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Syndicate (Internet personality)

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Tom Cassell
Cassell in 2014
Born
Tom George Cassell

Manchester, England, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Other namesTheSyndicateProject, Tom Syndicate, Syndicate
Occupations
  • YouTuber
  • streamer
  • gamer
Known forVideos on Youtube and Twitch

Tom Cassell, also known as TheSyndicateProject, Tom Syndicate, and Syndicate, is a British YouTuber and vlogger.[1] He runs the YouTube channel TheSyndicateProject, which has grown to be one of the top 100 most subscribed channels on the website, as well as the Twitch channel Syndicate. He is also vice president of CSGOLotto.com, a gambling website which has landed Cassell and his website in the center of a large legal and social controversy. He also has his own clothing line, called SyndicateOriginal. It was closed for a year and reopened as a family run store in the UK and US.

On 17 August 2014, Cassell reached 1 million followers to his Twitch channel, the first person to do so in the history of the website.[2][3]

Career

Cassell started his YouTube channel, TheSyndicateProject on 3 September 2010.[4] As of June 2016 the channel has 9.97 million subscribers and 1.9 billion video views,[5] and is the 65th most subscribed on the website.[6] The channel was originally built on Halo and Modern Warfare 2 let's play videos, but came to prominence with the release of the Call of Duty: Black Ops "zombies" mode and his subsequent videos featuring the gamemode on his channel, and further grew due to the series "The Minecraft Project".[4][7][8] Cassell also operates a second channel, SyndicateCentral, which consists primarily of vlogs.

Cassell runs a Twitch channel which, as of April 2016 has over 2.4 million followers, making it the most followed channel on the website.[2][3] Cassell has also amassed a large following on other forms of social media, with over 1 million followers on Twitter with the handle @ProSyndicate and 1.5 million on Instagram under the username @MrSyndicate.

In November 2014 Cassell, along with fellow YouTuber Adam Montoya (SeaNanners), in cooperation with media company 3BlackDot launched a multi-channel network, Jetpak, aiming for a more fair payment model for the revenue made.[9][10][11]

Cassell has run into issues with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations a few times in his career. In late 2013 Cassell was paid $30,000, along with other influential YouTubers, to promote Microsoft's newly launched Xbox One console. The promotion was managed by Microsoft's advertising agency and operated by Machinima Inc. The endorsement ran afoul of Federal Trade Commission regulations because "influencers" failed to disclose that they "were paid by Microsoft to say nice things about Xbox One and its games".[12] In August 2015, Gamasutra reported that Cassell and Montoya may have again violated Federal Trade Commission guidelines on disclosures for YouTubers due to publishing multiple let's play videos of 3BlackDot's game Dead Realm without disclosing their financial ties to the product.[13] He was heavily criticized again and became a defendant in a class-action lawsuit in July 2016 when he promoted a gambling website (CSGOLotto.com) without disclosing his ties as vice president, yet again violating Federal Trade Commission regulations. After his ties were revealed, he promised on his Twitter feed to be more transparent in the future.[14][15][16]

In February 2016, Cassell announced that he will be the voice of Loki in the mobile app game Marvel Avengers Academy.[17] [18]

Personal life

When Tom was younger, he went to the Blue Coat secondary school located in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Tom also owns a Bearded Dragon lizard named Steeve. Cassell left school and quit his job at McDonald's after taking his A-levels at Hyde Clarendon college and decided against university to concentrate on his YouTube channel.[8][19] He had a girlfriend that he met through Minecraft named Kaitlin Witcher, known as Piddleass on YouTube.

References

  1. ^ Manning, Sanchez (27 March 2012). "I'm Lovin' It: Teen who posted gaming commentaries on internet quits McDonalds job and school after becoming YouTube sensation". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b Hilliard, Kyle (6 October 2014). "Streaming Tips From Twitch's Most Followed User, Syndicate". Game Informer. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  3. ^ a b Hern, Alex (26 August 2014). "Amazon's $1bn deal for video streaming site Twitch is latest battle with Google". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  4. ^ a b Porter, Will (11 October 2012). "An audience with Syndicate". Eurogamer. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  5. ^ "TheSyndicateProject". YouTube. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  6. ^ "YouTube Top 100 Most Subscribed Channels List". Vidstatsx.com. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  7. ^ Dowling, Kevin (17 June 2012). "Got up, played, went to zoo, banked £60,000". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  8. ^ a b Waugh, Rob (16 January 2014). "How I got six million viewers on YouTube – and turned it into a full-time job". Yahoo News. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  9. ^ Bloom, David (22 July 2014). "3BlackDot Hybrid Firm Emerges From Stealth Mode With Ex-'Duck Dynasty', Machinima Execs, Top YouTubers". Deadline.com. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  10. ^ Yang, Melissah (6 November 2014). "3BlackDot Launches Multichannel Network". Los Angeles Business Journal. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  11. ^ Ellingson, Annlee (6 November 2014). "Ex-Machinima execs launch boutique MCN Jetpak". L.A. Biz. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  12. ^ Wesley Yin-Poole. FTC: Machinima "deceived" consumers with Xbox One videos, eurogamer.net, September 2, 2015.
  13. ^ Wawro, Alex (19 August 2015). "Dead Realm publisher disregards FTC disclosure guidelines for YouTubers". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  14. ^ Phillips, Tom (4 July 2016). "Steam warns users against gambling site after YouTube stars discovered as owners". Eurogamer. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  15. ^ Crecente, Brian (7 July 2016). "CSGO Lotto and owners sued over 'illegal gambling' allegations". Polygon. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  16. ^ "CS GO betting scandal: YouTubers ProSyndicate and TmarTn caught up in gambling controversy". 4 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  17. ^ "Loki". Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  18. ^ Casell, Tom. "BIG NEWS!!!". Youtube.com. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  19. ^ "Tutor inspires YouTube sensation". Hyde Clarendon Sixth Form College. 3 December 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
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