Merger of Poker Tracking Giants: Hold'em Manager and Poker Tracker Now One

If you've been playing poker for some time, you are probably aware of two most famous poker tracking applications: Poker Tracker and Hold'em Manager (or HEM as it is often called). These two were created and sold by competing companies until yesterday, when they reached an agreement about merger.

Leading partners of both companies, Derek Charles from Poker Tracker and Jim Varnon for CardRunners Gaming (HEM) led and coordinated the deal which will result in creation of the new company – Max Value Software, LLC (MVS).

According to Mr. Charles, both products will have its place and the new company will continue development as planned. For Poker Tracker, it is PT 5, while Hold’em Manager will be releasing HEM 3. Biggest reason for merger is the fact that combined resources of these two companies will enable them to decrease development times and reach new online poker customers.

Statement issued by Hold’em Manager executives expresses very similar thoughts and feelings. Both companies seem firmly convinced that once they put their brain and man power together, they will be able to increase the quality of both products. The prices, however, should remain as it is for a foreseeable future.

Both also hope that, with time, they will be able to create overall better customer support teams by cross-training them to be able to assist users of both products. This may take some time according to the statements, as they want to make sure that people are properly educated and trained before they start assisting customers for the other product.

While this merger certainly has its strategic and business advantages from companies’ standpoint, the question that many users are asking is – is this really a good thing? The two software solutions have been competitors for many years, and this competition has always driven them to work hard in order to offer the best product possible. With the merger, that dimension is gone.

A thread on 2+2 forum clearly shows that many players have some concerns that this could potentially negatively affect the quality of both products. While this does not have to be the case, the simple truth of the matter is that monopoly is usually bad for end users, and with this move the new company will pretty much have a monopoly on the HUD market.

This is a bit of “expect the best – fear the worst” scenario, but the fact that the new MVS intends to keep both products gives some hope that they have real intentions to keep developing HEM and PT with end-user interest in mind. With competition element out of the way they clearly have less incentive to do so, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed they do it anyway for the players who have helped them become the market giants they are today.