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Back
in 2010, game developer
Bill Karamouzis made
a purchase that changed the way
many of us thought about the
value of domain names. As we
detailed in a DN
Journal Cover Story
about Bill that year, his $350,000
purchase of CookingGames.com
left just about everyone in this
industry in a state of utter disbelief.
Literally. We were flooded with
messages from people who thought the sale couldn't possibly be
real. Most wondered "what are
"cooking games" anyway?
Bill knew what they were and he
knew just about everything else
there was to know about both
the game business and the kinds of
domains he could use to make money
in that field. Prior to the
CookingGames.com purchase he had
already spent over $4 million
on other domains that his company,
Addicting
Games, had developed
into big winners.
Having
been schooled on just how valuable
some obscure (to the rest of us) two-word
.com domains could be, we have
been following Bill's career ever
since and watched his gaming
empire keep getting bigger and
bigger. The culmination
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Bill
Karamouzis
Addicting Games Founder
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of
his wisdom and years of hard work arrived this week when Karamouzis sold
his Addicting Games empire to Enthusiast
Gaming for $35 million. The acquisition includes
Addicting Games, Shockwave, Type Racer, ioGames Space, Little Big Snake,
Diep.io, EV.io, Mope.io, Math Games and more than 1,000 instant games.
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Toronto-based Enthusiast Gaming, is a
public company that calls itself the world's largest platform of
communities for gamers and eSports fans. Their CEO, Adrian
Montgomery, told GamesBeat
author Dean Takahashi (at VentureBeat.com), “We’re
super-excited about this deal and about bringing Bill and his team
into the fold. We’re trying to own the fan experience. I
think it’s such a strategic fit for us to have access to this
content and grow our loyal subscriber base and fan base to unlock
new revenue streams.” |
Karmouzis
noted, “We’re game developers. Everything we’re doing is around
product and around the player. And that’s really what we focused on.
Enthusiast Gaming brings so many eyeballs. They have partnerships with
influencers and content creators. They have marketing relationships and
partnerships with major advertisers. It’s a nice marriage of the two
talents between the two companies. And so for us, we’re,
we’re excited to get our products in front of their audience!”
Congratulations
to Bill and his entire team. Enthusiast Gaming has already stated they are
keeping everyone from the Addicting Games crew in their rapidly
growing line up.
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