| Bodog domain name settlement imminent? |
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| Written by Thomas Jensen | |||||||
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Friday, 31 August 2007
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 Turns out we were wrong when we reported that opportunist Mel Molnick stole the Bodog.com domain name from Calvin Ayre's Bodog Entertainment, sorry Mel. Instead, Scott Lewis PhD. from Silicon Valley fame actually took control of the Bodog domain name portfolio after receiving a $48 million dollar default judgment against the online betting giant earlier this month.To Calvin’s credit, his team was able to get everything migrated over to NewBodog.com within 12 hours of the domain name being seized. Point-Spreads.com has confirmed with both players and affiliates that its business as usual via the new domain names. It still looks like Bodog Entertainment will have to pay some sort of royalty or licensing payment to 1st Technology to settle the dispute despite Ayre's claim that they will fight the judgment. Other companies within the online gambling industry are already paying royalty payments via a licensing agreement to 1st Technology LLC including internet gambling software vendors Playtech Ltd, WagerWorks.com (A ITG Company) & Chartwell Technology Inc. Ironically enough, Bodog models themselves after the holding company of a Chartwell licensee Virgin Games, which is owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin. Back in February 2005, 1st Technology reached a settlement agreement with LasVegasFromHome.com Entertainment. As part of the agreement, LVFH was required to pay 1st Technology a measly $90,000 dollars as a settlement. LVFH sold its US facing brand ActionPoker.com to Playsafe Holdings AS once UIGEA was signed into law. It is unknown at this time if Playsafe Holdings is paying a licensing or royalty fee to 1st Technology. But Point-Spreads.com has learned that some of Playsafe’s current licensees under their Action Poker Network and poker players are both not receiving payments from the Norwegian based gaming investment company. The good news for Bodog is that no one else can ever use the Bodog.com domain name because it is trademarked to Bodog Entertainment. 1st Technology cannot sell the domain name or place a website up on it to generate revenue without violating US trademark laws. Another thing that Bodog has going for it in dealing with 1st Technology is that time is on their side. No one can use the domain name so the only value it has is to Ayre. The domain name portfolio will completely lose its SERP if the original websites are not put back on to the original domain names soon. The $48 million dollar default judgment is way too high considering that other licensee’s have had to pay much less. In the affidavit of Dr. Scott Lewis in support of the plaintiff 1st Technology, LLC., Lewis has calculated that the actual royalty payment that should have been paid by Bodog Entertainment is around $11 million. The other $38 million is based on future royalties. So holding out for $48 million dollars does not sound like a great strategy, which leads Point-Spreads.com to believe that a reduced settlement is imminent soon or the dispute will be decided in court way down the road.                        |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 31 August 2007 ) | |||||||