Poker Playboy Looks Into his Crystal BallCalvin Ayre and Bodog Go Global |
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As numerous online poker companies turned their focus away from U.S. shores, Calvin Ayre continues to stand his ground. Leading privately run Bodog Entertainment, the charming and often outspoken Ayre continues to promote a brand that survives by doing more than just providing online poker.
Ayre is now looking to continue to establish his company as an entertainment powerhouse by entering the European and Asian marketplaces. Will Ayre's legacy of a playboy lifestyle get lost in translation or has the shrewd businessman already stacked the deck for success? Card Player caught up with Calvin Ayre recently to see what his plans are and how he feels about the recent changes in the online poker landscape. Here are some of the excerpts from an upcoming Card Player interview with the man behind Bodog.
Michael Friedman: Explain what separates Bodog.com from the other remaining U.S.-facing online poker sites?
Calvin Ayre: Quite simply, we are the only fully integrated entertainment provider, essentially a one-stop shop with a number of gaming features that accord the average player an opportunity to win each time he/she sits down at a table. This aspect combined with upfront bonuses, VIP treatment, solid tournament structure, high volume of qualifiers, and an opportunity to play alongside some of poker's greats, such as 2006 WSOP winner Jamie Gold, make Bodog.com Poker a great entertainment destination for players of all skill levels.
MF: How key was your decision to keep Bodog a privately held company rather than go after a public listing?
CA: There is no doubt that our decision to stay private was key. With relative ease, we have been able to build out a truly international broad-based digital entertainment brand, something that warrants a certain amount of flexibility and would certainly be met with resistance by a board of directors. Most important, being private allows for full accountability to our customers, not a board of directors. Our customers have always been our shareholders.
MF: Bodog is much more than just an online poker site, but will it continue to pursue the U.S. marketplace as a whole if no legal headway is made in the upcoming months and is the Bodog brand strong enough that it will find success in the U.S. without having a gaming platform?
CA: We're still studying the current online gaming environment, but the simple fact remains we don't plan on moving away from our current business model. Since its inception, Bodog.com has modeled its business around the idea of creating an all-encompassing digital entertainment brand. Music, television, publishing and online gaming have certain synergies that, when combined, can form an all-encompassing entertainment experience, and these are only a few of the strategies that we have employed to get us to the point where we are. Bodog.com is the model that everyone is now looking at in the world and the strength of what we have built is going to become more and more apparent over the next two years as we replicate our success in North America in international markets.
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