Gambling IQ Commentary On the Bodog Fiasco

[BodogBecky]

Dirty, thank you for asking for a comment from me- that is exactly why I am here and there is very little of what I read in this thread that is real about Calvin or Bodog so the posters here deserve to have accurate information. For those of you who did not catch my intro thread a few days ago, I come from 4+ years experience working for CasinoCity.com, and I am now working for CalvinAyre.com as an onsite reporter and for BodogBrand.com as the Bodog Brand Global Ambassador. A piece of my BodogBrand.com role is to represent the Bodog brand throughout the forums and to serve as another point of entry into the Bodog licensee teams that can best answer any questions you may have. I do understand that my opinion of Calvin is going to be considered very biased by this crowd as I do work for him, but I would like to say two things before getting on to business:

1)I have personally known Calvin for 4+ years along with many current and former Bodog employees including all the Bodog execs, several of which are mentioned in this thread. While no one is perfect, every single one of them has treated me like solid gold every time we have virtually communicated and/or seen each other in person at various online gambling events and conferences throughout the years. Everything they have promised me and/or my company has been fulfilled and even exceeded my expectations in some cases. This includes affiliate payments for Bodog Casino and Poker promotion on OnlineCasinoCity.com, GPWA.org sponsorship payments, APCW.org sponsorship payments, and personal reimbursement for travel and accommodations.

2)Throughout my 4+ years working for CasinoCity.com I met and became friends with hundreds of online gambling professionals and affiliates. Even when times were tough with Bodog the reputation of the company, the brand, and of Calvin Ayre was- and still is- overwhelmingly positive. If the reputation was any different I never would have taken this new role. I am not a gambler, so I cannot comment on player payouts, but as mentioned above, Bodog affiliates (CasinoCity.com included) have traditionally received payments in a timely manner, even when there were issues with payment processors. As far as I know the payments issue was only related to the US franchise, run by Morris Mohawk gaming Group, and happened after Calvin had sold the operations and was an industry wide issue that was not related to the health of the business. The other European and Asian operators had no issues and in any even everyone always got Paid. Bodog has paid out around 50 Billion and has never missed a payout in 15 years.

Another example of the integrity of Calvin and the Bodog organization is when the 2006 Bodog conference was cancelled due to the arrest of David Carruthers. The political climate was too uncertain at that time and there was a concern for the safety of the Bodog employees working at the conference and for the actual conference attendees. Calvin and the Bodog organization had spent millions of dollars and months of labor on this conference- the money and time was not refundable- and the decision made by Calvin was to cancel the entire event, eat the money lost, hold a Bodog party regardless, and to reimburse the conference attendees who choose not to come to the party. If Calvin was selfish, he could have personally skipped the conference in order to protect himself only, but he choose to do the right thing and cancel the whole thing, as painful as it was professionally and financially. This information was provided to me by the conference organizer and others in the industry, not by Calvin. I am positive it is true.

OK, that’s all for now. You can take my comments above as fact or fiction, but I did want to get it out there for you to consider.

Anyway, back to the reason why I am here in GamblingIQ world! Regardless if you love or hate Calvin, he is media and branding for Bodog only- he is not an operator. This means Calvin has nothing to do with your relationship to the individual Bodog licensees which run Bodog.com, Bodog.co.uk, Bodog88.com and at the end of August ‘09, Bodog.ca. If you have questions, complaints, or need clarification on anything Bodog sportsbook related, I would appreciate if you could PM me your issue and your location (I need your location so I can contact the appropriate licensee for the best answer) and I’ll do what I can to solve your problem. Otherwise, I’ll pop in the forums every once in a while to represent the Bodog brand to the best of my ability, but that is about all. :)

I’ll sign off with telling you from personal experience and exposure that Bodog is in a good place right now. Things will only continue to improve, you watch and see!!

[Dirty]

Thanks for the Response BB..Glad you are part of Site

[BodogBecky]

My pleasure Dirty, and thank you. :)

You will be missed at the SBR bash!

[Dirty]

Wish I could be there!!!

[Mr Clean]

Dirty, thank you for asking for a comment from me- that is exactly why I am here and there is very little of what I read in this thread that is real about Calvin or Bodog so the posters here deserve to have accurate information. For those of you who did not catch my intro thread a few days ago, I come from 4+ years experience working for CasinoCity.com, and I am now working for CalvinAyre.com as an onsite reporter and for BodogBrand.com as the Bodog Brand Global Ambassador. A piece of my BodogBrand.com role is to represent the Bodog brand throughout the forums and to serve as another point of entry into the Bodog licensee teams that can best answer any questions you may have. I do understand that my opinion of Calvin is going to be considered very biased by this crowd as I do work for him, but I would like to say two things before getting on to business:

1)I have personally known Calvin for 4+ years along with many current and former Bodog employees including all the Bodog execs, several of which are mentioned in this thread. While no one is perfect, every single one of them has treated me like solid gold every time we have virtually communicated and/or seen each other in person at various online gambling events and conferences throughout the years. Everything they have promised me and/or my company has been fulfilled and even exceeded my expectations in some cases. This includes affiliate payments for Bodog Casino and Poker promotion on OnlineCasinoCity.com, GPWA.org sponsorship payments, APCW.org sponsorship payments, and personal reimbursement for travel and accommodations.

2)Throughout my 4+ years working for CasinoCity.com I met and became friends with hundreds of online gambling professionals and affiliates. Even when times were tough with Bodog the reputation of the company, the brand, and of Calvin Ayre was- and still is- overwhelmingly positive. If the reputation was any different I never would have taken this new role. I am not a gambler, so I cannot comment on player payouts, but as mentioned above, Bodog affiliates (CasinoCity.com included) have traditionally received payments in a timely manner, even when there were issues with payment processors. As far as I know the payments issue was only related to the US franchise, run by Morris Mohawk gaming Group, and happened after Calvin had sold the operations and was an industry wide issue that was not related to the health of the business. The other European and Asian operators had no issues and in any even everyone always got Paid. Bodog has paid out around 50 Billion and has never missed a payout in 15 years.

Another example of the integrity of Calvin and the Bodog organization is when the 2006 Bodog conference was cancelled due to the arrest of David Carruthers. The political climate was too uncertain at that time and there was a concern for the safety of the Bodog employees working at the conference and for the actual conference attendees. Calvin and the Bodog organization had spent millions of dollars and months of labor on this conference- the money and time was not refundable- and the decision made by Calvin was to cancel the entire event, eat the money lost, hold a Bodog party regardless, and to reimburse the conference attendees who choose not to come to the party. If Calvin was selfish, he could have personally skipped the conference in order to protect himself only, but he choose to do the right thing and cancel the whole thing, as painful as it was professionally and financially. This information was provided to me by the conference organizer and others in the industry, not by Calvin. I am positive it is true.

OK, that’s all for now. You can take my comments above as fact or fiction, but I did want to get it out there for you to consider.

Anyway, back to the reason why I am here in GamblingIQ world! Regardless if you love or hate Calvin, he is media and branding for Bodog only- he is not an operator. This means Calvin has nothing to do with your relationship to the individual Bodog licensees which run Bodog.com, Bodog.co.uk, Bodog88.com and at the end of August ‘09, Bodog.ca. If you have questions, complaints, or need clarification on anything Bodog sportsbook related, I would appreciate if you could PM me your issue and your location (I need your location so I can contact the appropriate licensee for the best answer) and I’ll do what I can to solve your problem. Otherwise, I’ll pop in the forums every once in a while to represent the Bodog brand to the best of my ability, but that is about all. :)

I’ll sign off with telling you from personal experience and exposure that Bodog is in a good place right now. Things will only continue to improve, you watch and see!!

Yeah, that's the ticket

[Brunhuber]

Bernie Madoff's employees loved him, too!

Mr. Clean.....Calvin (Pink Ass) Ayre.

Big news coming from the mainstream media, Becks, to counter your incessant garbage!!

You shameless, drunken hussy!

[Dirty]

I have MANY Comments on this.. can I talk with you tonight or tomorrow?

[Dirty]

Eventually Coke is going to get Burned if Sprite, Fanta, Mello Yellow, etc keeps Burning people..... COKE will eventually have to stop production

Cause anyone that knows Coke (the parent company) does not own about 85% of their bottlers, etc... but they make the base Product and the Promote it!!! but if people drinking Sprite in 35 markets get sick 5 times in two years and you keep on Branding the product then something is wrong... Was it directly Coca Cola's problem.. No.. but at some point the License holder has to be held accountable for running a bad operation

[Dirty]

I WANT to believe in Bodog...

[BodogBecky]

I have MANY Comments on this.. can I talk with you tonight or tomorrow?

I assume this comment is directed towards me? :) Regardless, I'd love to chat. I'm off to Vegas in a few hours, but I'm happy to chat live once I'm there. PM me your number and I'll call you tomorrow...

[Dirty]

Just give me a shout when you can

[BodogBecky]

ok...tell me the best way to contact you and I'm on it!! :) Here in Vegas now...

[Dirty]

Hope you have a great time...about to leave until tonight