Catena Media Acquires PokerScout for $350,000

European affiliate marketing network Catena Media acquired online poker traffic website PokerScout.com and its assets for $350,000, the company reported in a press release.

The acquisition comes on the heels of passage of online poker and gambling legislation in Pennsylvania, with the Keystone State becoming only the fourth to approve such regulation in the US. Catena Media is banking on additional states eventually climbing aboard.

"This acquisition is well-timed," stated Catena Media CEO Henrik Persson Ekdahl. "We have been prepared for a long time and this is a milestone for our continued expansion in the US. We hope that more states will follow in Pennsylvania's footsteps."

Guesstimates or Accurate?

PokerScout has been scraping cash game traffic from poker sites since 2006 and publishing the data as a means to provide players with a comparison. Its data-mining tactics and reporting accuracy have been controversial at times, especially from Bodog.

A long-running feud between Bodog and previous PokerScout owner Dan Stewart erupted in 2011 when Bodog requested to be removed from the listing of tracked poker sites. Bodog and former owner Calvin Ayre allege that Stewart asked for $1 million in payment to do so, while the data scraper denied the allegations.

PokerScout continued to post cash game traffic data for Bodog, but with the caveat that the player numbers were merely an estimate. However, Bodog had transitioned to its Recreational Player Model that focused on player anonymity and hiding full tables, which "made accurate data collection virtually impossible," according to CalvinAyre.com.

It should be noted that of the 74 online poker sites and networks that PokerScout currently includes in its listing, the data for 31 (42%) are recorded as estimates. To be fair the majority of those are the less popular sites.

Also of note is the fact that cash game traffic may no longer be an accurate barometer of a poker site's popularity. One can certainly argue that tournament poker is the preferred choice of the majority of players, and PokerScout's tournament data is limited to slightly more than a dozen sites.

Improvements Coming

In any event, Catena Media has promised to "improve the usability and visibility of PokerScout" with a much-needed revamp. Whether that includes tournament action has yet to be made clear.

With offices in Malta, Serbia and the UK, Catena Media also has a footprint in New Jersey, as well as "multiple media assets in Pennsylvania and owns several domains tailored to the market." The publicly listed company recently transitioned to the Nasdaq Stockholm main market.