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Pre-registrations of second level domain names are open for a good number of the new gTLDs, and one can pre-register with many different operators.

But let's say I'd like to pre-register a myname.guru or myname.ventures or myname.family domain name through one of these pre-registrars (those are just examples of gTLDs that will be open to the public). What will happen the day these domains open for actual registration (after the sunrise period) if someone else in another country did the same thing with another pre-registrar ?

Is there a first-come first served rule ? Does it depend on the gTLD registrar who will be chosen or is there a general rule defined by ICANN ?

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Well, I got an answer from my registrar's support team (Gandi.net): it's a first come - first served rule when the domain is opened, and it depends on the speed or quality of the technical teams of your registrar who then has to register all their pre-registrations as fast as they can.

In other words, if Alice in the UK pre-registers alice.web with registrar A on January 1st 2013, and Alice in the States pre-registers alice.web with registrar B on May 1st 2013, the day the .web extension is opened it depends if A is faster than B to make the registration with the company who will then operate the .web gTLD. The dates of each pre-registration don't count.

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  • (You should accept this answer) Also it does not depend only on speed of quality: the registrar may have X requests for creation to send and even if it has Y parallel connection to the registry, X will be often far greater than Y which means requests will be put in some orders, that you have no idea about (random, order by customer request, order by price paid, whatever...), so your specific one may only happen during the tail part. Of course a given registrar may get more than one customer for the same name, so how does it decide then? random? first served ? auctions ?
    – Patrick Mevzek
    Jun 22, 2018 at 19:09
  • In short, stay away from all kind of pre-registration services as/when they are not run by the registries themselves as you have no guarantee of getting what you paid for (or alternatively read all the fine prints to have no surprises...)
    – Patrick Mevzek
    Jun 22, 2018 at 19:11
  • Note also that new gTLDs open first with a sunrise (so priority for trademark holders) and then may have an "Early Access Program" where, for example, names will be sold for higher prices at beginning, before entering a generic "General Availability" phase. See the recent .APP launch for latest example of that.
    – Patrick Mevzek
    Jun 22, 2018 at 19:12

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