Melbourne IT recovers Centrebet’s Greek domains in time for the World Cup
Melbourne, Australia – 21 July 2010 – Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services today announced it had successfully recovered the centrebet.gr and centerbet.gr domains for Centrebet ahead of the crucial World Cup betting period as the Australian bookmaker consolidates its expansion into the Greek market.
Centrebet began operating in Greece in 2009 using the centrebet.com domain but the recovery of the .gr domains eliminates potential customer confusion and ensures that user traffic to Centrebet – and by extension, online revenues – is not captured by other third parties.
“Greece is one of Centrebet’s fastest growing markets and it has been a priority for us to recover the domain successfully and ensure we have full control of our online brand in Greece,” Centrebet’s Head of Marketing, Luke Brill, said.
“Melbourne IT’s effective recovery of the domain in time for Greece’s participation in the 2010 FIFA World Cup was also a high priority and we are very pleased there is no longer any cause for customer confusion.”
Sporting events like the World Cup are extremely important for bookmakers to capture new customers. Centrebet typically sees its new customer acquisitions double in the months leading up to and during these events, making it vital that customers are directed to the website quickly and easily.
“Online betting is like online shopping – if a customer goes to visit a site to spend money but finds the website was not the company they were looking for, they can just opt for a competitor. Melbourne IT’s effective recovery of the Centrebet .gr domains helps Centrebet protect revenues by ensuring Greek customers can easily find them the first time and not be misdirected elsewhere,” Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services’ APAC sales and marketing director, Joe Thymian, said.
Centrebet engaged Melbourne IT to recover the .gr domains after previous attempts had failed. Melbourne IT worked with the ELTA (the Greek Post Office, who hold responsibility for the dispute resolution process on .gr) to put Centrebet’s case and were successful in recovering the domains.
“When faced with domain cybersquatters, trademark holders are generally faced with two options – either buy the domain from the cybersquatter or resolve the dispute through arbitration. When you consider that international brands are launching new products and services every day, the opportunity for squatters to grab domains is enormous and, if not managed properly, the time and cost of recovery can be significant,” Mr Thymian said.
Melbourne IT provides digital brand services to more than 3,300 companies worldwide, including Volvo, GlaxoSmithKline and Twitter. For more information, visit www.melbourneitdbs.com.
ENDS.
About Melbourne IT
Melbourne IT (ASX: MLB) helps organisations of all sizes to successfully do business online. Our complete portfolio of Internet-based technology services drives business effectiveness and profitability for more than 350,000 customers around the world.
The breadth of Melbourne IT’s offering extends from helping small businesses build an online presence through to managing the complex technology environments of large enterprises and governments – including Internet domain name services, web hosting, online brand protection and promotion, video content delivery, managed IT services and more.
Melbourne IT’s culture of integrity, innovation, collaboration and customer centricity has been built by more than 690 employees spread across 18 offices in 10 countries. Our customers include Volvo, GlaxoSmithKline, Lego, Queensland Department of Education and Training, Société Générale, Aurecon Asia-Pacific, Coca-Cola Amatil and Twitter. For more information, visit www.melbourneit.info
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Melbourne IT
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