
Celebrity Gambler – The King of Canadian Online Gambling Calvin Ayre
By Thadeus Geodfrey
Long before online casinos could make their name and when gambling meant walking into the opulent poker rooms adorned with hand-blown Murano glass chandeliers, Calvin Edward Arye forged his path. He founded Bodog online gambling company and with time, that made him the billionaire that he is today. But it didn’t happen overnight, not without a fight. So, who is Calvin Arye? Here is his story.
Calvin Arye is a Canadian billionaire, capitalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Ayre Group and Bodog Casino, one of the most recognized names in Canadian online casinos. The gambling and Bitcoin icon, once on the run from the US authorities, owns a range of properties, among them, a $100 million five-star resort in Antigua, courtesy of his ventures. Arye is a risk-taker, an early adopter, sometimes surrounded by controversy, and an advocate for cryptocurrency.
Early Life
Nick Name | Calvin Edward Arye |
Real Name | Arye |
Born | 1961 |
Birthday | May 25 |
Citizenship | Canadian |
Spouse | None |
Children | Unknown |
Career | Businessman |
Net worth | US$1.2 Billion |
Claim to Fame | Gambling, Cryptocurrency & Social Events |
Leisure Activities | Social Events, Playing Poker, & Hosting Parties |
Biggest Casino Name | Bodog.com |
You could easily mistake Calvin Arye for someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Yet he hails from a humble background. He was born in 1961 and grew up on a grain and pig farm in the rural suburb of Lloydminster City in the Saskatchewan province, Canada.
But his urge to venture into business started when he was just fresh out of Salmon Arm Secondary School in British Columbia. He would rent a truck and supply fruits from lush orchards to northern communities where his friends lived.
Later he joined the University of Waterloo where he got a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in general sciences. In 1989 he got his MBA in management finance from the City University of Seattle, which sharpened his drive and a keen eye for opportunity before he relocated to Vancouver.
Birth and Growth of Bodog
Calvin’s office in Vancouver provided the city’s business community with a high-speed Internet connection. So, he interacted with many new digital start-ups. But it’s the story of the Caribbean-based company he read about in the papers in 1992 that sparked his thought process. This company offered wagering services over the telephone. That’s when he thought it could be better over the internet, and that’s how the Bodog idea was born.
Given the demand for the Internet those days, and since he had taught himself network design through studying Cisco Systems manuals, Ayre turned his Internet incubator office into a software support firm. Later he aligned his interests to supporting online gambling. But soon he saw offering licenses to his software wasn’t as lucrative as running his gaming operations. So, he started Bodog.com, setting up operations in Costa Rica in 1996. And at the peak of dotcom, Bodog.com went live.
In his words, Calvin Arye says he didn’t invent online gambling, but he saw its potential early enough.
Calvin Ayre – A Sports and Poker Fanatic
What made Bodog popular was his marketing prowess. In a script borrowed straight out of the Virgin Group co-founder Sir Richard Branson’s book, Ayre made himself the face of Bodog. He hosted lavish parties in the finest exotic locations money can provide, surrounded by scantily-clad models to create an image of what Bodog jackpot could deliver to players. And this worked. His company’s turnover hit $7.3 billion by 2005 while its revenue rose to $210 million.
To Calvin, Bodog was not just an online gambling platform. He had a strategy that could turn Bodog into a diverse entertainment giant beyond online gambling. He wanted to grow it into something as big as the Virgin Atlantic Group – to a versatile digital entertainment conglomerate.
Under his leadership, Bodog expanded. It ventured beyond gaming, launching various non-gaming properties under the Bodog umbrella. One notable initiative was BodogConference.com, initially aimed at sports handicappers. Soon, this initiative evolved into an annual event hosted in Las Vegas, attracting industry executives and sports personalities, including NFL legend Joe Montana.
Ayre further diversified Bodog’s portfolio to include Bodog Music, a record label. Under this, he created a television series dubbed the Bodog Music Battle of the Bands on Fuse TV. The program featured celebrity judges, like former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon, who travelled across America seeking the country’s best-unsigned bands.
There was no stopping Bodog. It expanded into sports with Bodog Fight, a televised mixed martial arts league event. These events attracted high-profile attendees like Vladimir Putin and Jean-Claude Van Damme at the Clash of Nations finale in 2007.
Ayre also introduced televised poker with Calvin Ayre WildCard Poker on Fox Sports Net, integrating professional and celebrity players with online qualifiers.
Ayre’s antics landed him a feature in MTV Cribs episodes and the cover of Forbes magazine’s 2006 annual Billionaires edition. In 2007 he was the subject of a feature in People Magazine’s “Hottest Bachelor” list, and one of Star Magazine’s “Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelors”.
A master at media antics, Arye knows how to play every situation to his advantage. When police raided a filming session at his Costa Rican compound, mistaking it for illegal gambling, he adeptly turned the script in his favour. The incident garnered media attention for the series, further elevating the Bodog brand.
In 2006, he licensed the Bodog brand to Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, and in 2007, while retaining the rights to his brand, stepped down, to take a passive role in the online gaming industry. As far back as 2011, Arye kept his voice in online gambling, predicting a sea of changes, particularly online payments. He advocated for online casinos to take up Bitcoin. His company, Bodog, was among the first casinos to integrate cryptocurrency as a payment method.
Indictment by US Attorney
In February 2012, US Federal prosecutors in Maryland indicted Bodog Entertainment Group and seized its domain name. Arye and three other Canadians involved in the company were charged with supervising an illegal gambling business from 2005, in violation of Maryland law. They also answered to charges of money laundering predating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. 2006 (UIGEA).
It’s no secret, that Bodog was accepting US players. Since taking bets from Americans was illegal, Bodog wired money to London, processed bets in Costa Rica, and developed marketing and technology in Canada, while advertising in the US. No law broken! That was Arye’s trick!
Ayre admitted guilt to a misdemeanour and paid a $500,000 fine, and in July 2017, prosecutors dropped the charges against him and Bodog, restoring the domain name.
The Billionaire’s Involvement with Bitcoin
Calvin Arye has since moved to cryptocurrencies, though a large share of his $1.2 billion fortune came from online gambling.
In 2018, Calvin Arye acquired Coingeek.com, which focused on cryptocurrency news. The CoinGeek media division held CoinGeek Conferences, making its debut in Hong Kong back in 2018. After gaining global recognition through events in Europe, Asia, and North America until 2021, the series rebranded to the London Blockchain Conference with a permanent home in London.
Fast forward to 2022, he acquired Taal Distributed Information Technologies Inc., making Ayre Ventures the world’s largest venture capital firm with a primary focus on enterprise blockchain technology.
Ayre Ventures targets firms engaged in data management and valuation abilities at enterprise scale. It is also Calvin’s investment vehicle in private equity deals, including acquiring a majority stake in nChain.
Calvin Ayre has built a blockchain empire around the claims that a crypto coin called BSV – Bitcoin Satoshi Vision is the true Bitcoin as Satoshi intended it.
In the year he acquired Coingeek.com, Calvin launched cryptocurrency mining operations dedicated to the Bitcoin cash blockchain. But shortly after, the Bitcoin Cash network had sharp divisions, with a function led by Arye claiming the impending update completely abandoned Nakamoto’s consensus and trust in miners’ Proof of Work.
Following this disagreement, Arye and his team released Bitcoin SV, an independent coin from Bitcoin Cash. They said it stands for ‘Bitcoin Satoshi Vision’ and aims to restore and adhere to the original principles and protocols of Bitcoin as envisioned by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. On its website, BSV states the coin focuses on stability, scalability, security, and safe instant transactions.
Ayre holds that the BTC token is not ‘bitcoin,’” and its supporters are intentionally anti-scaling, which would eventually make it worthless as it has no utility.
Among his controversies is his claim that the Australian IT expert Craig Wright is the inventor of Bitcoin – Satoshi Nakamoto. The matter has been a subject of litigation in a UK court and the judge has since ruled that Wright’s evidence had been full of holes and he is not Satoshi Nakamoto. The full written judgment is not yet out, but following the judgment, Ayre has since taken a break from social media platform X.
Calvin’s Ayre and Philanthropy
Beyond the boardroom and controversies, Ayre has displayed a benevolent side. His philanthropic ventures, especially in Antigua, have showcased that success is also about giving back. Through the Calvin Ayre Foundation, he has initiated projects related to child welfare, education, and social development.
In January 2010, his foundation led iGaming industry stakeholders in a fundraiser for Haiti relief efforts at London’s iGaming event. Donations poured in, including GBP 65,000 from the iGB Affiliate Awards and GBP 42,200 from the International Gaming Awards. Casinomeister.com raised GBP 16,000, with additional contributions from various industry players. The total matched by Ayre’s foundation reached GBP 155,316.
His foundation also sponsored the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation for two consecutive years. During a Lakers game halftime, Ayre personally presented a check to support their initiatives. That is besides Bodog, under Ayre’s leadership, sponsoring the Lakers’ 3rd Annual Casino Night and Celebrity Poker Invitational. The event, co-hosted by Ayre and Lakers owner Jerry Buss, featured NBA legends like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, alongside current Lakers players. This sponsorship aimed to raise funds for the Youth Foundation’s programs promoting education and self-esteem among Los Angeles area youth.
Among other foundations that have benefited from Ayre’s philanthropy is the Fisher House Foundation. Ayre organized Bodog Salutes The Troops in 2006, a benefit event for the Fisher House Foundation, entertaining US military personnel with a poker tournament and concert featuring Hip Hop star Snoop Dogg.
After Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013, he donated $200,000 and pledged to match industry donations up to $1 million for typhoon relief.
In his global outreach, his foundation has provided support to needy families, schools, and rehabilitation centres in Costa Rica, combated bear bile farming in Asia, and funded higher education pursuits for individuals.
Ayre’s philanthropic endeavours earned him accolades acknowledging his contributions to local causes, including support for education, medical aid, and disaster relief efforts. Such awards include the Philanthropist of the Year from Antigua and Barbuda’s Halo Foundation in 2017 and the Faithful and Meritorious Service Cross award in 2019.
Calvin Arye was appointed as a Special Economic Envoy by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda because of his dedication to the country and his charity work.
Closing Thoughts: Beyond the Billionaire
Although Calvin Ayre stalks controversies, he remains an icon in the online casino and gambling industry, as well as beyond. His visionary leadership and marketing antics transformed Bodog into the diverse entertainment giant it is today.
Calvin’s involvement in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has also been notable, with initiatives such as Coingeek.com and Bitcoin SV. Beyond business, Ayre’s philanthropic efforts have made a profound impact, supporting causes ranging from disaster relief to education and social development.
Isn’t true success holistic? Though Canada is not best known for gambling, Calvin Ayre put the Canadian gambling industry on the global map. Visit Bodog Casino and witness firsthand the impact of this King of Canadian Online Gambling.