Bodog Wants to be Removed from PokerScout’s Rankings

PokerScout has carved out a valuable niche in the internet poker industry as the go-to source for cash game traffic statistics for every online poker room and network out there. We here at Poker News Daily reference the site frequently and greatly appreciate the service it provides. Apparently, however, not all of the poker rooms it tracks are too happy about being included in its rankings.

On Monday, Bodog, which ranks sixth in PokerScout’s cash game traffic rankings and is the highest listed room that accepts customers from the United States, issued a press release decrying PokerScout’s practices. Rather than paraphrase the relatively short communication, here it is, in its entirety, as published on CalvinAyre.com:

PokerScout relies wholly on accurate data so why would they carry data from companies they cannot measure? Carrying figures for Bodog simply undermines the credibility of their product as there is no way of estimating player numbers with anonymous tables.

Apart from the fact that this is confidential and proprietary information, carrying figures for companies like Bodog, surely, simply undermines their own business model.

Bodog once again ask that PokerScout remove statistics that are patently untrue unless, of course, they subscribe to the ethos of Vic Reeves that; “88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot.”

PokerScout claim they; “…actively track over 98% of all online poker traffic, and provides estimated liquidity statistics for the rest.” Why? It would be more sensible to publish only information they know is real rather than muddy their authority with absurd guesstimations?

The curious thing about Bodog’s protest is that the company gives no reason why it is so upset that PokerScout publishes numbers that are “patently untrue.” Sure, we all want information we read to be accurate, but in PokerScout’s case, even if the figures are not completely accurate, it seems reasonable to give the site the benefit of the doubt because a) PokerScout has been a reputable site for a number of years, b) Bodog’s cash game traffic is clearly labeled as “est,” or estimated, on PokerScout’s chart, and c) even if the numbers are off, they still paint Bodog in a favorable light. Currently, Bodog is ranked as the sixth largest poker room or network on the internet, behind such giants as PokerStars, 888poker, the iPoker Network, Full Tilt Poker, and partypoker.

OnlinePokerReport.com’s Chris Grove may have a theory as to why Bodog wants PokerScout to stop including the poker room in its rankings. Reporting from C5’s forum on US Online Gaming (USOG), Grove reported that Sharon Levin, Chief of the Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, was asked why there has not been much in the way of any online poker room shut down’s by the Department of Justice since Black Friday, three and a half years ago. Levin replied, “We’re not done,” but that the sites still left to go after are much smaller than PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were and that it simply comes down to available resources.

What it seems that Grove is implying here is that Bodog may be scared that it is in the crosshairs of the U.S. Department of Justice and that being highlighted by PokerScout as not only one of the largest poker sites in the world, but also the largest that remains U.S.-facing makes it an even more enticing target. Bodog may want to find any excuse it can to get PokerScout to delete it from its website and at least possibly dim any sort of spotlight that may be shining upon it.