There was a lot of interest around Slots.com when the auction was first announced at the GPWA forum, then cancelled, eventually ending up at SnapNames. At this point, the owner has not said if a second auction will be held or if negotations will take place with the highest bidder. But $4.5 million is certainly a price worth considering. At that price, if confirmed, the sale would top the 2010 sales chart at DN Journal, knocking off Photo.com recently sold by Moniker for $1,250,000. Had the name sold for $6m, it would have been a bigger sale than casino.com, which sold for $5.5m, placing Slots.com in the top 10 of reported domain sales of all-time.

While the high bid of $4.5 million suggests there is definite interest, gambling webmasters and domainers in particular have been skeptical at the owner’s target price.
And the lukewarm response to the Slots.com auction indicates the seller needs to be more flexible to tempt the right buyers.

Whatever the outcome of the Slots.com auction, the domain market certainly doesn’t need a rally to show its worth. Nearly 30 of 2010’s top domain sales have been for six-figure dollar amounts and at least 12 gambling domain sales have been reached five figures or more.

UPDATE: The Epik Blog reported last night that Slots.com eventually sold for $5.5 million possibly to one of the big online gambling casino providers.

Prior to PokerStars acquiring the domain, DanielNegreanu.com was owned by FullContactPoker.com, a popular poker forum and informational site, whose most popular member is Daniel Negreanu himself. In 2007, Daniel became a member of Team PokerStars which includes other top pro poker players from around the world such as Chris Moneymaker, Joe Cada, Vanessa Rousso, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem. But that didn’t change anything on the FCP’s web site, where Daniel Negreanu still runs a video diary and writes an online journal.

Team PokerStars – Famous Pro Poker Players

Team PokerStars sponsors several professional players, while also owning and operating their domain names and web sites, including JoeHachem.com and ChrisMoneymaker.com. But PokerStars doesn’t own them all. Other players on Team PokerStars like Joe Cada have a fan site setup at JoeCada.com. GregRaymer.com is the website of Raymer Real Estate Services, while BertrandGrospellier.com is the unofficial blog of Bertrand Grospellier and is owned by Gt Holdings LLC, a company that owns over 2,000 domains.

PokerStars doesn’t seem to mind paying for the names either. But is it possible the players just don’t care about owning their virtual names?
The name of a famous poker player is a brand and owning the virtual space associated with it is important. Likely Daniel Negreanu and Chris Moneymaker have some kind of deal that gives PokerStars the option to operate their web sites now while they are part of the company’s pro poker team. And get the domains back later, as all famous poker players seem to ultimately branch out and make money in a variety of other channels.

Not many details as to the reasons behind the change of venue were provided in the press release that announced the auction was going live at Snapnames.com. Slots.com’s Christina Renee simply said: “We are excited that the industry’s leading domain name auction companies Moniker and SnapNames, have agreed to manage this online auction. Their innovative technology platform and reputation for excellence provide a safe, secure and reliable bidding process.”

A hefty reserve some have said could hurt the potential of this name selling, but like it or not, the economy hasn’t affected prices for gambling names in the aftermarket. And when it comes to gambling domains Slots.com is one of the best domains on the market.

Will it sell?

Reactions have been mixed. Comments to Jamie Zoch’s article about the auction at DotWeekly.com yesterday were all negative, but most professional domainers do not think in the same terms gambling webmasters and online gambling companies do when looking at a name that has a lot of potential if fully developed.

More importantly, the auction has grabbed the attention of the entire gambling industry, with several specialized gambling news sites reporting about it and possibly attracting the interest of major online casino operators, for which slot games and slot tournaments represents cash cows.

At the time of writing a bid for $4 million has been placed by bidder casinocity, possibly representing casino portal CasinoCity.com, which also owns the GPWA forum. Auction ends May 12.

Did Slots.com sell for more than $1 million – the price tag of Poker.org that turned heads simply because many didn’t believe a .org domain name, no matter how strong the keyword, could sell for such a high price?

Assuming Slots.com did sell on Wednesday, it could be loads of success for the owner of the domain. Christina Hall has remained quiet on the Slots.com blog where posts have been intermittent at best for the last several months. Her last post on March 31 announced that the domain was up for sale and so too was an industry. In her last post, she wrote:

“Slots.com is one the the Internet’s finest domains for the gambling industry, and it will be on the auction block this April. Land based and online operators are battling heads, and wallets, for the prize of owning the URL, with the auction coming hot on the heels of the sale of Poker.org for $1 million”

For many anxiously awaiting the results, the question is: will details on the price be kept under wraps, like many of the big ticket sales that go unreported? It’s obviously too early to say, but forum members on the GPWA’s website are asking the same question.

“Anyone know what slots.com went for?” The question was asked yesterday and remains unanswered. Not even guesses or theories about the auction.

And while the forum responses stay quiet, gambling news sites too have been quiet the past few days, with the last articles from one or two weeks ago reporting about the upcoming auction. Not a single gambling news site has written about the auction result.

The past few months have seen gambling domains perform extremely well with Poker.org selling for $1 million,
so keep an eye out for news of the Slots.com sale – because if a deal did go down, public or not, there’s one sure bet: it sold for more than Flying.com which owns the top sale in 2010 for $1,100,000.
And eventually gambling news sites and domain blogs will be abuzz with comments and analysis…

The plan is for Slots.com to be auctioned at the public forum of the Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA). An online forum with over 5,000 members, that is dedicated to helping its members succeed as webmasters in the online gambling industry. Traffic to the online forum reached a record high for the website in March with over 40,000 visitors.

The news of the auction received mixed opinions by forum posters over at GPWA, as can be expected when a domain name is listed for sale for 7 figures. Predictions are the name could sell between $2 milllion and $5 million, but some GPWA members believe that slots.com is “worth every penny and more” and “even $2,000,000 would be a bargain basement price”.

And while domain insiders and web developers not familiar with online gambling may think that $2 million is way too much for slots.com, what online gambling webmasters think can be summed up by a comment of one GPWA forum member, who writes: “Maybe you are valuing this domain in terms of how much value it would be to someone like yourself. You are missing the bigger picture in seeing how much value this domain could be to those who could market it, brand it, etc. You can’t just value a domain like this based on its positions (or lack of) in the SEs and its minimal traffic compared with other slots sites. We will all find out soon enough how much this domain is worth to those with enough spare money to buy it.”

The final sale price might be uncertain and the auction may have gained very mixed opinions, but in less than two weeks we’ll all know. At the time of writing, Flying.com, which sold for $1,100,000 in early March, and Poker.org, which sold in February for $1,000,000, are the highest reported domain sales for 2010. This could all change if Slots.com turns out to be a hot commodity for online gambling operators with plans for development.

While the Slots.com blog has been quiet for the last 2 weeks, Online Casino News reported the news yesterday. A flurry of news coverage will likely start by Friday. So stay tuned, because Slots.com might end up sitting atop the domain sales charts for the remainder of 2010.

The online gambling sites could end up buying similar domains to the ones named in the case.

This strategy would prevent any downtime for the web sites whether the domains get seized, but it could also create a windfall for the owners of the domain names that the gambling sites seek to buy. Desperate times call for desperate measures and in this situation the demand for similar domains could allow owners of the domains to ask for a lot more money that they normally would ask for.

The operators of Full Tilt Poker have recently purchsed FullTilt.com, which was previously owned by a company that provides a product information management solution.

Few years ago, Bodog had to rebrand first as newbodog.com and then as bodoglife.com when 1st Technology was given the control over the bodog.com domain after being awarded a default judgment for almost 50 million dollares in a patent infringement case.

More recently, UltimateBet rebranded as UB.com following a major poker cheating scandal that even attracted the attention of the CBS television show 60 Minutes. The two-letter domain name UB.com sold in 2007 for $130,000 on Moniker.

As in any supply-demand scenario where the buyer is desperate, prices will soar. And domain owners sitting on properties that otherwise haven’t received much interest, might see competitive offers coming in. Especially from companies that have worked hard to build their online gambling brands and do not want to take chances until the fate of their gambling domains in the Kentucky case remains in question.

Following is a list of the 141 internet gambling domain names identified in the Kentucky case.

Do you own any similar names that could be of interest to gambling sites?

123bingo.com

777dragon.com

7sultans.com

absolutepoker.com

aceshighcasino.com

alljackpots.com

allslots.com

arthuriancasino.com

atriumcasino.com

aztecrichescasino.com

bellavegas.com

bet21.com

betroyalcasino.com

bigtimebingo.com

bingoknights.com

bingoville.com

bingoworkz.com

blackjackballroom.com

bodoglife.com

bonuslevelslots.com

bookmaker.com

bugsyclub.com

cakepoker.com

capitalcasino.com

captaincookscasino.com

caribbeangold.com

casinobar.com

casinoclassic.com

casinoextreme.com

casinofortune.com

casinograndbay.com

casinokingdom.com

casinoshare.com

casinous.com

cirruscasino.com

ukcasinoclub.com

clubusacasino.com

cocoacasino.com

coolcatcasino.com

countycasino.com

crazypoker.com

crazyvegascasino.com

desperatehousewivesbingo.com

doylesroom.com

englishharbour.com

ezbets.com

firstwebcasino.com

fortunejunction.com

fortuneroom.com

fulltiltpoker.com

galaxiworld.com

gamblingboard.com

goldencasino.com

goldgatecasino.com

goldenpalace.com

grandmondial.com

highrollerslounge.com

indiancasino.com

inetbet.com

itsrealpoker.com

ivegas.com

jackpotcapital.com

jackpotcity.com

jackpotkingscasino.com

jackpotwheel.com

jupiterclub.com

kingneptunescasino.com

lakepalace.com

lasvegasusacasino.com

linesmaker.com

luckycoincasino.com

luckynugget.com

luckypyramidcasino.com

magicislandcasino.com

mapau.com

maplecasino.com

miamiparadisecasino.com

mightyslots.com

millionairecasino.com

musichallcasino.com

mysportsbook.com

oneclubcasino.com

orbitalcasino.com

orchidcasino.com

paradise8.com

phoeniciancasino.com

pitbullpoker.com

platinumplay.com

playersonly.com

pokerhost.com

pokerroyaleonline.com

pokerstars.com

powerbet.com

redflush.com

redstarpoker.com

reeferpoker.com

riopartycasino.com

riverbelle.com

rivernilecasino.com

roadhousereels.com

royalbetcasino.com

royalvegas.com

rushmorecasino.com

sbgglobal.com

showdowncasino.com

simonsayscasino.com

slotfever.com

slotocash.com

slotsoffortune.com

slotsplus.com

sportsbetting.com

sportsbook.com

sportsinteraction.com

sunpalacecasino.com

sunvegas.com

superslots.com

thisisvegas.com

thunderluckcasino.com

tridentlounge.com

truepoker.com

ultimatebet.com

usabingo.com

vegascasinoonline.com

vegaslucky.com

vegasmagic.com

vegaspalms.com

vegasusacasino.com

vegasvilla.com

vicsbingo.com

viploungecasino.com

virtualcitycasino.com

wildjack.com

win4real.com

winabingo.com

worldwidevegas.com

wsex.com

yukongoldcasino.com

Year-to-date gambling domain sales have totaled well over $1.2 million. Poker.org ranks first at $1,000,000 after selling on the Sedo marketplace on February 23, 2010.

Other gambling domain sales listed on DNJournal’s Top 100 include:

Risultati.it ($43,520)
Risultati-it is a livescore service that provides bettors and sports fans with real-time scores for soccer, tennis, basketball, hockey, baseball and football.

OnlineCasino.se ($32,000)
OnlineCasino.se only recently sold on Sedo on March 31, 2010, so nothing is online yet for the Swedish extension. But it doesn’t take a seasoned domainer to know how quickly a web site will go up on this name. OnlineCasino domains fetch high prices on the aftermarket. OnlineCasino.co.uk sold for $165,000 in 2009. OnlineCasino.net sold for $49,999 in 2007 and OnlineCasino.eu sold for $46,748 in 2006. Those are just a few of the reported “OnlineCasino” sales.

Prize.com ($100,000)
Prize.com, which sold last week for $100,000, is already up and running with an online gaming portal that allows players to play real money games against real opponents. The site allows users to play Solitaire, Bejeweled, Yahtzee, Blackjack, Tetris, Snake and many other card games, board games and sports games.

Will Gambing Domain Sales Top 2010 Charts All Year?

With the upcoming sale of Slots.com and the Snapnames auction announced for the iGaming SuperShow in Prague at the end of May, results for domain sales in Q2 2010 might be dominated again by gambling domains. The gambling domain vertical has the whole industry involved, from bloggers to news sites and forums. Of all the domain industries to take a gamble in, gambling domains might be your best bet for 2010.

Following is a list of gambling domain sales for Q1 2010. This domain sales price archive is inspired by the incredible job that DN Journal has done for years with its weekly domain sales report and YTD sales chart.
If you think we are missing any major sale, please contact us at info at gamblingdomainsnews.com

AAPoker.fr $1020 Sedo
AmateurPoker.co.uk $10000 OwnThisDomain
AmericaPoker.com $1050 Snapnames auction
BetAtHome.pl $1470 Sedo
Betting24.com $1200 Snapnames
BingoCity.com $12000 Sedo
Casino-Spiele.at $1380 Sedo
Casino-Spiele.de $3174 Sedo
Casino.gd $1200 Sedo
CasinoCasino.com $7000 Sedo
CasinoGaming.net $2000 Sedo
CasinoItalia.it €8000 Sedo
CasinoSpiele.com $7590 Sedo
CasinoTrac.com $2000 Sedo
eBet.it $3417 Sedo
ElCasino.net $2760 Sedo
EstrazioniSuperEnalotto.net €4700 Sedo
Football-Odds.co.uk $1680 Sedo
FreeSpin.net $1000 Sedo
FullDeckPoker.com $2,750 Sedo
HighRollerCasino.co.uk $1292 Sedo
iBackgammon.com $2500 Sedo
IrishLottery.com $10000 Sedo
JackpotFever.com $2500 Sedo
JeuCasino.com $5000 Sedo
JeuxCasinos.fr $1700 Sedo
JeuxDePoker.net €2050 Sedo
LiveCalcio.it $1120 Sedo
Lottery.cm $2,500 Sedo
MetalPoker.com $5000 Sedo
MillionPoker.com $1001 Snapnames auction
NKOnlinePoker.nl $1463 Sedo
NeoBet.com $5360 Sedo
NetBingo.com $15000 Sedo
Online-Casino.cc $1000 Sedo
OnlineCasino.net.nz $2500 Sedo
OnlineCasino.org.in $1000 Sedo
OnlineCasino.se $32000 Sedo
OnlinePokerSites.net $2750 Sedo
OnlineSlots.de $1050 Sedo
OnlineSlots.eu $1610 Sedo
PaigowPoker.com $6900 Namejet
Picks.com $11000 DOMAINfest Global auction
Poker-Free.com $2200 Snapnames
Poker.org $1000000 Sedo
PokerAngels.com $3000 GoDaddy auctions
PokerBet.it €5100 Sedo
PokerCaddy.com $5000 Domain Madness
PokerIcons.net $1000 Sedo
PokerItieto.com $5700 Sedo
PokerMate.com $2005 Namejet
Pokerist.com $11000 Sedo
Póker.eu €1000 Sedo
RacingStats.com $1100 Domain Madness
RioBingo.com $5700 Sedo
Risultati-Calcio.com $6960 Sedo
Risultati.it €32000 Sedo
Scommesse-Sportive.net $1000 Sedo
Score.de €3000 Sedo
SlotTournament.com $3440 Snapnames
SlotTournaments.com $5300 Snapnames
SlotsCasino.net $1884 Sedo
SlotsMachines.com $6675
SportsBettingSites.com $6750 NoktaDomains
Superbowl.eu $3200 Sedo
USALotteries.com $5000
USCasinoGuide.com $3300 NameJet
VivaBingo.es $2720 Sedo
WinGames.com $6500 NameJet

The domain auction market is flooded with events that don’t seem to get much interest outside of the domain industry. While that’s not always the case, is that a bad thing?
Not really, but domain investors know the rewards of buying and selling domain names, especially those of high quality. And like any investor, they want to buy low and sell high. And if they don’t have a vested interest in the name, they’re not likely to bid up the name to the levels an industry end user buyer would.

Imagine Auctions Geared towards Industry End Users

Imagine the upsides of a domain auction that not only brings in domain investors but industry buyers. That’s what every seller wants. You want potential buyers that are interested in your domains beyond just looking for a deal.

This is exactly taking place with the one-of-a-kind gambling domain name: Slots.com.

In a press release sent out, the owners of Slots.com write: “It’s not often that Internet domain names containing just a single word come on to the market, especially in the online gaming industry. That is exactly what will happen this April though when the Slots.com domain name becomes available.”

And the owners are savvy.

The story has been picked up by numerous websites including domain blogs, message forums, but most importantly by the gaming industry. The name isn’t going to be auctioned off at Sedo or SnapNames or other popular domain auction sites that mostly attract domain investors and are overwhelmed with dozens, hundreds and in some cases thousands of names up for auction.

No, the owners are handling their auction differently.

Slots.com is going to be auctioned at the public forum of Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA).
Much of the domain auction industry still hasn’t been able to break that barrier – although blockbuster sales are reported regularly. If more great domain sales were handled this way, there would be more big sales and less domain names that sit at auction with no bidders.

Online casino guide CasinoAdvisor.com reported: “Slots.com presently functions as an information portal on online slot games. It is believed to be owned by webmaster and developer Christina Hall and her partner. Christina put up intention of selling the domain name at the public forum of Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA). Christina has asked serious bidders to respond to auction@slots.com with the following information: company name, contact name, contact email, contact fax, contact phone and market capitalization. The auction will be governed by English Law.”

If you’re planning to auction a great domain name, take some lessons from Slots.com.
Write a press release.
Contact industry web sites and magazines.
Auction it off on a website that caters to that industry.
Get the most out of your investment.

It appears that fans of dotorg and other toplevel domains are taking the news of the sale as signs that their investments might be worth holding onto for a bigger, better offer, counting on the increased publicity of big TLD sales. While these types of sales are far and few between in the world dominated by demand for .com, with less unused inventory available, this trend could see an uptick as the internet moves into a new decade flooded by a number of companies seeking to secure their own corner of space on the internet with top level domains like .xxx.

Could it really happen?

But even with a million dollars spent on a name and a network of gaming sites with thousands of monthly visitors to benefit from, can PokerCompany’s investment in Poker.org really compete in a dotcom world?

At a glance, it looks like PokerCompany.com might be onto something, though its a low sample, it may show promise. In February 2010, BlackJack.com and BlackJack.org were neck to neck in a race for visitors with the difference in traffic to each site less than 75 visitors. And not only they were neck to neck in traffic, they are racing for the top spot in the search engines with the sites right on top of one another on Google Page 1.

Then there’s craps.net, another web site operated by PokerCompany. In February, Craps.net blew past its .com competition at Craps.com with more almost 4,000 visitors more than Craps.com, even though Craps.com ranks higher in the search engines.

Rivalry among the top level domains

With the purchase of Poker.org by PokerCompany for a cool $1,000,000, we might see some rivalry. As it stands today, Poker.com receives a relatively low amount of monthly visitors, about 32,000. Poker.org which hasn’t even been launched to the public yet, saw its traffic jump in February to over 4,000 visitors boosted by the news of the blockbuster sale which was covered all over the mainstream news including the Washington Post – a feat that doesn’t occur too often within the domain industry even with other seven-figure sales that mostly go unreported except by the domain blogs.

It’s always easier for a dotcom to become more popular, but regardless, companies that invest the amount of money PokerCompany.com has in domain names, reaffirmed their belief in alternate extensions with the $1,000,000 purchase of Poker.org earlier this year.

Details have not been unveiled for Poker.org, the newest project for PokerCompany.com. But expect much of the same, a website that drives poker customers to poker sites through affiliate deals.

Since the nineties, no other bingo domain name has fetched a seven figure price or even close to it.
Bingo.net, which sold for $56,500 in 2006 through Sedo GreatDomains, is the next highest sale but that blockbuster .net domain, cannot compete with a fully developed, fully operational gaming site like Bingo.com.

Bingo is a game of chance played with randomly drawn numbers and is an extremely popular game played all over the world and especially in the United States, where it is also the basis for many state lotteries.

In 1997 before the name was sold, the website Bingo.com was no more than an Under Construction page. That all changed in 1999 when the name sold for a seven-figure dollar amount and the new owners transformed the domain name and web site into what it is today: a site with nearly 2 million registered members averaging upwards of 80,000 players per month and total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2009, of $5.8 millions.

And while Bingo.com took a loss in 2009, it recently announced to have partnered with leading European sportsbook and gaming operator Unibet to create one of the largest and most international online bingo systems in existence.

“Today marks a milestone in the development of Bingo.com,” said Bingo.com’s CEO. “Through this partnership with Unibet, Bingo.com has the ability to maximize the value of its international traffic as it will now support over 20 languages and 10 currencies. Bingo.com will also realize cost savings in technology, finance, customer service and other departments that are included services in the Unibet partner program. Bingo.com, in partnership with Unibet, is now in a position to help lead the expansion of online bingo in the dozens of countries where bingo is played and loved.”

“Signing a partnership with Bingo.com, one of the strongest bingo brand names in the industry, is obviously very positive for us. It shows that we really have a quality bingo network with great understanding for local needs. We look forward to growing our business together on existing and new markets,” commented Peter Nylander, CEO of Unibet.