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.

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 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.