Tag: calvin ayre

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Slots.net redirects to Slots.com, Did Calvin Ayre’s Bodog Brand buy it?

Slots.net

2010 was an expensive year for Calvin Ayre when it came to buying domain names.

In June 2010, Calvin Ayre’s Bodog Brand purchased the domain name slots.com for a reported $5.5 million, which grabbed headlines for weeks.  A month later in July, Bodog Brand acquired the Canadian top level country code domain, slots.ca, for $206,906 at Moniker.

It now looks like Calvin Ayre has continued his buying spree for more “slots” domains. 

If you hadn’t noticed, the web address slots.net now re-directs to the slots.com website.  Re-directing the name, was the same technique used for the slots.ca domain after its purchase. 

It’s not confirmed yet whether Bodog Brand was the actual buyer of slots.net, but if I were a gambling man, I’d put my money on Calvin Ayre as the new owner.  At the time of this story, the sale has gone unreported. 

If a deal was cut, one can only guess that the price may have been in the seven figures.  Last year, Poker.org sold for $1,000,000.

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Calvin Ayre looking for feedback on $3.5 million domain name Slots.com

Slots.com

On Wednesday, Calvin Ayre’s Bodog issued a press release.  The company is looking for feedback on its Slots.com web site which recently launched into beta. 

“In this early launch period, Slots.com, is seeking feedback and giving customers the chance to be part of the growth plan by shaping the future of the site. The initial slots offering will see significant additions over the months as Slots.com reacts to the directives of its players,” reads the opening of the release.

Shortly after the press release went online, Jamie Hinks a writer for Calvin Ayre’s Tablog posted a story that talks more about the domain, and less about the website, entitled: Slots.com needs you!

“For a site that generates 35.1million hits on Google for “Slots” it’s little wonder that the amount paid was the most in 2010 and one of the top ten ever. Only second to Casino.com, Slots.com’s European Head of Marketing, Charlie Goodenough, believes that Slots.com is the best gaming domain in the world, better than even Poker.com because there are no strong brands in the space.”

Gambling domain names are an exciting space.  As I wrote earlier in the week, the deal for gambling.com is expected to complete in the second quarter, and Calvin Ayre has been rumored to be a possible buyer.  Also, later today, Governor Chris Christie is expected to make a decision on New Jersey’s internet gambling bill.

UPDATE:  Governor Chris Christie has conditionally vetoed the bill.  Hope isn’t lost though, as Bill Beaty reports over at CalvinAyre.com.

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Best sales year possible for domains in 2011? Another big gambling domain goes up for sale

tournament

2011 could be the year gambling domain names hit the mega millions jackpot with properties like gambling.com already up for sale, which some expect could fetch as much as $20 million (its previous sale price back in 2005). 

What looked like a good year in 2010 with the sale of Slots.com  for $5.5 Million, could only be getting better in 2011, as online gambling developments take place in the United States with New Jersey being the first state to license and regulate online gambling. 

Billionaire Calvin Ayre, the buyer of Slots.com, still hasn’t commented on whether he’ll bid on gambling.com.

But with more options on the market, Bodog Brand could have its sights set on a number of properties.

Tournament.com up for sale by Mandalay Media Group

Today, Eric Bianchi of Calvin Ayre’s Tablog is reporting that Costa Bingo and Casino Choice (Mandalay Media Group), have put the domain name Tournament.com up for sale.

Tournament.com is the latest name to come on the market, after creators of Costa Bingo and Casino Choice, Mandalay Media Group, put the domain up for sale.

Owners of Mandalay, Richard Skelhorn (pictured) and Alex Holt, said: “The word ‘tournament’ is very descriptive and generates over five million Google searches per month. It could be developed into a very powerful brand in the right hands.”

As far as what it was used for before, the site hosted pay-to-enter video game tournaments for games such as CounterStrike, but Skelhorn and Holt explained that is no longer a viable option.

“We believe that unless a content owner like EA approach it themselves and therefore remove the license fee element we will not see a third party operator again on the scale Tournament.com achieved.”

If you pay a visit to Tournament.com, you’ll be asked to fill out a short form asking for your name, company, email and a message.

Read more about the sale of Tournament.com.

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Calvin Ayre has no comment on whether he’ll bid on Gambling.com

Gambling.com

Calvin Ayre had no comment on whether he’ll bid on the domain name Gambling.com, which sold for nearly $20 million in 2005. 

That’s according to a story published by Steven Stradbrooke on CalvinAyre.com on Wednesday, after a BlackJack Champ story speculated that the billionaire who purchased Slots.com for $5.5 Million in 2010 would own the domain by the end of the month.

It’s not big news that Calvin Ayre could be a potential buyer of Gambling.com  as many could have guessed.  But this is the first time since Gambling.com went up for sale that Calvin Ayre has made some type of public comment on whether he’ll bid.

Here’s what Steven Stradbrooke had to say about the possibility of Bodog Brand buying the name.

The domain’s owners, MediaCorp, have set a reserve bid of $9m. Is L’Atelier about to witness another multi-million deal done with mobile phones in one hand and beers in the other?

Sadly for L’Atelier staff hoping that the Bodog Brand bigwigs would make it rain again, the odds are against it. While Calvin will tell anyone who’ll listen that the Slots.com purchase was the best deal he’d ever made, the best we could get out of him about these gambling.com rumors was ‘no comment’.

Bottom line, none of us here at CalvinAyre.com has, as of yet, received any invitation to L’Atelier on the day of the auction. So, as far as we’re concerned, the whole ‘Bodog Brand to bid for gambling.com domain’ thing just isn’t happening.

Steven injects a bit of humor into the story and sacrcasm saying that when Calvin Ayre said no comment, “at the time he was still hung over from his New Year’s excesses, so while we’re sure we said ‘domain sales,’ he may have thought we said ‘no grain ales’ and he was trying to be ironic or something.”

Yes, Bodog Brand seems like a pretty good bet to be the new owner of Gambling.com.

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Time to double down on gambling domains? NJ passes legislation to license, regulate online gambling

Online Poker

It might be time to start looking over those gambling domains in your portfolio. 

Today, New Jersey approved online gambling legislation in what PokerNews calls, “…an historic day for online poker”.

New Jersey became the first state to pass legislation to license and regulate online poker Monday as the State Assembly voted 63-11 to approve a bill that would permit Internet wagering for New Jersey residents through hubs based at Atlantic City casinos. The State Senate had passed the bill 29-5 in November.

The legislation now will go to the desk of Gov. Chris Christie. He has 45 days to sign it into law, conditionally veto it (returning it to the legislature for changes) or veto it absolutely. If no action is taken during the 45 days, the bill automatically becomes law. Gov. Christie hasn’t taken a public stance on this bill but he has made it a priority to improve the revenue stream for Atlantic City, so it is not believed he would veto it.

If 2010 was any indication of the demand for gambling domains with Slots.com selling for $5.5 million, 2011 might be even better.

Gambling.com is up for sale, and positive news like this can only help its chances of selling for a record-breaking price of $20 million or more.

And it’s not just online Poker that was approved, as PokerNews points out, “The bill allows not only for poker to be offered online but also casino games and other forms of gambling.”

It looks as if one of Calvin Ayre’s 2011 predictions has already happened, but what it means for instituting online gambling at the federal level, won’t be known anytime soon.

Over at Calvin Ayre, a large “Victory” image is gracing the home page of the website.  Peter Amsel writes, “How ironic is it that New Jersey, the butt of so many jokes as a backwater bastion of big hair and unrefined tastes, especially when compared to their supposedly cutting edge neighbors in New York City, would prove to be the trendsetters here?”.  In the comments section, Calvin Ayre left a note saying, “…so far my predictions from last year and this are all unfolding as outlined”