PokerWinners Using Sharkscope's Powerful API

You are probably familiar with Sharkscope as a site that helps track results for you and your opponents in tournaments and sit and gos on just about every major online poker network. What you might not realize is that Sharkscope also provides a business-to-business service called Sharkscope API, which powers different sites and products with its collated information.
 
Last month, we interviewed the founder of Poker Copilot, Steve McLeod, about how this poker tracking and HUD software is utilizing the Sharkscope API for its customers. The poker rankings site PokerWinners also is using this service and we recently sat down with the company's Manager Director, Mike Copley, to learn a bit about his site and how it benefits from the use from Sharkscope API.
 
PokerSoftware: Tell us about PokerWinners. When was it established and what should members expect when visiting?

Mike Copley: PokerWinners is a relatively new ranking system for online MTT players that provides an alternative view to who the strongest poker players are compared to the other ranking systems that are widely quoted today. We differentiate ourselves because we take into account every game our members play rather than just their biggest cashes. The results of our rankings are very different from those you will find quoted elsewhere as to who the best online MTT players currently are.

PokerSoftware: Can you share how the Sharkscope API is integrated into PokerWinners and what information is available?

Mike Copley: We pull every tournament result a player has played regardless of whether the player cashed on any of the aliases they submit to us via the Sharkscope API. So, we are able to formulate a vast about of information to display for each member. We then run this data through a complex series of algorithms to provide us with our worldwide rankings, national rankings, annual and monthly leaderboards, and cash leaderboards - along with a mini-version for lower buy-in players.

PokerSoftware: How do PokerWinners members benefit from this?

Mike Copley: Poker players are competitive by nature, so being able to see where they rank against their friends and opponents on a global and national scale can be a great motivator. We firmly believe that the players who are at the top of their profession deserve exposure. We believe that a strong ranking system benefits the poker industry as a whole by providing a steady flow of contextualized stories relating to the most successful players.

PokerSoftware:  When and why did you first decide to use Sharkscope API on your site? How long did the process take to integrate and what was involved?

Mike Copley: We have been using the Sharkscope API for a number of years now while we build the PokerWinners Rankings from the ground up. The initial integration for most API development projects would be fairly basic and simplistic, but because of the huge scope of the project, we have continued to develop our integration every month to refine our project and move towards the point we are at today.

We had no major issues, but any minor questions were handled very quickly and efficiently by the Sharkscope techies to ensure suitable solutions were provided to enable us to achieve our objectives.

PokerSoftware: What was your solution before using Sharkscope API?

Mike Copley: The PokerWinners Rankings are a new concept, so we didn't have a solution prior to using Sharkscope's API.

More articles