Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker Create New Network

The management of the two most controversial online poker rooms, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, announced Thursday that the sites will be joining forces in August, forming the Cereus poker network. The combination has apparently been in the works for a year and both sites will remain separately branded.

A press release from the companies states that Cereus will instantly become the internet’s third largest poker network, although it is not known exactly how this number was determined. According to PokerScout.com, Cereus would barely rank in the top six for cash game traffic. Regardless of the rankings, however, there is no doubt that the combined network will have more player traffic than the two rooms have on their own.

Both Ultimate Bet and Absolute have been rocked by major cheating scandals over the last several months and because the cheaters were company insiders (although, according to both sites, the cheaters were not executives or primary owners), the sites have become pariahs in the online poker community. There has been talk about new management and the possibility of change, so hopefully this is the start of something positive for the two rooms and online poker in general. Said Chipleader Vice President of Affiliates, John Adams, in a communication to PocketFives.com, “Cereus…enables our company to improve our operations and deliver significantly better value, service and security to our customers and affiliates.”