Centrebet, the Australian online betting and gambling powerhouse, has recovered both Centrebet.gr and Centerbet.gr from domain squatters in Greece.
Centrebet began operating in Greece in 2009 using the centrebet.com domain but the recovery of the .gr domains eliminated the 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.”
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.
Even small businesses are encouraged to protect against domain squatters by buying up all the variants of their domain (.com/.com.au/.net/.biz etc) to prevent confusion with your customers and ensure impersonators aren’t trading on your good name.
