Tournaments Poker Blog: May 17, 2007

5/17/07posted by Dr. Poker @ 10:13 AM

Rumors spread that poker.com domain fetched over $20 million on silent auction, but nobody knows the buyer.

Since the Casino Affiliate Convention ended, there has been growing speculation about who bought the Poker.com domain....and how much it has been paid for it. The domain was part of a silent auction held during the event, in which high prices were recorded for a number of singular domains (e.g. Porn.com has been sold for $12.5 million).

Apparently two bidders put up offers for Poker.com, one was a verbal offer for $27 million and another a firm bid of $22 million - either one would be a new Internet record and reflects the continued pulling power of the poker phenomenon across the globe. Surprisingly, there has been no official announcement, and the identity of the successful bidder has been speculated all across the industry.

Unfortunately, it appears that complications have arisen with the sale, believed to be related to acceptable proof of ownership documentation. The exact nature of the obstacle is not known, but Poker.com has a complicated and on occasion disputational ownership history going back some years. But if so, why was it auctioned?

Taking a look into the history of Poker.com may help. In 1999 the original registration for the Domain took place. In 2001, the then owner of the holding company for the domain announced in a company report that the worldwide rights to Poker.com had been secured until 2098. The rights were apparently obtained from a company acting as the broker for the deal called UniNet Technology Inc, which bought the URL from AlaCorp Inc. . UniNet is believed to have sold on the rights to the name to Poker.com Inc for $100 000 and a royalty of 4 percent on gross profits a month and thats what is known so far.

But one thing is clear, whenever the Muppetshow is over and the ownership rights are cleared, somebody owns the most valuable Internet Domain worldwide and experts are sure, that one of the big players in the industry has made the move to secure Poker.com, hopefully we'll know soon.

Dr. Poker (Institution in Poker News)

Source: eog.com

Labels: Poker Questions, Poker Reviews

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