Highly desirable site priced at $9 million
A great number of private equity companies expressed interest in Media Corporation's offer of a highly desirable domain Gambling.com. The domain auction specialists Sedo have been engaged to handle the deal, whose reserve price is set to $9 million. However, Media Corp CEO Justin Drummond expressed cautious hope that the price will exceed the number of $10 million.
It was stated by Media Corp that gambling.com has exquisite Google search ranking and that it attracts about 300 000 unique visits a month.
According to media reports, a bid of about $6 million has already been offered by at least two unspecified potential buyers, and some of the interested parties may be bet365 and Playtech, it was speculated.
Sedo London Sales Manager Hugo Dalrymple-Smith said: "This is the premium generic domain in a very competitive market. Gaming is one of the leading online businesses, and gambling.com offers the chance for one company to stand out above others."
Sedo is a company known for setting a record in the sale of the highest priced domain name with no business attached, Sex.com, for $13 million.
On the other side, as a domain with an attached business, Insure.com reached the sum of $16 million, and back in 2005, Media Corp is said to have paid $20 million for Gambling.com from which it generated $5.5 million in advertising revenues over the next year. However, the worth of the domain significantly decreased due to the advent of the UIGEA and restrictions on US online gambling, which forced Media Corporation to exit the American market.
Two businesses now form part of Media Corporation – those are Eyeconomy, the seventh-biggest online advertising network, which sells ads for about 1000 websites in the UK, and the Purple Lounge online casino and poker room, which has over 100,000 customers and whose revenues reportedly amount to some GBP30 million.
"Gambling.com does not contribute too much to revenues at the month, and the value we realise from this sale will allow us to make further acquisitions,” Drummond stated.
