It's all in the name
Nora Nanayakkara, business development director at Sedo, the company brokering the sale of gambling.com, discusses the reasons behind the interest around the domain name's upcoming sale.
Offline gambling addresses and Atlantic City and Las Vegas may be reporting losses, however online destinations with domain names such as Slots.com and Poker.org, that recorded sale prices of US$5.5m and $1m respectively, have the definite advantage.
Now, Gambling.com, which was bought by Media Corporation for $20m in 2005, is set to go on sale again, and if the value of Slots.com and Poker.org are anything to go by, it could become a solid online investment opportunity for the right buyer.
Acquiring the right domain name can significantly improve the search engine appeal of a website, which has the knock-on benefit of attracting more traffic to the site, brand visibility and ultimately advertising revenues. Moreover, research from US digital marketing specialist Web Side Story has shown that the natural traffic generated from keyword domain names such as Gambling.com, Pizza.com and even Vodka.com mean that a domain name can often pay itself off in a matter of months based on savings associated with search engine marketing and lead generation.
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. Secondly, from a brand perspective, a keyword domain name like gambling.com is a good way to stamp a mark on the gaming industry, as it is one of the most obvious online web addresses in the sector.
Unlike product-specific terms like “blackjack” or “poker”, a domain like gambling.com has broad appeal which allows its owners the luxury of choice in its development. We have found that the ability to recall a domain name in media advertising diminishes greatly if a URL is too niche, exceeds a certain length or has an unusual extension. For example, if a domain is too long, it’s difficult to remember and even harder to recall when typing into a search engine. In a similar vein, if a domain has a unique spelling, such as Plazes.com, it can position itself to lose traffic to a more common domain name like Places.com.
Purchasing such a domain in other highly internet affinitive industries has supported initiatives to protect competitive advantage, raise the barrier to entry to new online entrants, achieve return on investment in online marketing and make a brand an authoritative destination in the sector’s online landscape. Examples of this investment strategy in practice include Bank of America’s ownership of Loans.com, and Johnson & Johnson’s development of Baby.com.
Investing in a premium domain name like Gambling.com allows buyers to “own” their vertical, develop a strong community around an immediately recognizable term, benefit from instant consumer trust and confidence and enjoy great search engine marketing rewards.