Another Online Gambling Domain Sold

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Another online gambling domain has been sold. This domain, Gambling.com, has one of the best keyword names and has been described as the perfect gambling domain. The domain was owned by the UK based Media Corporation group and its new owner has chosen to remain unidentified for now. The deal was brokered through the domain marketplace Sedo.

The price that Gambling.com fetched is $2.5 million. Many experts have opined that this is a much discounted price for such a valuable domain name. In fact when the Media Corporation group bought Gambling.com in 2005, they paid a whopping $20 million. Six years down the line they have received just over 10% of their purchase price. In January 2011, Media Corporation had indicated a reserve price of $9 million. However, Media Corporation chief executive, Justin Drummond, is not perturbed. He said that he was very pleased with the sale and the price received. Drummond explained that the sale of Gambling.com will considerably boost the group's already substantial cash reserves. He added, "We have recently seen a number of exciting acquisition opportunities in the online gaming and online advertising space. The successful sale of Gambling.com has given the group more than adequate financial resources to pursue these acquisition opportunities aggressively."

One of the biggest reasons in the fall of the market price of Gambling.com is the UIGEA. Media Corporation purchased this domain when the online gambling market in the United States was at its peak. After the UIGEA things have been going from bad to worse. Many online gambling operators and other service providers have exited from this market. The present seizure of online poker domains has triggered a fresh exodus. Another factor in the lower valuation of Gambling.com is the problem it had with Google. In 2007 Google imposed an inexplicable penalty on the domain name, which was only lifted in 2009. This drove down the gross margin from the domain by over 60%.

Two major online gambling domains were sold in 2010. Both had great keyword names and the price of Gambling.com falls squarely between those. PokerCompany.com had bought Poker.org for $1 million. At that time it was said that .org domains generally fetch lower prices than .com ones. The more high profile transaction was the Bodog brand purchasing Slots.com for $5.5 million. Bodog now has a Realtime Gaming powered online casino running at Slots.com. The online casino does not display the Bodog pizzazz as yet, but it is early days.

The identity of the new owner of Gambling.com will surely be revealed in due course. Right now all that Sedo is willing to say about the UK-based company is, "[It will be] well placed to capitalize on the benefits of such a memorable keyword domain considering the health of the online gambling market in the UK."

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