The owner of Slots.com has finally pushed the domain name to auction. Whatever circumstance caused the change of venue for the much-anticipated Slots.com auction from the forum of the Gambling Portal Webmasters Association to the auction platform at Moniker SnapNames, the result is the name is now in a public auction with a reserve believed to be at $6 million (as reported by DotWeekly.com). With the track record of Moniker at brokering blockbuster deals, the owner of Slots.com might have found herself in a better position.
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.
