Sport is getting its home online with the Global Association of International Sports Federations launching the .sport new gTLD for the sporting community coming this year.
Starting on 4 September, a consolidated launch period will commence and run until 6 November. The consolidated launch will incorporate both Sunrise for trademark holders and Landrush for those prepared to pay a premium and ensure they get the domain name they want. Following what the GAISF us calling a quiet period, General Availability will commence on 8 January 2019 with standard pricing.
There is also a pre-launch program with a select group of Ambassador websites that will go live during Summer 2018, becoming among the first ever at .sport.
The .sport new generic top level domain is being promoted as by and for the sporting community. Membership in the sporting community is an essential eligibility requirement for registering a .sport domain. During the consolidated launch period, eligibility will be open to groups and individuals including federations, sport organisations and governing bodies; clubs and teams; cities and public authorities; athletes and practitioners; sport organisers, event sponsors, sport brands and corporate partners; sport media and sport facilities.
In addition to individual registration, there will be special programs for name categories that are subject to special requirements. These include discipline names, key sport vocabulary, geographic names and generic names. International federations will largely operate their corresponding discipline names across multiple domains and languages. Geographic domains will be registered by public authorities from municipalities around the world. And generic names may be registered by content providers who will operate them in a non-discriminatory way based on advertising models.
In 2019, it is anticipated that pre-validated promotional coupons for .sport domain registration will be made available through the international federations to their national and regional federations. In doing so .sport seeks to achieve a more comprehensive outreach worldwide, and to reach individual athletes who may have interest in the registration of their personal .sport domains under preferred terms.
