Tom Cassell


Thomas George Cassell, better known by his online alias Syndicate, is a British YouTuber, streamer and vlogger known for his YouTube video content and Twitch live streams.
In 2010, Cassell registered his YouTube channel TheSyndicateProject and rapidly built a following posting gaming–commentary videos. He later registered his Twitch channel and, on 17 August 2014, he became the first user on the site to reach 1 million followers. Cassell also posts daily vlogs on his second YouTube channel, Life of Tom.

Early life

Cassell was educated at The Blue Coat school in Oldham, Greater Manchester and later Hyde Clarendon college where he sat his A-levels. After leaving, Cassell worked briefly at McDonald's, deciding against attending university in order to concentrate on his YouTube channel.

Career

Cassell started his YouTube channel, TheSyndicateProject, on 3 September 2010. The channel was originally built on Halo and ' let's play videos, but came to prominence with the release of the ' "zombies" mode and his subsequent videos featuring the gamemode on his channel, and further grew due to the series "The Minecraft Project". Cassell also operates a second channel, "Life Of Tom" previously known as SyndicateCentral, which consists primarily of vlogs.
Cassell runs a Twitch channel which, as of 2017 had over 2.4 million followers, making it the most followed channel on the website at the time.
In November 2014, Cassell, along with fellow YouTuber Adam Montoya and in cooperation with media company 3BlackDot, launched a multi-channel network, Jetpak, aiming for a more fair payment model for the revenue made.
In February 2016, Cassell announced that he will be the voice of Loki in the mobile app game Marvel Avengers Academy.

Advertising violations

In late 2013, Cassell was paid $30,000, along with other influential YouTubers, to promote Microsoft's newly launched Xbox One console as part of a promotional campaign managed by Microsoft's advertising agency and operated by Machinima Inc. The endorsement ran afoul of Federal Trade Commission regulations because "influencers", including Cassell, had failed to disclose that they "were paid by Microsoft to say nice things about Xbox One and its games".
In August 2015, Gamasutra reported that Cassell had again violated FTC 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.
Cassell was heavily criticized and became a defendant in a class-action lawsuit in July 2016 when he promoted the gambling website CSGOLotto.com without disclosing a conflict of interest as vice-president of the company, again violating FTC regulations. After his role at the company was revealed by others, Cassell promised in a statement posted on Twitter that he would be more transparent in the future.