear what these partnerships entail. Even in their role in the EVO tournament hasn’t been entirely cleared up yet. While they could surprise things, they do just look to be another firm set-up to micromanage the promotions of streamers and collect consulting checks.