Gambling.com Domain for Sale

January 05, 2011 | News Category: Online Casinos

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In 2010, there was much excitement as online gambling domain names sold for large sums of money. With gambling.com up for grabs, 2011 is kicking off with a sale that is expected to bring in a large amount of money for the seller.

The domain auction specialists, Sedo, have been commissioned to handle the sale on behalf of Media Corporation, the current gambling.com domain name owners. Offering the domain name for sale at the start of a new year is good timing, since this is the time businesses will be getting back on track after the holiday season.

The reserve price on gambling.com has been set at a whopping $9 million. Justin Drummond, Media Corporation's Chief Executive Officer, has said that the company is hoping to make $10 million, or even more from the sale.

Gambling.com is being sold as a stand alone domain name, which means that there is no business that is attached to the gambling.com name. Whoever buys it will need to use it wisely to earn good revenue from it. There have been other domain names that have had no business attached to them, which have sold for more than $10 million.. Sex.com is a well known example of this, and the domain name sold for $13 million.

It has been said that the gambling.com domain name was bought in 2005 for $20 million. However, at the time the domain name had a very lucrative business attached to it, and it made around $5.5 million in revenue from advertising in the year after it was bought. Using gambling.com as a portal was particularly profitable initially, because much of the revenue it generated was from the United States. After the advent of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act), Media Corporation had to leave the US market, which meant that the income the site generated was greatly reduced.

In fact, when searching "gambling" on Google.com, apart from the current news stories regarding the sale, the site does not show up in the top searches. Google.co.uk has a far better ranking for gambling.com when users search "gambling."

The big question now is who will buy the domain name, and what will they do with it. There have been rumors that both Playtech, and bet365 have shown interest, but have not offered as much as $9 million, with offers coming in at closer to $6 million at this time.

The man who is handling the gambling.com domain name sale, Hugo Dalrymple-Smith, from Sedo's London office said: "This is the premium generic domain in a very competitive market. Gaming is one of the leading online businesses, and gambling.com offers the chance for one company to stand out above others."