$1 000 000 Domain Name Sold

[pompeyrayuk]

A poker domain has sold for a cool $1 000 000.

The domain was snapped up by a poker super affiliate (my guess is pokerkeep, chalkie or chips) for the pricely sum.

Full story here

[thepokerkeep]

Well.... I thought about buying it bit someone else beat me to it.

It will be interesting to see what the new owner does with it. A million is a lot of coin for a .org!

[Chalkie]

I decided against it as they refused my initial bid off handedly.

Not sure what was wrong with an offer of $1 million repayable at $5 per month, i would have gone to $10 per month but that would have been a stretch on the finances!

[Anthony]

That is a lot for a .org! Wonder what poker.com would fetch?!

[gamblingbutler]

That is a lot for a .org! Wonder what poker.com would fetch?!

I asked them once (seriously) for the fun of it and they replied:

"20M"

[Skinski]

That is a lot for a .org! Wonder what poker.com would fetch?!

Seems like a few years ago there was an online auction on it and it got up to 3.5 mill. If I recall correctly all offers were declined. (I do know the same person runs the site)

[Chips]

I decided against it as they refused my initial bid off handedly.

Not sure what was wrong with an offer of $1 million repayable at $5 per month, i would have gone to $10 per month but that would have been a stretch on the finances!

Ahh, so your the bugger that out bid me huh?

[penny-slot-machines]

The article talks about other big deals, but amazingly it didn't mention the acquisition of gambling.com by Gaming Corporation plc in 2005

That one went for $20m

[brean78]

These domain purchases baffle me, that domain has got to make $1m before it even breaks a profit. The type-in traffic is unlikely to be huge as most would type "poker.com" and it is not developed as it just points at Party. This super-affiliate must be either very smart or very stupid.

[Simmo!]

The article talks about other big deals, but amazingly it didn't mention the acquisition of gambling.com by Gaming Corporation plc in 2005

That one went for $20m

Gambling.com was a complete business though with profits, people and infrastructure.

[Webzcas]

These domain purchases baffle me, that domain has got to make $1m before it even breaks a profit. The type-in traffic is unlikely to be huge as most would type "poker.com" and it is not developed as it just points at Party. This super-affiliate must be either very smart or very stupid.

Probably the later. With a million bucks at your disposal, you could get pretty much ANY domain lording it over the majority of sites in the serps.

[penny-slot-machines]

Gambling.com was a complete business though with profits, people and infrastructure.

Good point, just looked at their 2005 accounts and can see that at the time they valued the domain at $4.5m

Still a hefty price tag for a domain and worth a mention!

[TheBoyMitchell]

These domain purchases baffle me, that domain has got to make $1m before it even breaks a profit. The type-in traffic is unlikely to be huge as most would type "poker.com" and it is not developed as it just points at Party. This super-affiliate must be either very smart or very stupid.

Its got to make much more than that mate.

To be in the arena to buy that kind of domain you have to be a serious company, with a bunch of staff.

So, domain is $1 million. 20 staff at $30000 average is $600000. SEO, PPC development costs $250000, writing off bad investments (snake oil salesmen etc), office costs $50000 etc etc

That means that before you can look at making a profit you have an outlay of around $2 million dollars in the first year, and increasing by a million dollars every year after. Not including Directors wages, Venture Capital fees blah blah.

Based on a typical revshare of say, 35% you would have to generate revenues of $7 million before you broke even.

Thats a lot of players.

I think that domains like this, gambling.com, casino.com blah blah are no more than personalised number plates that arent bought to actually turn into a profit but are just traded for the name. Gambling.com tried many times to make it happen, but you have to be in a seriously long game to make it work, and the associated costs just dont add up.

And even if they did, some smartarse would outrank them anyway

[alexpratt]

However you also need to bear in mind its an asset and very likely an asset that will grow in value (certainly with a .com) So even if you break eve,n the % increase in value from the domain over time may well pay out over what ever your debt was to purchase the domain. So as long a they do ok with the domain and .orgs do well they could easily do well of this without driving huge revenues

[arkyt]

Probably the later. With a million bucks at your disposal, you could get pretty much ANY domain lording it over the majority of sites in the serps.

Call me a skeptic, but I don't see a successful super affiliate spending $1m on a .org domain. Maybe 5 years ago, but not today - than again there still are a lot of individuals / groups / associations etc that like to spend money. Heck someone should talk them into buying up all my domains for a few million....

[casino2k.com]

I agree, 1 million for a .org domain is too much IMO, even if the domain is one of the best a poker company can have.

Anyway it isn't the only investment for a successful website, some skilled webmasters will stay ahead for the keyword "poker" in search engine results.

[LiveCasinoPartners]

The article talks about other big deals, but amazingly it didn't mention the acquisition of gambling.com by Gaming Corporation plc in 2005

That one went for $20m

I think what they are buying is more a trust factor than direct browser type-ins. I think it will help their conversions simply because it's poker.com..

Now, the .org I don't know. It doesn't seem to be as marketable. I wouldn't pay a million for it. lol

[bb1web]

If I'm not mistaken aren't they still coming out with the .gambling, .insurance, .red wagons etc ?


ifso, I would think it a huge risk that type-in traffic will always be, what it is now.


Oh ya, and you've got to figure in the savvy of today's surfer.

Only the newbs will be using type-in (for the most part), the savvy may type in ... but they'll type in the names they know the most, not the names most common to know. ie, party poker, - poker.com or .org ,.... I'd still be much more likely to type in party or the name of some other poker room, if that was what I was seeking, now if I just wanted to know about poker, not join a poker room, then maybe I'd try a poker.com,

but that ain't traffic that is likely to prove extremely profitable at the end of the day.