IT.COM

sales Why Domain Name Hack B.et Sold For $100,000

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Consider the shortest possible domain name, just 1+2 characters including the extension. Add that the name is also a very common word. Plus it is in one of the most lucrative sectors. There are strong advertiser statistics in the term. It is easy to understand why the domain name b.et just sold for $100,000. As far as I know, the sale has not been officially announced at time of writing, but it was added to the NameBio database this morning.

How Does This Sale Rank?

This is the highest-value domain hack sale, at least recorded in NameBio, since 2017 when s.top sold for $161,684 by Jiangsu Bangning, associated with the .top registry.

The sale of b.et ties for the third highest domain name hack of all time. You can search for domain name hack sales on NameBio by using the niche category and the domain hacks subcategory. Here is a list of NameBio-recorded domain name hack sales, arranged by price.

The sale ranks 42nd in all sales so far in 2021.

Who Is The Buyer?

The buyer appears clear, as the name is already in use by the advanced online betting platform bet.me The company previously operated on the domain name bet.me.

Their promotional material indicate the platform provides a “wealth of tools to enhance your online betting experience.” The service offer “insights and additional information which when coupled with a fully customizable interface enables our customers to make better, more informed decisions leading to a superior betting experience.” Their mailing address indicates that the company is based in Thorp Arch, Wetherby in the United Kingdom.

Who Is The Seller?

NameBio allow privately reported sales to set the name of the seller. In this case the seller is reported as DomainHacks.com. That redirects to a DAN portfolio under the seller nam.es. It contains a portfolio of superb single character, hack and other domain names. A few of the great names from that portfolio are m.et, D.NA, gen.re and fe.et.

Strong Search Statistics

NameBio report advertiser search characteristics associated with the sale. For b.et, the NameBio data indicates 9 million monthly exact global searches, with $1.25 cost per click. The phrase cost per click is $1.18.

Domains With Bet Are Popular

According to dotDB the word bet is registered in 378 TLDs. The word is also is part of more than 1.6 million other domain names.

The exact term bet has sold 24 times. Here is the list from NameBio. Perhaps surprisingly, none of the recorded sales are for more than $15,000, probably simply indicating that the high-value sales were private and not released to NameBio.

The domain bet.com is developed as an entertainment site.

Dofo Advanced Search indicates that the exact word bet is currently for sale in 198 extensions.

History of Word Bet

The concept of placing wagers is ancient, but according to Merriam-Webster the word bet was first used in 1591.

A metric of assistance to domain name investors that dictionary provides is the relative popularity of each word. The Merriam-Webster dictionary indicates that bet is among the 3% most used English words.

The .ET Extension

The .et extension is superb for domain hacks, for example b.et, g.et, j.et, l.et, m.et, n.et, p.et, s.et, v.et and w.et.

The country code extension for the Ethiopia, .et finds use both inside and outside the country. For internal use third level domain names built on .com.et, .net.et, .org.et and others are often used. It appears that the .et extension does not show in many Whois services, making tracing more challenging.

The NameBio database has 24 domain name sales in the .et extension, essentially all of them domain name hacks.

A Few Favourite Domain Name Hacks In Use

In fall 2019 I took a look at great domain name hacks in use. Among by favourites is Ta.co, used by Taco Bell for redirection, and me.me, used for meme related merchandise. Clearly b.et will join that list.

Domain Name Hacks Discussed At NamePros

Domain name hacks have been discussed at NamePros at least since 2007, when @xman started Value of Domain Hacks. That discussion now stretches through 160 pages.

More On History Of Domain Name Hacks

The ICANN Wiki on Domain Hacks has interesting historical information on domain name hacks. Apparently the sale of inter.net in 1992 lays claim to the first hack sale.

Have Your Say

What do you think? Did b.et sell for too much, or too little, or just about right? What would you consider equally valuable domain name hacks?

If you have had major success with domain name hacks, please feel free to tell us about it in the comments section.

While please don’t post your entire domain hack portfolios, if you have one hack that you regard as really superb, feel free to share it in the comments.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Oh yes, a domainers "research" is almost guaranteed to be both detailed and highly impartial, and it surely won't just be looking at things from a pro-sales perspective...
Hi Richard,

I agree that articles about things like major sales are not "research" in the true science or social science sense of research. In articles like this I simply try to provide a context - e.g. links to similar sales lists, how the sale ranks in its sector or overall, etc. That may be broadly research in a school or everyday use of the word.

I do strive to be impartial and detailed. If you have the time, and wish to, I would welcome pointing out the parts which you consider not to be impartial, or (by implication) not sufficiently detailed. I am always looking for ways to improve my writing about domain names. Feel free to comment here, or if you prefer by DM.

Since one can never write about all sales, writing about any sale might, to some, be considered a form of impartiality. I try to balance articles re sales with other types of articles. Also, to restrict sales articles when there is something distinctive in the sale. In this case, single character domain sales are relatively rare, and this represented one of the largest domain hack sales that has been publicly recorded. I believe it warranted mention in an article.

Bob
 
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Great Information with obviously deep research. Ofc, As usual.

+ Happy to hear about my country - Ethiopia - in this forum.
 
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Thanks Bob. Great post (btw our rebrand is nam.es and not name.es).

It's not just about the phrase or word that's being spelled out, you also need to be looking at the jurisdiction of the domain.

In this case, it's Ethiopia; one of the poorest countries on Earth. They have no domain registry, so how is it that .et domains can even be legally registered, let alone resold!.. I'd be curious to know the answer to that. As for the ip laws over there, I think you will find that it is nothing short of chaos, and if the name is ever arbitrarily taken (or deleted) I doubt there's anything the registrant could
even do about it.

This is total nonsense and Richard is definitely prejudiced.

Let me address a few things:

No domain registry? So how do you think .et functions? Extra-terrestrials?
EthioTelecom.et is the registry and has been since 1995 (https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/et.html). It's a state-owned telecommunications organization that provides services from phone to internet to a country of 112M people w/ the fastest growing economy in the region.
The registry has a website (incl. a whois record) and there are accredited registrars e.g. Afriregister.com Technobros.et etc. with resellers including MarkMonitor.com 101Domain.com or Netim.com.

I've been involved in the .et sphere for almost a decade and as far as I know not a single domain has been arbitrarily taken. If following the change in the policy for 1 & 2 character domains your domain was deleted (because obviously that's what happened to you for being so bitter) it's because you trusted the wrong people (or trustee) to handle your renewals. It has nothing to do with Ethiopia or .et and it's common for registries to reserve domains and revert their min. character policy (see .com & 1-letter domains).
 
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I think the price is just about right with the win going obviously to the seller
 
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I didn't even know .et's existed.
Of course ET's exist ha
E_t_the_extra_terrestrial_ver3.jpg
 
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Oh yes, a domainers "research" is almost guaranteed to be both detailed and highly impartial, and it surely won't just be looking at things from a pro-sales perspective... :xf.laugh: :xf.laugh:

@richardhope are you perhaps a little bitter, maybe jealous?
In any case, it comes across as such.

@DomainHacks.com very nice sale, my congratulations (y)

@Bob Hawkes Thanks for a great article again.
 
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i personally think it was an overpay.

I wouldn't b.et on that, LOL.

.com is #1 for sure, but for the sake of argument, let's compare the doggroomers.com sell of $104k with $100k b.et - I'd go for b.et any day.

I guess that's why domain industry is so interesting - people differ so much here. Naming in general is an interesting and tough ask. I welcome your disagreement, I understand the logic, but I'm unmoved from my initial position :)
 
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I don't usually like any domains outside .com, but i have to say i really like this domain, just saying it out loud, i can see how it would be great for a betting company to brand around and with that i can see why a company paid 6 figures for it.
 
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I used to be the owner of N.et - The only reason I sold it back years ago (Higher than the recent auction) was, I had gotten info that 1-char names in .ET were not officially available (back door). The transfer was manual and at the time DNS was wonky. Vi.et's owner had to personally help them with some code to fix their DNS issues (still a little buggy). But hey, the private sale paid for the down payment on my house though! I no longer risk buying 1 character domain hacks for maybe no more then $2500-$3500 (fun money only) as another member here "Kev" and myself, lost a few 1 char names over the years due to corruption in some of these countries. I'll stick to building my businesses on .com only and buy DN hacks for shortening or forwarding, and be prepared to possibly lose money (hopefully not!). Just be sure to do research on some of these countries first, understand their laws/requirements and try to get a read on their internet agency/ministry as best you can. Sometimes, it's a game of musical chairs of reselling hacks for as much as possible until the last person loses.

Now with all that said, and if you're careful, most ccTLD hacks are fairly safe (I like them!). So far (for me), it's been some small African and Caribbean countries which is where we had problems. Go to 101domain.com and enter any 1 char .ET name and you'll see it's a minimum of 3 Char required. That should tell you something. Buyers beware.

N.et was my favorite :)
 
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EthioTelecom.et is the registry and has been since 1995 (https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/et.html). It's a state-owned telecommunications organization that provides services from phone to internet to a country of 112M people w/ the fastest growing economy in the region.
The registry has a website (incl. a whois record) and there are accredited registrars e.g. Afriregister.com Technobros.et etc. with resellers including MarkMonitor.com 101Domain.com or Netim.com
Thank you so much for this additional information, @DomainHacks.com and congratulations on the sale.

My apologies for listing nam.es incorrectly in the original article. I have asked mods to correct it, so should be fixed soon.

Bob
 
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It's not just about the phrase or word that's being spelled out, you also need to be looking at the jurisdiction of the domain.

In this case, it's Ethiopia; one of the poorest countries on Earth. They have no domain registry, so how is it that .et domains can even be legally registered, let alone resold!.. I'd be curious to know the answer to that. As for the ip laws over there, I think you will find that it is nothing short of chaos, and if the name is ever arbitrarily taken (or deleted) I doubt there's anything the registrant could even do about it.
 
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i think it was a discounted price, ty Mr.Bob. :)
 
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N.ET was the first that came to mind seeing this. How long before we see whatever.n.et domain names?
 
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N.ET was the first that came to mind seeing this. How long before we see whatever.n.et domain names?
I agree that is one of the best. NamePros member @DomainGaze.com owns the superb hack n.et and a number of others. They are attractively presented at DomainGaze.com.
Bob
 
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It's a cool name and a win-win sale for both the buyer and the seller.
 
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it is a very helpful article!
Thanks for sharing!
why not bet for betting domains!
so i bet money on my only one betting domain :CasinoBetting.com
 
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Great Niche, Beautiful Name, and Good Sale. Congratulations to Buyer and Seller both.
Thank you @Bob Hawkes for your amazing detailed post.
 
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It's a cool name and a win-win sale for both the buyer and the seller.
Nope.

i personally think it was an overpay.

$100K for a non-com? madness O_o
You can get most .com’s, albeit not “bet” but lot
 
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I wouldn't b.et on that, LOL.

.com is #1 for sure, but for the sake of argument, let's compare the doggroomers.com sell of $104k with $100k b.et - I'd go for b.et any day.

I guess that's why domain industry is so interesting - people differ so much here. Naming in general is an interesting and tough ask. I welcome your disagreement, I understand the logic, but I'm unmoved from my initial position :)

i would b.et on that. I agree with your post, also find your class non-combative tone. Alrhough i’m dissapointed, i respect ✊ your decision, we need the traffic stats to monitor “bet.me” traffic bump (if any) from purchase. Run for the greatest domain hack ever, i admit.

Samer
 
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Thanks for the great post @Bob Hawkes .

I think b.et is cool, but what's more interesting (and informative for future decision making) to me is the choice of the buyer from a whole word / exact match domain name (granted it was .me & not .com, but still ..) to a domain hack for an existing site as their main brand. My concept of domain "upgrade" is challenged here. Thanks again for the post.
 
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This is probably the second best domain hack I have seen. Nice de.al :)
 
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I didn't even know .et's existed.
 
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