Permission to publish this article courtesy of GamblingMagazine.com

 Most land-based operators and online gambling operators have the wrong domain names for online gambling, and it’s surprising knowing that the name can make or break a business.

A lot of changes are taking place in the gambling world, and this trend will accelerate as land-based operators around the world struggle to survive with declining revenues, less players and visitors, and huge debts.

Many years ago, most land-based operators didn’t have the vision to see the potential of the Internet and they put their heads in the sand hoping that the Internet will simply go away.

Not only that the Internet didn’t go away, but there are today over 1.6 billion users online and it’s growing at a phenomenal rate, and online gambling is booming.

Now land-based operators, local states, and countries, need badly additional revenues. Traditionally, land-based operators have grown by making acquisitions or mergers, but their favorite method is by developing new billion dollar projects. Nothing was too good or too expensive for them, and the bigger the project, the better. We have seen the results of this irresponsible greed, and it’s not likely that any time soon investors and financial institutions will be keen to get burned again.

Why bother to invest billions of dollars and get into huge debts, when the future is on the Internet? The cost of entry is only a tiny fraction of what it will cost to build a land-based operation so it makes sense to move to online gambling.

Many land-based operators are out of touch with the reality, and they will continue to build multi-billion dollar projects because they don’t know anything else. Just the same as some car manufacturers will continue to build cars that are no longer competitive, and are out of touch with what consumers want today.

To get additional revenues, the smart land-based gaming operators will move to the Internet as fast as possible.

They have legal issues to sort out first to decide in which jurisdictions they will operate. Then comes the crucial question about the name to use.

The natural temptation is to use the same names and brands they use in their land-based operations. This is a strategic mistake that can easily be fatal when going after foreign markets.

True, local people know these names and brands and it’s a good choice for local business, but not for the Internet when trying to attract new players from other jurisdictions. The reason is very simple, and it boils down to the fact that these names and brands are usually totally unknown in these foreign markets. What is very good at home is not good enough when going after foreign markets on the Internet.

The local brand appeal and attraction means nothing to people overseas that have never heard of it before. You can be very big in your own country, but it doesn’t help when overseas players don’t know you.

Land-based operators are dreaming with their eyes wide open if they think that simply moving to the Internet with their current names and brands will mean instant recognition and profitability.

Players are attracted to what they understand and feel comfortable with, and it won’t be some names and brands only known in another country.

The best strategy for the land-based operators is to acquire a high quality generic domain name with world-class appeal. A domain name that means something to players, a name that players think they know, even if it’s the first time they see it, a domain name that is easy to spell and hard to forget. A name that will give land-based operators instant credibility and recognition on the Internet.

Land-based operators will then naturally display on their site that they are behind the Internet business. It will reassure players and give the land-based operators additional benefits.

To acquire a high quality generic domain name with world-class appeal is a far better solution than to try to rely on a local brand in the hope that players in other countries will know it, because they won’t.

You can take any name and throw $100 million at it in advertising, and some players will remember it, but why waste this kind of money when you can buy the right domain name for a fraction of this?

A bad domain name will remain bad even after you wasted $100 million on it. Just the same as if you build a $100 million house in the wrong position and wrong area, the house will be good, but the position and the area will remain bad so it will be a bad investment, and the house will be extremely hard to resell.

When a company has a famous local brand, and a unique product or service, and little competition, and players need them, they can stick to their famous local brand and use it in foreign new Internet markets, even when the brand is  unknown there.

With online gambling, it’s completely different because land-based operators won’t have a unique product or service, they won’t have unique games, but they will have plenty of competition, and players don’t actually need their new online gaming business. With no apparent benefit for players, it will be a fatal mistake to rely on a famous local brand to penetrate these new foreign Internet markets.

High quality gaming domain names are very hard to find and they are not cheap. The price will be quickly forgotten because the profits generated will be much bigger. What won’t be quickly forgotten, is the mistake to choose the wrong domain name, because it can easily destroy a good project.

Land-based operators are not the only ones that will be severely affected by the choice of a wrong domain name. Current online gambling operators with a bad domain name will get hit the hardest, and many will disappear.

Most land-based operators see online gambling as a threat and as their enemy. They need to blame someone for their failures to adapt themselves. Many years ago, they under-estimated the Internet and missed the best opportunities. They are out of touch with the reality, and find it easier to blame online gambling than to admit that they went too far with their greediness.

Let’s make no mistake about this. Land-based operators want to get into online gambling and they want to virtually “kill” the current operators. They want to get rid of them, and replace them. This is their obvious goal.

Land-based operators are not interested to share the business with current online gambling operators. They don’t want to share anything, they want to grab the biggest market share, and get rid of as many online gambling operators as possible. They are not interested to take prisoners. They want to control and dominate online gambling, just the same as they do with their land-based operations.

Land-based operators will use their names, brands, and money to get into online gambling. They will seriously affect a fairly large number of current online gambling operators who are using bad domain names. A large percentage won’t survive the land-based operators attacks, and they actually deserve to go out of business.

When you see some of these bad domain names used by current online gambling operators it gives you a good idea of the very low standards these people have. They copy domain names, even when there are trademark rights or registered trade marks, add up words, hyphens, numbers, or simply invent stupid names, use wrong spellings or wrong extensions, and other tricks. These domain names are not even worth the registration prices, and it’s less than $10.

It makes you wonder how these miserable online gambling operators manage to find players. They give no confidence or credibility whatsoever. It’s clear that these people decided not to invest in a good domain name because they already know that they won’t be around for very long. Players should avoid these operators, and they are easy to detect – Just look at their domain names. A domain name is what you see on the address bar of your browser. It tells you a lot about the people behind the site because it’s their address on the Internet.

When the big boys get into online gambling, it’s hard to imagine that these miserable online gambling operators will survive. Why would players be attracted to a junk name when there will be much better ones around?

The domain name is not everything, but it tells you whether a company is taking business seriously enough to invest in a good one, because they are in it for the long term, and they will try to protect their investment by doing the right things. Or, if they don’t care, because they are not planning to be around for very long.

The miserable online gambling operators with junk names have nothing to lose because their names are worthless.

Online gambling is going to be even more competitive. Land-based operators should select very carefully their domain names to attract players in foreign markets. They should not make the mistake to rely on their current names and brands because they mean very little to players in other countries. Often nothing at all.

Moving simply to the Internet won’t work. No matter how big land-based operators are, is no guarantee at all that they will succeed in online gambling. Size alone means nothing to players. Other things have to be also right, and the first thing players see is the name, or the domain name.

Online gambling operators need to have the best possible domain names if they want to successfully compete with the land-based operators. The “good enough” attitude won’t be good enough anymore, and the ones that will ignore this crucial issue have their days numbered.

This applies to land-based operators and online gambling companies. On the Internet more than anywhere else, the first impression counts and lasts, and the name or domain name is either right, or it’s not, and there won’t be a second chance because players that don’t like what they see in the first 2 seconds are only a click away from the competition.

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