Bodog, PokerScout and Data Scraping

Intense animosity between Bodog Poker and a poker stats provider PokerScout.com burst into the open a couple of weeks ago. Bodog, after asking pokerscout to stop tracking and being refused, removed Full Tables and Waiting Lists from its lobby. The purpose of the change being to prevent pokerscout from tracking, more specifically scraping, Bodog’s traffic data.
Gloves have certainly come off in this little scandal. Bodog is accusing pokerscout of extortion and pokerscout defies new anti-scraping measures, vowing to work around them and keep on tracking.
Neither party has a kind of reputation where just their public word could settle a question who is lying. Hence I am not interested in rehashing of who said or did what. You can get more details at news site pokerfuse.com. There are three important questions behind this news story. Those are what really prompted me to write. Questions are:

1. Why Bodog is so adamant about preventing tracking?
2. Is Data Scraping a legitimate way of developing information?
3. Can website such as Bodog protect itself from tracking?

Well, we are all rooting for the underdog, a little guy. In this story that is pokerscout. So Bodog must be bad and we can all go home, right? - Not so fast. At Nexus Poker we are more interested in cold facts than cute puppies. With that in mind let us look at what we know.

 

Why Bodog is so adamant about preventing tracking?

Officially Bodog stated that sites like pokerscout facilitate “bum hunting”. I guess this is British for sharks (competent, skillful players) looking for fish (casual players). Few people immediately pointed out that (a) pokerscout is far from being the biggest offender in that department. PokerTableRatings.com, for example, is a lot more helpful if you are a shark. (b) Why now? Scraping was a fact of life for a while and was tolerated by all poker sites.

Now is the time to stop tracking is likely because Bodog is preparing to withdraw from US market. Their traffic will drop accordingly. Presence of sites like pokerscout.com would prevent them from putting a positive spin on this mess which started on Black Friday (4/15/2011).
Back to the first part. Apparently Bodog just does not like sharks and does not want them on their network. It is nothing personal - just business. I had no idea about that before researching for this post. But Bodog has been consistently saying that for at least 2 years. They made a shrewd observation - winning players (sharks) are a source money withdrawals. The preferred way (for Bodog) of money leaving poker eco-system is via rake. Well, that logic about who does withdrawals is ironclad in its crude simplicity. I do not feel I can add value to the debate of whether “sharks are good for business”.

Is Data Scraping a legitimate way of developing information?

What is data scraping? It is a practice of using special software, which, acting as human, visits every screen of a poker client and reads and counts some basic data. That data is then aggregated and presented to you as statistical information sourced in near real time.

I am not a lawyer and I would love to hear a professional on this. Let me throw out there a low tech example. Let’s say I went to New York and visited The Empire State Building. Instead of taking an elevator down from the observation deck, I took stairs. I also counted them and recorded the number in my handy notes. Perhaps I later posted that fascinating number on my obscure blog. Did I have a right to do what I did? Do I own the copyright on my puny notes? It seems fair. I developed the information through my own work and did not violate any laws. Then I hired my friend Jose, for half a minimum wage to run around all major landmarks in New York counting and writing down anything and everything. The smaller and sillier the detail he could count the better. Armed with Jose’s records I am about to publish say a Kindle Single titled 1000 Odd Facts About New York. The ebook is priced at $0.99 and I am going to make a killing. However, there is a wrench in my clever plans. - On the back of my ticket to Empire State Building and all tickets to other landmarks there is fine print. I can only discern some words, it says ...all recording for personal use only...
To me that is the clincher. You do not own copyright if you violated TOS while developing your information.

 

Can Bodog prevent scraping?

Here I am on the firm ground at last. With an air of self imposed  authority I can say - “Yes, they can”. I mean prevent scraping for sure, by solid technical means and without putting their reputation on the line. I hope Bodog people are reading this. It is not magic, it does require work but not too much of work. It is a modest investment which is well worth it. Here is my list of things they can do:

1. Put a Captcha on hand history so only real human can unlock it.
2. Taint the data. Just print  random large numbers occasionally. It would not affect user experience since users (your favorite casual players) do not really look at those numbers.
3. Make those counters targeted by scrapers dynamic. Make them spin wildly when bot or human opens a page. Then let counter slowly settle to a real number.

I am sure there are other ways too. The trick is of course not to make it hard for real people to use your poker software. If you think of some creative way please do leave a comment.