Gaming Domain Name Sales in November: $282,697
05, December 2007
November would have been a relatively slow month in the gaming domain world were it not for the blockbuster sale of CrosswordPuzzles.com for $210,000. Negotiations began for CrosswordPuzzles.com at Moniker's T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East Conference last month, and we received confirmation that the sale closed three weeks ago.
For the first month since we began keeping this blog, Sedo lost its crown as the top, monthly seller of gaming domains to AfternicDLS.
AfternicDLS sold 8 of the 17 domain names on this month's big board, including VideoGameWorld.com for $3,900, GreenGames.com for $3,800, InteractiveGolf.com for $3,588, FlowGame.com for $2,588, GuruGames.com for $2,488, GamesAnywhere.com for $2,008, BrandedGames.com for $2,000 and FInalFantasyX.us for $1,500 (Square-Enix released Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2 in 2001).
For those of you that are not familiar with the AfternicDLS platform, it is controlled by NameMedia, the VC-backed firm that acquired two of the most prostigious domain resellers, BuyDomains and Afternic, as well as a top domain parking service, GoldKey, and dozens upon dozens of smaller domain collections to create a portfolio of more than one million domain names. Most of the domains that NameMedia sells are not particularly high quality domains, but they sell a lot of them. Including non-gaming domains, in November, AfternicDLS sold over 500 domains for more than $2,000, an absolutely astounding monthly sales number in the domain reseller world.
On the other hand, Sedo turned in a relatively lackluster month, although the firm continues to maintain its stanglehold on the sale of gaming domains with international TLDs (of late, Sedo has sold a large number of .eu and .es gaming domains). Sedo sold Fold.com for $25,000, WebBingo.com for $6,600, ApuestasDeportivas.eu ("sports bets" in Spanish) for $5,641, Apostas.eu ("bets" in Portuguese) for $2,484 and Gambling-Online.eu for $2,001.
A few notes: Last year, Sedo sold Fold.com for $24,225. Additionally, Sedo sold two other Spanish, sports-betting domains earlier this year, including ApuestasDeportivas.net for $5,472 and Apuestas-Deportivas.es for $3,301.
Last, but not least, SnapNames and NameJet.com both chipped in a gaming domain sale apiece: SnapNames sold Bejewelled.com for $4,999 (this is a common misspelling of the popular Flash, puzzle game, Bejeweled, released by PopCap Games in 2001) and NameJet.com sold GameT.com for $4,100.
Steal of the Month: Gambling-Online.eu for $2,001. In 2006, Sedo sold Online-Gambling.co.uk for $44,657 and Online-Gambling.info for $6,000. "Online Gambling" is a powerful keyword combination for an affiliate website. Most search engines value the keyword density of the domain very highly in their ranking algorithms, and this domain has the same density as those two more pricey domains with a better TLD (in our opinion) to boot.
Dog of the Month: Fold.com for $25,000. Last year, Fold.com was purchased for $24,225. Clearly, it was rapidly re-sold for almost no profit. We think that the seller got off extremely lucky. While that may look like a reasonable valuation for a great, generic domain, we would argue that this domain is dramatically overvalued for the following reasons. Foremost, although the term "Fold" is used frequently in the poker world, it makes for a very poor poker brand because of the negative connotations. Moreover, when players search for a good poker room, it is unlikely that they use this particular keyword. We think that this keyword has some traffic potential, but not nearly enough to recoup this investment over the near-term.
November Sales Chart:
CrosswordPuzzles.com: $210,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
Fold.com: $25,000 (Sedo)
WebBingo.com: $6,600 (Sedo)
ApuestasDeportivas.eu ("sports bets" in Spanish): $5,641 (Sedo)
Bejewelled.com: $4,999 (SnapNames)
GameT.com: $4,100 (NameJet.com)
VideoGameWorld.com: $3,900 (AfternicDLS)
GreenGames.com: $3,800 (AfternicDLS)
InteractiveGolf.com: $3,588 (AfternicDLS)
FlowGame.com: $2,588 (AfternicDLS)
GuruGames.com: $2,488 (AfternicDLS)
Apostas.eu ("bets" in Portuguese): $2,484 (Sedo)
GamesAnywhere.com: $2,008 (AfternicDLS)
Gambling-Online.eu: $2,001 (Sedo)
BrandedGames.com: $2,000 (AfternicDLS)
FinalFantasyX.us: $1,500 (AfternicDLS)
The Top 10 Gaming Domain Sales of 2007 (YTD):
(1) Scores.com: $1,180,000 (Moniker Casino Affiliates Convention)
(2) Poker.de: $957,937 (NICIT/DOMAINfest)
(3) CrosswordPuzzles.com: $210,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
(4) Sportsbook.mobi: $129,800 (Private Sale)
(5) Bingo.org: $75,000 (Private Sale)
(6) GalaBingo.com: $65,750 (SnapNames)
(7) Joystick.com: $65,000 (SnapNames)
(8) Poker.in: $60,000 (Private Sale)
(9) Tournaments.com: $55,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
(10) Casinos.mobi: $52,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
Annual Gaming Domain Sales Charts:
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
Monthly Gaming Domain Sales Analysis:
November
October
September
August
July
Game TLD Editor's Note:
We really appreciate any information with respect to premium gaming domain name sales. If you have recently purchased a gaming domain name or know of someone who has, please let us know at editor@gametld.com. We continually strive to make our sales charts more comprehensive and accurate.
For the first month since we began keeping this blog, Sedo lost its crown as the top, monthly seller of gaming domains to AfternicDLS.
AfternicDLS sold 8 of the 17 domain names on this month's big board, including VideoGameWorld.com for $3,900, GreenGames.com for $3,800, InteractiveGolf.com for $3,588, FlowGame.com for $2,588, GuruGames.com for $2,488, GamesAnywhere.com for $2,008, BrandedGames.com for $2,000 and FInalFantasyX.us for $1,500 (Square-Enix released Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2 in 2001).
For those of you that are not familiar with the AfternicDLS platform, it is controlled by NameMedia, the VC-backed firm that acquired two of the most prostigious domain resellers, BuyDomains and Afternic, as well as a top domain parking service, GoldKey, and dozens upon dozens of smaller domain collections to create a portfolio of more than one million domain names. Most of the domains that NameMedia sells are not particularly high quality domains, but they sell a lot of them. Including non-gaming domains, in November, AfternicDLS sold over 500 domains for more than $2,000, an absolutely astounding monthly sales number in the domain reseller world.
On the other hand, Sedo turned in a relatively lackluster month, although the firm continues to maintain its stanglehold on the sale of gaming domains with international TLDs (of late, Sedo has sold a large number of .eu and .es gaming domains). Sedo sold Fold.com for $25,000, WebBingo.com for $6,600, ApuestasDeportivas.eu ("sports bets" in Spanish) for $5,641, Apostas.eu ("bets" in Portuguese) for $2,484 and Gambling-Online.eu for $2,001.
A few notes: Last year, Sedo sold Fold.com for $24,225. Additionally, Sedo sold two other Spanish, sports-betting domains earlier this year, including ApuestasDeportivas.net for $5,472 and Apuestas-Deportivas.es for $3,301.
Last, but not least, SnapNames and NameJet.com both chipped in a gaming domain sale apiece: SnapNames sold Bejewelled.com for $4,999 (this is a common misspelling of the popular Flash, puzzle game, Bejeweled, released by PopCap Games in 2001) and NameJet.com sold GameT.com for $4,100.
Steal of the Month: Gambling-Online.eu for $2,001. In 2006, Sedo sold Online-Gambling.co.uk for $44,657 and Online-Gambling.info for $6,000. "Online Gambling" is a powerful keyword combination for an affiliate website. Most search engines value the keyword density of the domain very highly in their ranking algorithms, and this domain has the same density as those two more pricey domains with a better TLD (in our opinion) to boot.
Dog of the Month: Fold.com for $25,000. Last year, Fold.com was purchased for $24,225. Clearly, it was rapidly re-sold for almost no profit. We think that the seller got off extremely lucky. While that may look like a reasonable valuation for a great, generic domain, we would argue that this domain is dramatically overvalued for the following reasons. Foremost, although the term "Fold" is used frequently in the poker world, it makes for a very poor poker brand because of the negative connotations. Moreover, when players search for a good poker room, it is unlikely that they use this particular keyword. We think that this keyword has some traffic potential, but not nearly enough to recoup this investment over the near-term.
November Sales Chart:
CrosswordPuzzles.com: $210,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
Fold.com: $25,000 (Sedo)
WebBingo.com: $6,600 (Sedo)
ApuestasDeportivas.eu ("sports bets" in Spanish): $5,641 (Sedo)
Bejewelled.com: $4,999 (SnapNames)
GameT.com: $4,100 (NameJet.com)
VideoGameWorld.com: $3,900 (AfternicDLS)
GreenGames.com: $3,800 (AfternicDLS)
InteractiveGolf.com: $3,588 (AfternicDLS)
FlowGame.com: $2,588 (AfternicDLS)
GuruGames.com: $2,488 (AfternicDLS)
Apostas.eu ("bets" in Portuguese): $2,484 (Sedo)
GamesAnywhere.com: $2,008 (AfternicDLS)
Gambling-Online.eu: $2,001 (Sedo)
BrandedGames.com: $2,000 (AfternicDLS)
FinalFantasyX.us: $1,500 (AfternicDLS)
The Top 10 Gaming Domain Sales of 2007 (YTD):
(1) Scores.com: $1,180,000 (Moniker Casino Affiliates Convention)
(2) Poker.de: $957,937 (NICIT/DOMAINfest)
(3) CrosswordPuzzles.com: $210,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
(4) Sportsbook.mobi: $129,800 (Private Sale)
(5) Bingo.org: $75,000 (Private Sale)
(6) GalaBingo.com: $65,750 (SnapNames)
(7) Joystick.com: $65,000 (SnapNames)
(8) Poker.in: $60,000 (Private Sale)
(9) Tournaments.com: $55,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
(10) Casinos.mobi: $52,000 (Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.)
Annual Gaming Domain Sales Charts:
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
Monthly Gaming Domain Sales Analysis:
November
October
September
August
July
Game TLD Editor's Note:
We really appreciate any information with respect to premium gaming domain name sales. If you have recently purchased a gaming domain name or know of someone who has, please let us know at editor@gametld.com. We continually strive to make our sales charts more comprehensive and accurate.
