cctld Poker.ca sells for $400,000

[Tedgeman]

I might as well put in a plug here for my VLTS.ca, since the poker game is a cousin in the casino world, anyone can have it for $400K, just a smirk, on this board I,d be amazed to see $1000 offer. LOL
I know, we are all wholesalers looking to sell to the end user, if my memory recollects correctly, I have sold domains to most of you .CAers, and some good deals were had, now however, my prices have had to increase, in an effort to cover the 4 years of renewals, so the last suction... I put some nice generics in, not a sale. Will the sale of Poker.ca elevate prices across the board, I highly doubt it, if this board is any reflection.

 

[csitenet]

Trust me, i worked out the exact calculations, this domain will take 2 years to make profit! i was going to bid on the name! k:

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

Trust me, i worked out the exact calculations, this domain will take 2 years to make profit! i was going to bid on the name! k:

Show your math.

Id be willing to bet even if every uv it received signed up and you were paid for that lead you still wouldnt accomplish your imaginery $550 a day.

If what you figured was true youre a fool, should have bought it and resold for $1.5M reseller lol

 

[hugegrowth]

I can easily see how a big company already involved in poker, like Bodog or Bwin, could use Poker.ca to acquire Canadian online poker players. It gives a level of trust and a good appearance using Poker.ca if done right. If it can help them get 400 players and make at least $1000 from each one, then they've recouped their spend. Or $500 each from 800 poker players, whatever, it seems doable. The domain also works for french and english. Part of the buy might be a land grab, but what a land grab for an existing poker or gambling site to have in Canada. I wonder how much Party Poker and others spend just in sponsoring tv tournaments and such. To say it would have sold long ago if the math worked out doesn't make sense, many good generic domains are being sold these days to end users. And with smartphone, iphone and ipad use growing in Canada, I wonder how mobile poker gaming will do in coming years?

 

[csitenet]

You are thinking of an affiliate and YES and affiliate will make far more money than an end user from this domain name by giving the users a choice and freedom of content without having to directly correlate the brand's PR strategy on that website.

An end user makes about $250 per player as industry standard average per year, bare in mind the costs to acquire this player (online and offline marketing strategy) then youre left with a tiny profit per player.

So you have to consider first of all, traffic you are able to acquire from position 1,2,3,4,5 on seo for keywords poker, online poker, play poker (use google keyword research tool on EXACT match and you will be surprised how little these are searched in Canada)

Consider a CTR to poker.ca

Work out a CTR from poker.ca to the end user website

Work out a conversion rate from end user website to real money depositing player, believe me, it doesnt add up, however as i said before, as a strategic investment for the future, its a great buy and investment. However we should all bare n mine likes of partypoker owns poker.info and they simply don't develop such premium real estates because they buy them as a compulsive buy and dont have a correct development strategy to follow through with it, hence it gets left unused.

just my 2 pennies on the matter.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

See that was my whole point, the names value to you or I (not end users) is vastly different from say PartyPoker. Is it a good buy for them , yes, good buy for us, not so much and $400k made no sense. Heck if it made sense based on affiliate/leads why did the owner sale for only $400k?

So now we look at Poker.ca and say oh look what great .ca's are worth, I suppose my .ca is worth more, wrong! That sale is a reflection of circumstances pertaining to that name, not ours. Its either a land grab for end user or a really ballsy reseller/investor, hope it works for them....

and someone remind me, can Canadians play poker online legally, apart from their specific provinces lottery site?

 

[Belzibut]

I wonder how the original owner acquired that domain. Was it available on the first day of .ca opening or was it another top domain that was given away to certain people.

 

[msn]

The background of the domain is interesting, along with the offshore connection.

Also interesting, for those hoping for higher valuations, is that slots.ca did not sell.

 

[Belzibut]

Why that you post the interesting part?

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

What was the asking for slots.ca?

 

[msn]

If the market is wide and deep, it would have met reserve as well, assuming it was as well-priced as poker.ca, but it did not. If you wanted to get gambling PPC you would want all three of their domains.

So it would appear to point to an operator taking the domain registration, but I wonder how they will legally operate a site, since it would be doing online gaming, which is usually offshore, but would need to be held by a domestic company. There is just one gambling company located in Canada which does poker but they were not interested until now in doing business in Canada.

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

Who bought it?

 

[Namefox]

Looks like Bodog bought it.

 

[Spex]

and someone remind me, can Canadians play poker online legally, apart from their specific provinces lottery site?

Yes, some credit cards may reject fund transfers to on-line sites, but Canadian banks are fine with transferring funds to poker sites. Never heard of any Canadians having issues. In the States the UIGEA caused a few sites to leave the us market(the biggest being Party). But the 2 biggest (Stars and Full Tilt) are still accepting American players. Even then, the UIEGA doesn't outlaw online gambling per se, but it does make funding accounts a problem. If you're interesting, the 2+2 poker forums (twoplustwo.com) has a great section devoted to various legislations

So it would appear to point to an operator taking the domain registration, but I wonder how they will legally operate a site, since it would be doing online gaming, which is usually offshore, but would need to be held by a domestic company. There is just one gambling company located in Canada which does poker but they were not interested until now in doing business in Canada.

The Kahnawake reserve near Montreal is where a lot of online sites house their servers. Maybe that would be enough to qualify for Canadian presence?

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

Spex, not asking if your cc will work from here on some sites but rather is it legal? I know BC and other provinces ( Ontario soon ) operate their own online poker sites through their lottery corp but as far as I recall you cannot legal do so in Canada.

---------- Post added at 10:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 PM ----------

Looks like Bodog bought it.

Not sure why you say this yet...

Whois unchanged and that lander has been the same for ages ( with bodog banner ). so....

 

[Namefox]

It is more of a hunch to be honest with you. With Bodog buying slots.com around the same time, it just seems to be in line with things. Bodog was obviously actively searching for online properties...been wrong before...been right a few times too ;-)

 

[msn]

Yes, some credit cards may reject fund transfers to on-line sites, but Canadian banks are fine with transferring funds to poker sites. Never heard of any Canadians having issues. In the States the UIGEA caused a few sites to leave the us market(the biggest being Party). But the 2 biggest (Stars and Full Tilt) are still accepting American players. Even then, the UIEGA doesn't outlaw online gambling per se, but it does make funding accounts a problem. If you're interesting, the 2+2 poker forums (twoplustwo.com) has a great section devoted to various legislations



The Kahnawake reserve near Montreal is where a lot of online sites house their servers. Maybe that would be enough to qualify for Canadian presence?

Right - but here we are: If 'ABC Poker Co.' of Gibraltar buys poker.ca to feed its network, it will need to hold the registration through a Canadian shell company, in which case it will be the deemed operator, and subject to regulation in Canada. If it would claim to only redirect traffic to some 'third party' non-Canadian entity then someone could go ask CIRA when they will remove the registration.-

The easiest buyer would be Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, which in turn would run a national site on behalf of each of the five members, in which case, the sale was seriously undervalued.

 

[Spex]

ok, now I understand...yes, canadian can play but you're right, owning and operating a site in Canada is unclear. If it was a lottery corp, this is a pretty sweet domain to launch their network(s) on.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

And Id eat my hat if the lottery corp bought it, they are CHEAP so cheap they havent bought anything decent ever and use their acronym in .com for some provinces and .ca in others, what ever was available. Besides they wouldnt use one site for several provinces to play poker, wouldnt make sense.

As far as I know online gambling is illegal in Canada unless run by the Lottery Corp. so a entity here would be open to action.

 

[ezimedia]

HI

nice sale... so is it illegal to host a poker site in Canada ...

Tom