Blaise Bourgeois, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit ring winner and former ClickOut Media poker writer, published a detailed blog post on April 16, 2026, describing how he believes the company operates across poker and iGaming media. The post, titled "How ClickOut Media Killed Card Player Magazine," outlines his firsthand experience with the company that acquired Card Player in December 2024.
ClickOut Media, operating under the Finixio umbrella, is a UK-based digital publishing group active in iGaming, crypto, finance, and tech affiliate content.
Bourgeois reveals at the beginning of the post that he confirmed with multiple insiders that the magazine will stop printing physical copies and instead continue as a newsletter and free bi-monthly online magazine.
According to unnamed insider sources referenced in his post, Card Player Magazine was losing $750,000 per year with very few subscriptions before the print edition was discontinued.
In his post, he criticizes ClickOut Media, which he describes as a “parasitic SEO” company, and shares his experience working there, including his own role in the company's parasitic structure. He also shares views on what he describes as structural issues inside poker journalism and affiliate-driven publishing.
His early time at ClickOut Media was positive and focused on poker journalism and editorial work, according to Bourgeois. The shift came later, when writers were moved across different websites and required to produce large volumes of search-optimized material.
“On a personal level, my first year under the ClickOut Media umbrella was probably the best job experience I’ve ever had.”
The shift he describes was toward SEO-heavy articles, including pages like “Best online poker sites in 2026,” “Top crypto poker platforms,” and “Poker bonus codes.”
“Writers got passed around from website to website, forced to write fewer legitimate articles and more SEO slop under much harsher, stricter conditions.”
This change created pressure inside teams, especially in poker and iGaming roles, where output expectations increased, and editorial work became a smaller part of the job.
Bourgeois accuses ClickOut Media of drawing in journalists with strong pay and good working conditions at the start, then increasing pressure over time. According to him, writers were pushed toward high-output SEO work, especially in poker and iGaming, where alternative jobs are limited.
“Companies like ClickOut Media trick and trap legitimate journalists into playing their game… ClickOut was able to put a lot of pressure on the writers, especially in the iGaming and poker sectors, because they knew how difficult it was to find a better-paying job elsewhere.”
Bourgeois claims that many pages across the network were built to drive affiliate traffic through links connected to online poker platforms and casinos. He says these pages were designed to generate revenue through player signups and ongoing activity.
“Once these websites are purchased, the main goal is to make money through casino partnerships and affiliate links. They do this by having writers create HUNDREDS of SEO-heavy pages per website, such as ‘Best online poker sites in 2026,’ ‘Top crypto poker platforms,’ or ‘Poker bonus codes,’ all aimed at getting people to sign up via their links, like on the page below.”
Bourgeois also claims ClickOut Media owns CoinPoker, a crypto-based poker platform, and that the site “doubled their rake,” the fee charged to players on each hand or in each tournament. He writes that CoinPoker is listed at the top of affiliate lists on Card Player and other ClickOut-owned sites, and says the company does this because "they own the brand and it's in their own self-interest."
He alleges that some articles were created using AI and published under writer names, including cases where the listed author did not review the content, adding that his own name continued to appear on pages he says he never worked on after leaving the company in August 2025.
“To make matters even worse, it’s been confirmed time and time again that ClickOut Media has produced 100% AI-written articles, credited to writers who don’t actually exist! They’re just AI avatars!”
He raised concerns internally about these practices, and his employment ended shortly after, despite what he describes as strong performance reviews during his time at the company.
“I had had enough and questioned the company’s ethics in a meeting. Not very long after that, with no further discussions, I was let go… despite consistently receiving ‘beyond expectations’ in every area of my performance reviews and having earned three promotions during the 21 months.”
He also notes that HR head Anna Grunwerg was present during his exit interview and later identifies her as the sister of ClickOut Media and Finixio founder Adam Grunwerg.
Before his layoff, Bourgeois was given responsibility for the poker platform PokerScout after a promotion. His team focused on standard poker content on the front end, while other parts of the site were used for SEO pages and affiliate-driven content.
According to him, this setup allowed sites to appear as traditional poker media brands while generating revenue through backend pages.
“We did some phenomenal work, but it was still all just a ploy to create an incredibly profitable SEO machine on the backend while still keeping PokerScout looking like a legitimate poker news website on the front-end… They hire a bunch of journalists to keep the front page of these websites looking legitimate while also contributing to the nefarious stuff on the back end.”
During his time at the company, there were internal discussions about a possible acquisition of PokerNews, which he raises as an example of how far ClickOut Media's reach into poker media could extend.
At the time of publication, ClickOut Media has not issued a public statement addressing Bourgeois’s claims. The company has not commented on the allegations regarding AI-generated content, author attribution, the circumstances of his departure, or the internal discussions he describes.
Bourgeois has stated in his post that he is pursuing legal action against ClickOut Media over what he describes as wrongful termination and the continued unauthorized use of his name on articles he says he never reviewed.
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