Tag: calvin ayre

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eGaming Review tells story of how online gambling domains have advantage over offline addresses

gambling

The most recent “domain name” story on Calvin Ayre which discussed the sale of Poker.com.au for $100,000, pointed to an article over at eGaming Review that described how online gambling websites have the definite advantage over offline destinations like Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

All things being equal, when you look at a gambling website with content and games, what gives one online gambling site the advantage over another?

Having the right web adress.

The story titled “It’s all in the name” opens by noting the big-ticket sales in 2010 of Slots.com and Poker.org.  Slots.com sold for $5.5 million, while Poker.org sold for $1 million.

Nora Nanayakkara, the author of the eGaming Review story, digs into gambling.com (which is up for sale at Sedo) and other gambling domains, and makes a number of good points.

From the SEO perspective, she writes: “Our own research shows that one-in-six searches come from direct navigation and that when it comes to Gambling.com the domain offers great SEO benefits. It currently sits at the number one and two spots in Google’s own rankings and since the term “gambling” is searched around 1.1 million times a month, the potential for this to scale even further could be much greater.”

She brings up branding, development, domain sales, visibility, advertising revenues, lead generation, recognition, and several other ways companies are benefiting from going online with category-killing names.

Unlike some stories riddled with errors that are written by people outside of the domain industry, the eGaming Review story is a good, quick read. 

Read more about the rewards of investing in a premium domain name.

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Calvin Ayre offers up 8 predictions for the gambling industry in 2011

crystal ball

If you’re a gambling domain investor and are curious about what Calvin Ayre has to say about the gambling industry, today he offered up 8 predictions for what’s to come in 2011. 

The buyer behind Slots.com and Slots.ca in 2010, Calvin Ayre didn’t hint at the sale price of Gambling.com, or specifically anything about domain names, but maybe that’s because he’s eyeing the category-killing domain for himself.  

He certainly has the cash to do so. 

In July, the self-made billionaire behind Bodog, purchased Slots.ca for $206,906.  Shortly before that, he purchased Slots.com for a deal totalling $5.85 million.

Calvin Ayre’s 2011 Predictions

Calvin Ayre opens his article on the less serious side with predictions like “Harry Reid will attempt (and fail) to slip a 1,900 page online bingo bill into a Senate roll call” and “At least one major poker company is killed by the cruel hand of the marketplace; two others commit ritual suicide after being bullied once too often on CalvinAyre.com.”

But if you scroll to the bottom of the story, Calvin Ayre offers up several serious predictions:

The launch by (at least) one US state of its own online gambling operation will set in motion a process that ultimately undermines any attempt at instituting online gambling at the federal level

2011 will see a continued increase in global stature for privately-held, London-based online gaming companies like Bet365 at the expense of publicly-traded companies and private companies based in less professional jurisdictions (where it’s much harder to build world-class teams).

Europe will continue its Balkanization trend, with each country having its own set of rules (also referred to as walled gardens in some reports).

Read Calvin Ayre’s full list of serious and not-so-serious gambling predictions for 2011.

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Calvin Ayre coined the term “Tablog”, now it’s up for Best iGaming Community

tablog

While you’ve probably visited CalvinAyre.com, you may not have realized it before, but the web site is also referred to as Tablog.com.  The term was coined by Calvin Ayre in 2009 in order to describe a new breed of blog –  a tablog – “tabloid” + “blog”.   Typing in the web address tablog.com will also take you to CalvinAyre.com.

While the search volume for the term “tablog” isn’t big, Calvin Ayre has managed to get it listed in Wikipedia.

“Tablog”‘ is a neologism (a portmanteau word conjoining “tabloid” and “blog”) and refers to a specific form of blog, usually maintained by an individual or organization, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, graphics, video, and with links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The element that distinguishes a tablog from other forms of blogs is the selection of material or means of presentation, which tends to sensationalize, emphasize or exaggerate for effect, and which often focuses on scandalous information relating to the personal lives of celebrities or of members of their target industry.

In addition to Wikipedia, Calvin Ayre’s tablog as he calls it, which launched in the fall of 2009, is up for an award. 

Jamie Hinks, a writer for CalvinAyre.com, announced the blog is up for Best iGaming Community.  The competition includes BingoPort, CasinoMeister, CasinoAffiliatePrograms, Coinflip, EquipoAzartia, Global Gaming Events, GPWA, PokerStrategy, and SportyTrader.

Though being the first to register a popular term is rewarding, imagine coining your own term.  In August 2009, Calvin Ayre did an interview with CasinoCity where he talked about the launch of his tablog and the term.  The interview was re-published by GPWA. 

When asked what his plans are for CalvinAyre.com, he replies, laughing: “Well, as you know, I’m not a big fan of a ‘me too’ approach to anything. CalvinAyre.com will be something new, something entirely fresh in the online gaming space. I’ve coined the term “tablog” for the site – a “tabloid blog” – because it will be a site focused on developments in the online gaming world globally, and my perspectives on it, but done in a completely fresh and entertaining way that doesn’t take itself too seriously. People will agree or disagree with me and they may love it or hate it, but I can guarantee it won’t be boring and it’ll be entertaining.”

Calvin is no stranger to fame, respect, and envy, but he also knows how to handle inevitable criticism from those who read about him virtually. This is a great talent to have mastered in executive blogging world as one of the keys to executive blog success is being able to make fun of yourself and admit to your mistakes. Another key to executive blog success is providing a doorway into the personal life, hobbies, and opinions of the executive, also something that Calvin has mastered and is happy to share. Combine this vision with online gambling industry news and gossip, cool videos, exotic girls, conference and event reporting, and additional “famous” recurring characters and you’ve got yourself an online gambling industry…tablog.

Though Calvin Ayre gets credit for coining the term, he wasn’t the first to register the domain.  The first owner (dating back to 2000), had a blog online long before blogs became mainstream.

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Slots.com buyer Calvin Ayre: Not for nothing do people say ‘content is king’

Bodog Girl

On CalvinAyre.com today Billionaire Calvin Ayre wrote an article about the Adweek Media and Harris Interactive survey that indicates: “almost two-thirds (63%) of Americans claim to ignore internet advertising”.   Calvin Ayre’s article centers around the same survey that Robin Wauters discussed over at TechCrunch earlier this month.

While Robin discussed the results of the survey, little insight into how companies trying to build their brand should go about it online was offered.

However, Calvin Ayre did.

The data in this survey highlights the folly of any company attempting to build brand value predominantly via online advertising. Seriously, the only people getting rich off this arrangement are the companies who get paid to host the ads. Not for nothing do people say ‘content is king’. The branded content I’ve created over the years for the Bodog Brand and its associated entertainment properties – BodogFight, BodogMusic, Calvin Ayre WildCard Poker — not only made a significantly greater impression on viewers than a plain old banner or pop-up ad, it continues to resonate years after its initial release, and will continue to do so for however long digital media exists.

Calvin Ayre knows a thing or two about building an online brand.  As the public face of Bodog, he launched the company with little more than  $10,000 in 1994.  He is now a billionaire.

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Will the sale of Gambling.com even come close to $20MM (its previous sale price)?

online gambling

Fusible.com was the first blog in the Domain industry to report about the auction of Gambling.com, shortly after reading a tweet sent through Calvin Ayre’s web site announcing Media Corp had retained Sedo to sell Gambling.com. 

Hours earlier, Media Corp had issued a press release through BusinessWire: ‘Whilst the Group has received a number of very significant indicative offers for www.gambling.com, the Board believes that a formal auction process with the World’s leading domain name broker will achieve the best possible outcome and valuation as Sedo is uniquely positioned to present the domain to global gambling brands and other qualified buyers.’

Purely a Domain Sale?

Gambling.com, if you recall, sold for nearly $20 million in 2005.  However, the sale wasn’t purely a domain sale. 

According to Sedo back in 2005: ‘The sale of Gambling.com turned heads when it hit the multi-million dollar mark and sold for 20 million dollars.  Also included in the sale were benefits of a direct mail database and affiliate program connections.’

In 2010, will Gambling.com even close to its multi-million dollar sales price from 2005? 

Back in 2005, Casinomeister wrote about the sale.

“Gambling.com is the number 1 listing on google.com for “Gambling” search and has over 500 other internet and affiliate sites linking to Gambling.com globally. It also has extensive expertise in direct mailing and has built a double opt-in database of over 200,000 members.”

Times have changed.  Gambling.com is no longer the number 1 listing.  Though type in traffic is always a nice perk, long term businesses want to own the search engines.

What are people saying?

Over at Gambling Portal Webmasters Association, the site that was originally tapped to auction Slots.com, members are a bit skeptical that Gambling.com will get anywhere near that $20 million price tag.  Here’s a look at some of the comments:

Christoff says, “Superb domain but will never get $20m for it”
 
Brean78 says, “For what its worth, I think Gambling.com has suffered from a bit of an identity crisis for a while now. It appears to be heavily focused on sport (for traffic I presume), but I don’t know too many people that associate gambling with sports betting.”
 
Graham says, “20 million?? I just don’t see this as good of a domain as something like onlinecasinos.com, sportsbetting.com, casinos.com, etc. where the people are coming to the site knowing exactly what they want to do. Gambling is too broad and I don’t think would convert that great, nor have the player value that some other terms might carry.”