Right of the Dot and Heritage Auctions to Auction .Versicherung TLD

Over the weekend, I received an email from Monte Cahn announcing that his company, Right of the Dot, LLC, is teaming up with Heritage Auctions to sell the  .Versicherung new gTLD extension. The auction will be held on August 26th at 10am EST, and the auction format  will be an online ascending clock auction.

Versicherung is the German word for “insurance.” This domain name extension went into General Availability in September of 2014. There are approximately 3,000+/- .Versicherung domain names registered.

Monte shared more details about this new gTLD extension that I thought you might find interesting:

• “There are over 3,000 domain names registered to the German speaking Insurance Industry at 99 euro’s a year with virtually no advertising, marketing or promotion.”
• “Its a restricted TLD for the German speaking Insurance industry however, that restriction is by choice of the registry. Its not an ICANN requirement to keep it restricted so a buyer can open it up. There are also over 10K premium reserved names that we feel are extremely valuable for the insurance industry and who ever buys the TLD.”
• “We believe there is great value in the premium lists where insurance agents, companies, affiliates, etc. could have the very best GEO and keyword names in a top industry string.”

Interested bidders must register in advance to bid, and they may do so by filling out the form on ROTD.com. Each bidder will be required to deposit $100,000 in escrow prior to the start of the auction. Upon registering, bidders will be sent an email with details about the rules of the auction and information about how to deposit funds in escrow. There will be practice auctions held in advance of the auction to ensure all bidders are familiar with the process.

More information about the auction can be found on the Right of the Dot website. Monte also mentioned that he is available to answer any questions that prospective bidders may have in advance of the auction.