GoDaddy.com Now The Friend of Poker?

It seems like only yesterday the online gambling was fighting to keep 141 domain names from being seized by the commonwealth of Kentucky.  Thanks to an impressive effort by the The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (www.imega.org) , the commonwealth was not successful in its attempt.

But long before there was ever any ruling rendered, one register - GoDaddy.com - determined it might be in their best interest to turn over the certificates for a handful of the 141 domain names it controlled to the state of Kentucky.  They did so seemingly without a fight while other registrars the likes of Internet Solutions appeared before the Kentucky court to argue their case against turning over these certificates. 

Now it appears as if GoDaddy.com is trying to get back in the graces of online poker...or at least the poker circuit as a whole.   GoDaddy announced on Tuesday it would be sponsoring the 5th annual National Heads-Up Poker Championship on March 6-8 in Las Vegas.

"The popularity of poker has grown thanks in large part to television and the Internet," said Go Daddy CEO & Founder Bob Parsons, acknowledging the importance of online poker on the sport. "Being an industry leader for domain names and Web sites, we only sponsor the most exciting events. NBC and Caesars Palace are assembling a top-notch tournament with world-class players and I look forward to seeing some great action."

Scheduled to appear in this year's event are several of the world's top poker pros, including Doyle Brunson.  Ironically it was Brunson's own domain name, Doyles Room, that found itself at the mercy of GoDaddy's decision to relinquish certificate control to Kentucky.  It should be noted that a court order issued by a Kentucky Circuit Court prevented the commonwealth from shutting off the website during the Appeals process. 

GoDaddy may spend a fortune advertising during each Super Bowl with the same tired big boobed actresses playing "dumb" in a court room, but the company could be losing revenues from mounting bad press.  Gambling911.com recently stumbled upon the NoDaddy.com Posting Forum as an example.   The website is dedicated to GoDaddy "horror stories" as presented by those claiming to be customers or former customers. 

One poster recounts:

"I run a site called www.getpaidfrom.us.  It is a multi-user blogging site that has hundreds of members.  Well just a little

bit after 1PM EST Wednesday, 11/26/2008 I get an email from godaddy saying they suspended my dedicated server,

which I host with them, due to there being content on it that was reported as copyrighted material." 

Whether GoDaddy.com can mend its relationship with the Internet poker community remains to be seen.

Gambling911.com has corresponded with a handful of gambling related portal owners, some of whom operated multiple websites, who advised us they had severed ties completely with GoDaddy following the incident with Kentucky.

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher