The European Domain Centre believes .poker is going to be a success, and Christopher Hofman Laursen spoke to Afilias’ Roland LaPlante and Brett Samuels, along with one potential user of .poker domains, Kristian Baekgaard who until recently worked for the largest Danish betting site Danske Spil, about its launch.

Hofman Laursen believes “.poker has the elements to be one of the successful launches: The natural term, a market with intense online competition and very tech savvy players.”

LaPlante said that “.poker is all about branding and memorability in a very competitive business. It’s time to understand that .com says nothing about your brand. It’s a random term. This is a unique opportunity to get a much more effective marketing address”. While Samuels added “that poker is ‘a very dynamic space with new games being launched and new tournaments coming up all the time. There’s a need for new spots, and now you can get the name you want, in the business you’re in. Be aware that Poker.org was one of the most expensive domains ever sold (sold at SEDO in 2010 for USD 1M – most expensive .org ever) showing that there is a huge demand to offer more options’”.

Baekgaard said “anyone in such a competitive business are looking at how to get an edge. With adverting click prices starting at EUR 1.50 then a .poker could be a good investment. Now all the activies on the Danske Spil site uses sub-domains for danskespil.dk, however I could see that the poker guys were allowed to have some fun with .poker”.

.Poker goes live on 21st April.

To read the interviews in full, go to:
blog.europeandomaincentre.com/understanding-the-value-of-poker-domain-names-interview-with-afilias-and-danske-spil/