The domain name Slots.com is reportedly going to be auctioned off on SnapNames.com in a dedicated auction that will start as early as tomorrow.
When the auction did not occur it left some in the gambling community to wonder what happened to the auction.
It seems that Oversee.net snagged the domain Slots.com to be auctioned off on its SnapNames.com platform.
Although the exact reserve was not disclosed, its our estimation that the reserve is going to be north of $5M.
We have been running a poll for over a week as to what you thought the selling price would be.
I guess any of you that selected anything less than $5M, your out of luck:
Here is the full press release:
“””The owner of Slots.com announced today that they have chosen Moniker® (www.moniker.com) and SnapNames® (www.SnapNames.com), both Oversee.net® companies, to manage the highly anticipated auction for Slots.com.
This showcase auction will feature Slots.com exclusively. The auction starts online May 5, 2010 at noon US Eastern time and ends May 12, 2010 at 3:15 p.m. US Eastern time. For more information contact: monte@moniker.com and johnm@moniker.com, 1.800.688.6311 ext. 3531 and 3536.
“”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.” said Christina Renee, communications manager at Slots.com.””
“”The auction for Slots.com has garnered considerable interest in the casino industry with potential bidders lining up in anticipation of the auction. With slot games accounting for as much as 70% of casino revenue, this domain name auction will be one of the most followed gaming domain auctions this year.””
“This auction provides a rare opportunity to acquire a domain name that is a perfect match for one of the most popular games in the gaming space,” noted Monte Cahn the founder of Moniker. “We are very pleased to offer businesses and investors a unique opportunity to participate in a vertical that has consistently grown year-over-year.”.
Cahn’s comments are supported by a recent H2 Gambling Capital study, “The total value of the global eGaming market rose from US$23.5billion in 2008 to US$26.6billion in 2009. H2 now believes that its value will increase to US$36.5billion by 2012.”
Domain name auctions have proven to be an effective vehicle in determining the market value of a domain name. In the gambling space, the highest recorded sales to date have been Casino.com for $5.5 million in 2003 and the Gambling.com domain name and portal sale for $19.8 million in 2005.
If the reserve is $5m, my guess is it won’t sell in this auction. For the companies who can best capitalize on this domain, $5m is not a lot of money, which makes me think that if any of them wanted the name they would’ve bought it before now.
Those with the money are into their brands, and undoubtedly already draw much more traffic to their branded casinos than go to the prime domains in the space.
That’s my 2c – happy to be proven wrong.
Nice get for SnapNames. Too bad…they could have build a nice gambling auction around the name. Might have had a few industry players hanging around with checkbooks and gotten a few nice sales. Also would like to see some of the inventory and revenue stats as well.
Chip
According to Compete the domain get 15K visitors a month and Alexa has it ranked #296K.
Whoa. Terrible Numbers. Goes to show what development and the “right” kind of gambling name can do. So you don’t thing this could not have generated some outside (non-domainer) interest in a gambling name auction? Maybe I need to stop reading their own press releases 🙂
Here are some data points to chew on:
Slots.com
Slots earn Worldwide more net win and gross revenue than any other Casino Game on Earth.
35,100,000 search results in Google for Keyword: “Slots” (Source: Google.com Search)
6,120,000 Google Global Monthly Searches for Keyword: “Slots” (Source: Google Adwords)
Ripe for SEO efforts. With Current Page Rank of 3 new owner has room to drastically optimize SEO for gain in search traffic.
500-700 Daily Direct Type in traffic.
1000-1400 Unique visitors daily with barely any marketing expenditures. (To date only $1000 spent on Bing.com)
Average time on Site: 8 minutes
US Legislation Showing Signs of Shifting to a Regulatory Framework. Financial crisis catalyst for pushing a regulatory taxable framework. This can already be seen in some states including California that are considering regulating Online Poker. If and when the US shifts in its online gaming policy the domain will drastically increase in valuation and strategic importance.
Canadian legislation moving towards a regulatory framework for online gaming.
The game of slots is played worldwide and transcends cultures and languages.
Online Casino Gaming is an explosive industry with consistent year on year growth with Slots being a player favorite.
Slots.com is ripe to be used by Land-Based Slot Manufacturers and Casinos which have so far untapped the potential of online gaming. Opportunity for solid resale in marketplace. Incentive to develop Domain Name even further to sell or grow into multinational brand.
Multiple variations in gameplay along with ease of play make Slots the quintessential Casino Game
Perfect for Re-Branding existing operation for instant market recognition and increased presence.
Easy to spell generic name insures instant product recognition and understanding.
Says BIG Company without needing millions in marketing. This applies to the B2B space as well as B2C space.
Generic Name imply trust in the Casino world where trust is paramount in players minds.
One syllable-five letter word decreases chance for misspellings and miscommunication.
Short generic name increases memory recall rate among consumers resulting in more bang for each marketing dollar.
Large financially stable worldwide industry ensures the domain will retain value and retain its liquid asset status for its new owner.
slots.com will NOT sell if the reserve price is set at $5M.
I totally agree 100% with James post!