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The latest updates on New Jersey Internet Gambling Bill, gambling domains, sales, and more

Governor Chris Christie

There’s been a number of headlines this past month about internet gambling and gambling domains.  Here’s a roundup of news and gossip from around the web, with stories ranging from the New Jersey Internet Gambling Bill and ongoing negotiations for the sale of gambling.com, to 2011 domain sales and predictions. 

New Jersey Internet Gambling

I wrote earlier in the week how The New York Post was predicting New Jersey Governor Christie would veto the state’s Internet Gambling Bill.  Though it was thought Gov. Christie had until Feb. 24 to sign the bill, veto the bill, or veto the bill with conditions, otherwise it would become law if no action was taken – it appears he has longer. 

According to PokerNews, “Christie has decided that he actually has until March 3 to make the decision.  The governor’s office claims a legislative recess in New Jersey gives him the extra time, according to Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association chairman Joe Brennan Jr.” 

Another issue that was brought to light in the PokerNews article, is that the NY Post story that claimed the Governor might veto the bill, appears to be false.  PokerNews quotes Brennan: “I’ve heard people say they heard the governor is going to veto the bill,” Brennan said. “Our people are as close to the governor as anybody and they don’t know what he’s going to do because the governor hasn’t indicated to any party of this what he’s going to do. Anyone saying they know, they’re not involved in anything but rumors and prognostication.”

And while New Jersey could be the first state to legalize internet gambling, California could follow shortly thereafter.  Steven Stradbrooke of CalvinAyre.com has more on California legislation.

Gambling Domains 2011 Sales
 
The gambling domain industry had a fantastic year in 2010 in which two gambling domains sold for seven-figures:  slots.com for $5.5 million and Poker.org for $1 million.  While 2011 is just getting started, Sedo Broker Ryan J. Colby who recently brokered the top-selling domain name in 2011 so far to date with Gamesforgirls.com for $500,000, has predicted this year will be one of the best on record. 
 
“I’m making an early prediction that 2011 will see the highest number of seven figure domain name sales on record”, Ryan tweeted last week.
 
Though there haven’t been many big gambling domain sales in 2011 to date, OnlineCasinos.ca sold for $28,000 earlier this month.  And there’s a good shot Ryan’s prediction will become true, with gambling domain names like tournament.com and gambling.com on the market.   The sale of gambling.com is being brokered by Sedo, which brings me to my next headline.
 
The Sale of Gambling.com will complete during the Second Quarter
 
Speculation grew that billionaire Calvin Ayre might purchase gambling.com to add to his growing Bodog empire.  A story that appeared on BlackJack Champ even speculated he would own the name by the end of January.  Well, Media Corp Plc still owns the domain according to registrant records, but the company’s 2011 first quarter trading highlights published last month shed some light on what’s going on with gambling.com.
 
“Strong year on year growth has continued at Purple Lounge Limited, the Group’s online poker and casino business and at Eyeconomy, the Group’s wholly owned advertising network. In addition the Group is in ongoing negotiations with a number of parties for the sale of gambling.com. It is anticipated that the sale should complete during the second quarter of the financial year.”
 
Kentucky internet domain name case dragging on
 
There haven’t been many new developments in the Kentucky domain name case that has dragged on for years.  In January, lawyers representing both sides of the case filed briefs in Franklin County Circuit Court, in Frankfurt, KY, iMEGA reported.
 
“Lawyers representing iMEGA asserted the association’s right to contest the Commonwealth’s attempts to seize their members’ Web site addresses, while Kentucky’s lawyers ignored previous court rulings on standing, insisting that iMEGA and other trade associations lacked the right to appear.”
 
As iMEGA points out, “The matter now lies in the hands of Franklin County circuit court Judge Thomas Wingate, who issued the original seizure orders on the behalf of Kentucky.”
 
Have a gambling domain rumor or story tip I should know about?  Contact us or leave it in the comments. 
 
Image Credit: (Governor Photos)
 
 
Categories
News Video Games

UPDATED: Turkish casual game producer Gamegos is rumored buyer of $500,000 domain Gamesforgirls.com

gamesgos

Gamesforgirls.com is taking top honors as the top-selling domain name in 2011 so far to date, nearly doubling the price of the next highest ranking sale – Action.com – which sold for $270,000 in early February. 

While the owner of the domain name gamesforgirls.com is guarded behind Private Whois after Sedo completed the transfer this week, a reader who goes by the name “Anthony James” tipped me off earlier today about who the buyer might be.

I eliminated Bill Kara of Hallpass Media as the buyer, after speaking to Bill last week over email. 

It’s rumored that the mystery buyer who paid $500,000 for the casual games domain is Gamegos, a Turkish game producer with more than 30 million monthly active users across its network of websites. 

I contacted Gamegos to ask for more information, but haven’t received a response.  So it remains speculation at this point.

According to the Casual Games industry news site, casualnews.com, Gamegos owns casual gaming portals like oyunlar1.com, games2girls.com and didigames.com.  Games2girls.com, based on a rough traffic estimate provided by Compete, receives well over a half a million unique visitors per month.  Same with didigames.com and other sites belonging to Gamegos.

It’s only a rumor for now, but Gamegos seems to be one of the best candidates.

Updated: A spokesman for Gamegos using the email address ‘info -at- games2girls.com, wrote me early this morning and confirmed the company purchased the domain.  There was no personal info provided in the email, but Gamegos appears to be a fairly private company, so you can judge the email for yourself below.

About GamesForGirls.com

Games2Girls.com, the first popular free girl games website, online with the
title “Games for Girls” since 2006, bought the domain name “gamesforgirls.com”
for $500.000.
Being the pioneer of girl games market, Games2Girls.com already has hundreds of
exclusive games for girls and keeps developing new games continuously.
The domain gamesforgirls.com will be used for a new project targeting young
girls. It will aim to expand the girl gaming market discovering new joys.

Regards,
Games2Girls.com

Categories
News Video Games

Who paid $500,000 for Gamesforgirls.com, the top-selling domain so far in 2011?

Games for Girls

One thing is for sure: Bill Kara of Hallpass Media didn’t pay $500,000 USD for the casual games domain name, gamesforgirls.com. 

While the buyer may not be known as of yet, the seller is.  As pointed out by Jamie Zoch over at DotWeekly, what is known, is that the domain name was sold by Garry Chernoff, of NetIncome Ventures Inc, an established domain investment and web development company.

Casual gaming domain sales create buzz

Like the buzz the domain industry had in early 2010 after cookinggames.com sold for $350,000 to Bill Kara, the price paid for gamesforgirls.com in early 2011 is sure to be the topic of many discussions after the owner is revealed.

I contacted Bill Kara, the CEO of Hallpass Media, which operates one of the largest networks in the United States ) including Girlgames.com (a site roughly estimated by Compete to receive nearly 400,000 unique visitors per month), to see if he was the buyer – after speculation by many that he may have purchased the domain despite owning girlgames.com. 

And the answer was as I expected: No.   

So who paid $500K for gamesforgirls.com?

At the time of this story, the domain name still remains in Sedo’s Domain Transfer Escrow Service according to Whois, so we won’t know anything until the name is in the hands of the new owner. 

But you can bet after the new owner or website is revealed, it’ll be reported quickly.

Readers: Who do you think purchased the domain?

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News

EUROBOTS GmbH goes on a buying spree for robot domains

eurobots

EUROBOTS GmbH, an internet retailer based in Germany that is authorized to sell autonomous robot helpers like the Roomba, has been on a robot domain name shopping spree. 

The company which used Eurobots.de as its home page, acquired Eurobots.com this month for 22,000 Euro (or about $29,000 USD) through Sedo GreatDomains. 

Before that acquisition, the company paid $3,239 USD in 2010 for Eurobots.co.uk.

Eurobots.net, a different company than EUROBOTS GmbH,  which buys and sells used industrial robots,  currently owns the top spot in the search engines for Eurobots.

EUROBOTS GmbH owns a number of “bot” domain names and online properties including Lawnbot.de and Cleanbot.de. 

Small robots are making a move

You might not see them on store shelves everywhere you go, but small, autonomous robots like the Roomba are doing well when it comes to sales.  iRobot reports that in 2009, the company, “generated more than $298 million in revenue and employed more than 500 of the robot industry’s top professionals, including mechanical, electrical and software engineers and related support staff. iRobot stock trades on the NASDAQ stock market under the ticker symbol IRBT.”

According to CNET: “iRobot demoed its updated line of robot floor cleaners at CES 2011, showing off a more powerful Roomba vacuum bot and a much more compact Scooba floor scrubber.”

While you can watch a video of iRobot showing off their robots at CES, if you really want to see one of the coolest videos that has to do with robots and domain names, watch this video of Diapers.com robots working in the warehouse.

(Hat tip to Hallpass Media’s Bill Kara)

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News

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.