Gambling IQ Commentary On the Bodog Fiasco

[Dirty]

The Bodog Fiasco has been going on for Months on end now. It only seems to get worse. The hard thing to grasp is that there are potentially 10's of thousands of players who possibly have funds at risk right now.

We have been watching this Situation very closely. What we are seeing is very disturbing. Every website you go to from the Poker Players Alliance to Gambling 911 you see horror stories of payouts taking a minimum of 40 days. No matter how big or small the sports forum is you see several complaints. This has been going on Since early in the year and is not getting better. Right Now if you put in a payout request at Bodog you may get it in time to buy a turkey for Thanksgiving. That is totally unacceptable for online gambling site.

Lets talk a little history here. Just some speculation on our part with some of this. Slow Payments at Bodog have been heard of and on the increase for the past couple of years. At first you just blew it off as an effect of the UIGEA that caused many problems for almost all online gambling portals. But the problem is Bodogs payment time rarely was better than 30 days for a check and slowly all the other payment methods would dry up. What Caused this?

Was it the acquisition of WWTS when they pulled out of the US market right ofter the UIGEA was passed? After a couple of other deals from prominent sportsbooks fell through at the last minute Bodog swept in and bought the accounts and merged them into Bogog. Did they underestimate the Damage that taking on all this added debt was going to damage the company with the limited access US players had to deposit? I know for a fact of One deal that fell thru to buy WWTS because of the trouble of transferring funds around now because of the gambing act. Did Bodog not do their due diligence as a company? Did these decisions eat into their cash flow with players cashing out of Bodog once rollovers were met because of Bodog's limited betting options? When you go from a Solid shop like WWTS to Bodog who does not offer hafltime lines on most games, No totals on games with big spreads, lines up 2 hours before kickoff, etc. it is a real eyeopener to many players. Going from a book with many options to a book that only wants squares and gives a true bettor no real options to play had to cause some kind of run on the bank.

You add that into the other failed ventures that had to eat into their cashflow like Bodog Music, Bodog Fights, Bodog TV, etc.. There was hardly anything Bodog didn't have their name on at one time. We even have where Bodog stiffed one of their own fighters under Contract. They did not honor their contract with former US Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler Matt Lindland. They cost him no telling how much money because it was an exclusive contract and he could not fight elsewhere. How many more are out there that we don't know about?

Then you add into the fact that Calvin Ayre was flaunting Bodog in the US Governments face for years. He was throwing parties in Vegas, advertising on the Radio and TV virtually all over the United States. Basically telling the US Department of Justice to screw themselves. He did not learn a lesson from disgraced BetOnSports owner Gary Kaplan and Top Executive David Carruthers that you don't tell the US Government to screw off. Instead of learning from their mistakes he goes out and puts himself on the cover of Forbes magazine claiming he was a Billionaire playboy.

Lets move on to them losing a almost $49 Million lawsuit to 1st Technology LLC and having to spend untold millions in rebranding their company from Bodog to NewBodog and Bodoglife. You can't put a figure on the amount of money they potentially lost just by the hit from search engines.

We also have many reports that Bodog was nothing more than a name ran be several shell companies. Plenty of sources have came forward (Matt Lindland is one) to make this claim. They are likely correct in their assessment. We know from experience in the past that we would have to be in contact with 2 or 3 different people at companies just to get Contest winners paid that Bodog would sponsor. This would be a 2 week process at least. Then they would have to audit the player. Several times they would claim the guy was not eligible after the contest was over, virtually changing the rules after the winners were announced. This laborous and unethical process by the old Riptown Media caused all contests on the forums we were involved with at the time to stop. It was not fair to our players.

Then we get into the seized funds by the feds that has been well documented. We are talking two seizures of funds worth approximately $24 Million in cash taken from what is being strongly rumored were nothing but shell companies for Bodog. You can read the complaints against Bodog for the $14 million seizure here and the $9.8 Million seizure here. As you can see Calvin Ayre's name is plastered all over these documents. That does not bode well for anyone involved in this. Then you add in the fact that Calvin mysteriously resigned after the first round of funds was seized early this year. He retired and transferred ownership to Morris Mohawk gaming. After his retirement he is reportedly on the run and said to be living in Antigua.

Calvin is reportedly still running the company but that can't be confirmed.

You can probably safely say that if it were not for Bodog Poker this company would have been under by now. Poker is huge money maker for the company and brings a influx of immediate cash to the table. But you can only rob Peter to Pay Paul so long. We have sadly seen in the past that companies that do not hold post up funds in escrow to pay out players eventually get caught with their hands in the cookie jar and go under.

Is Bodog going under tomorrow? Probably not. Will they Go Under at all? No one can answer that question at this time. But things do not look good. This is all going to depend on if they can start paying out people in a timely manner. I am talking 2 weeks maximum to get funds to players. Once enough people get paid from them they will not send more. They will move on and Bodog will have to go the Route of BetOnSports and hope to get new players to make up for the exodus of players leaving. This is a very dangerous business model and is most likely going on at this moment as evidenced by the more than 200 layoffs by their marketing and support firm Fiver Media (formerly Riptown Media).

You just have to ask yourself One Question. Why all the layoffs at the start of Football season when Most other books are adding employees? This is most Books busiest time of the year. Especially ones that are US facing. It absolutely makes no sense. Even books on the ropes have been begging for football to get here for the influx of deposits.

What is sad is all the players who do not know about online forums and can inform themselves of this situation.

In Conclusion Gambling IQ believes that no player should send money to Bodog at this time. Their are too many red flags and warning signs out there. You can see the smoke signals coming off the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. Is it a desperate call for Help? We hope not.

Any Forum Owners who can honestly send their players to play at Bodog right now need to be shut down. It is Unethical and not prudent for the player, the Posters of the forums or the Online Industry. How these forum Owners can look in the Mirror is amazing and it gives a huge slap in the face to every forum owner in this Industry. Lets just hope that the posters can see through all the fluff and circumstance and find Online Gambling forums that have the players interest truly at heart.

It is time for the Sportsbooks and Poker rooms to PULL ALL ADVERTISING AND CLOSE ALL AFFILIATE SHEETS for these forums that promote promote this type of action. All you have to do is look at the Banners flying at the top to see what kind of forum you are a member of. Until the Onwers of the respected and Highly rated Online Gambling sites stick together (B rating or Better at SportsBookReview) then players will be thrown to the wolves.

Are we saying turn your back on a book or poker room that is having temporary trouble? No way should that happen. But at some point you have to say enough is enough. All books have processing troubles from time to time and they pull out of it. But Most books don't have all the warning signs seen in this situation. It is following a eery script we have all seen in the past with a book going from Highly respected to out of business in a matter of months.

Do we hope Bodog goes under and 10's of thousands of players get stiffed on untold millions of dollars? The Answer is an emphatic NO. But at the same time you have to protect your current posters and readers so the losses are limited to the players that are there at this time. You don't want to let anyone else get caught up in the Fiasco that builds every day.

There is no excuse to send money there when you have Sportsbooks like The Greek, Bet Jamaica, BetOnline, Looselines, 5Dimes, The PIG, Legendz Sportsbook, WSEX, Matchbook, Carib, and many more that are paying out in a timely manner. Many in just a few days. Some within Minutes of your request with certain Withdrawal methods. You have many respected Poker rooms like Doyle's Room, Full Tilt, Poker Stars, Party Poker, Carbon Poker, and many more as well that are highly respected and paying out quickly.

In Short. Gambling IQ does not recommend sending any money to Bodog at this time or even in the near future. There is not ONE Reason anybody can give a player to send to Bodog at this time.

Please as a Poster at these forums do your homework and only support the forums that actually have your best interests at heart and are not worried if that advertising Check the bad books send them each month clear the bank.


Thank you.

[Dirty]

Let us know what you think

[Reno Paul]

Used to play at Bodog a bit a few years back....Didn't care for their lines and especially their vig back then.

Anyone that funds at Bodog now is pissing their money away.

[Minnesota Mike]

Used to play there, they slow paid me and I've never been back - plus I really think they cheat at poker.

[stump]

I only played at Bodog for about a 6 month period several years ago, and I thought they were a lousy book for many reasons.
I could care less if they close up shop, but its another blow to the industry that is not needed. I hope everyone gets paid, but if i was a betting man, i'd guess many people will not.

[Dirty]

I only played at Bodog for about a 6 month period several years ago, and I thought they were a lousy book for many reasons.
I could care less if they close up shop, but its another blow to the industry that is not needed. I hope everyone gets paid, but if i was a betting man, i'd guess many people will not.

Sadly I agree with you at this point Stump.... Good to see you posting man....

I last played there 2 New years days ago.... I only played there from time to time when I wanted to deposit and play poker or something.. well anyways It was football all day as you know... and with my Poker winnings I was betting foots... Not One halftime Line on any of the New Years day games.... Not one... GT was beating the hell out of West Virginia like 35-3 at the half... I was going to load the wagon on WVU and they never put a line.. so I started watching them all day... That chicken shit book didn't put one Halftime up. :madbird

[pvcpipe]

Good to see you, stump.

Dirty, congrats on having a pair and writing what needs to have been written.

[Dirty]

Thanks pvc... I have been thinking about this for a while now and decided to go ahead and write it. You never want to write a negative piece on any book. But the negatives just kept on coming.. I could not find many positives to hang on to.

[Paddy]

This has been a very important watershed article for the online gaming industry. It is a systematic and rational argument against continuing to deposit at what was once considered one of the leading players in the online business made by a site that takes ad revenue from online sites and which has obviously not taken the money from the now famous "bribe the forum owners fund" made famous by Peep. The reasoning is sound, the warning of great value to potential victims of Bodog.

The moving away from the "hide the truth at all costs and keep on taking the money" approach of such sites as EOG, the Rx, Majorwager and The Online Wire is very significant. Have a look at those sites, which take Bodog cash. You will never find, with the occasional exception of MajorWager, a discouraging word about Bodog there, even though the warnings have been plain to see for months.As far as those sites go, the skies are not cloudy all day, every day in Bodog world.

Other than Dirty and General and a couple of the lads from OGD, I don't really know any of you blokes here, but I do know Calvin Ayre better than any other person on any of these forums. I knew him when he was an honest young man, looking for adventure, and with the psychological problems that he so garishly exibits now only just visible under the surface. I was there at the very center of things when he in a Jekyll-Hide transformation went from adventure to the most disgusting kind of personal dishonesty, planning to rip off large numbers of unsuspecting and innocent people of their money to make himself richer. It's now known as the Bicer Medical period in the Calvin Ayre story and I am the person who stopped him from enriching himself through lies about the value of publicly traded stocks.

The lies remain, the story is just different. I hope the author of this story isn't correct in the estimation that there may still be tens of thousands of other victims still out there. As Bicer Medical never was what Calvin Ayre said it was after I made him president of that company, Bodog was substantially an illusion. At the core of that illusion was the bizarre idea that Calvin Ayre, a man described by the Vancouver Sun as not being fit to operate a bingo game, was a marketing genius and a world authority on online branding.

Nobody knows what the financial results for Bodog were. As Big Mo said years ago on OGD, people had only one source of what Bodog's finances were, Calvin Ayre. Bodog never was one of the leading online sites, Calvin never was remotely close to being a billionaire. And I doubt that there are tens of thousands of people still so stupid as to have their money at Bodog and at risk of the big burn. I've seen it said at a couple of other sites that losing your money to Bodog now, with all the info out there, would be Darwinism in action, online gaming style. I think that's it in a nutshell.

Other than OGD, the only other site at which I'm not banned is TOW. I rarely post there, but I see Roberto is saying that I and the brother Brunhuber would be responsible for all these punters losing their money if Bodog goes under. Not a liar, and a psycopath, and a thief, but the two brothers who pointed out that that was exactly what he was and said get your money the hell out of Bodog.

We've taken a lot of abuse for putting out that message because we are nobodies, or "stalkers". It's nice to see somebodies like Dirty and Pete now coming out with the same message. I don't really care who gets it out, so long as it gets out.

Well done, boys.

[Wise Guy]

. . . . Every website you go to from the Poker Players Alliance to Gambling 911 you see horror stories of payouts taking a minimum of 40 days . . . .

Generally, more than 50 business days. That is actually 2 1/2 real months. For my final payout from Bodog, my request was approved April 2008. I am still waiting for the check to arrive.

[akillies]

Why doesnt bodog just get more processors? Many more, and immediately, seems like an obvious solution, that i have not heard a reasonable answer to. If they have so much $$, and so much at risk, I would think they would do everything possible to get this situation cleared up? yet it goes on

[Paddy]

Here's the deal.

It isn't business as usual at Bodog. Bodog are busted by the US government. That's not a rumor or suspicion. It's a fact. The seizure of the $24 million before Ayre retired was part of a CRIMINAL investigation, it wasn't just some angry accountants with nothing better to do. It was the beginning, not the end, of the process. There is much more to come. The evidence gathered was overwhelming against Bodog and particularly against Calvin Ayre. The paperwork behind the seizures had to be released. Sealed indictments don't.

Consider this analogy. You're a contract killer. You've carried out a couple of hits and you find out that the police have most of your license plate number on video and most of your face on the same video. They know your name and where you live. What do you do? You stop being a hitman and go far away.

Now let's say you are a serial killer and you become aware that the police have the same knowledge. What do you do? Business as usual.

Get the picture. Bodog says its business as usual.

As the article says, it ain't like you don't have choices you should have made long, long ago.

And as for more processors, what kind of a processor is going to walk into a very advanced and sophisticated DOJ investigation and say, "Hi there, I'm XYZ processor and I'd like my name in a federal indictment too"?

[HORSE FAN]

I will not fund money in a book like this.

[Dirty]

This has been a very important watershed article for the online gaming industry. It is a systematic and rational argument against continuing to deposit at what was once considered one of the leading players in the online business made by a site that takes ad revenue from online sites and which has obviously not taken the money from the now famous "bribe the forum owners fund" made famous by Peep. The reasoning is sound, the warning of great value to potential victims of Bodog.

The moving away from the "hide the truth at all costs and keep on taking the money" approach of such sites as EOG, the Rx, Majorwager and The Online Wire is very significant. Have a look at those sites, which take Bodog cash. You will never find, with the occasional exception of MajorWager, a discouraging word about Bodog there, even though the warnings have been plain to see for months.As far as those sites go, the skies are not cloudy all day, every day in Bodog world.

Other than Dirty and General and a couple of the lads from OGD, I don't really know any of you blokes here, but I do know Calvin Ayre better than any other person on any of these forums. I knew him when he was an honest young man, looking for adventure, and with the psychological problems that he so garishly exibits now only just visible under the surface. I was there at the very center of things when he in a Jekyll-Hide transformation went from adventure to the most disgusting kind of personal dishonesty, planning to rip off large numbers of unsuspecting and innocent people of their money to make himself richer. It's now known as the Bicer Medical period in the Calvin Ayre story and I am the person who stopped him from enriching himself through lies about the value of publicly traded stocks.

The lies remain, the story is just different. I hope the author of this story isn't correct in the estimation that there may still be tens of thousands of other victims still out there. As Bicer Medical never was what Calvin Ayre said it was after I made him president of that company, Bodog was substantially an illusion. At the core of that illusion was the bizarre idea that Calvin Ayre, a man described by the Vancouver Sun as not being fit to operate a bingo game, was a marketing genius and a world authority on online branding.

Nobody knows what the financial results for Bodog were. As Big Mo said years ago on OGD, people had only one source of what Bodog's finances were, Calvin Ayre. Bodog never was one of the leading online sites, Calvin never was remotely close to being a billionaire. And I doubt that there are tens of thousands of people still so stupid as to have their money at Bodog and at risk of the big burn. I've seen it said at a couple of other sites that losing your money to Bodog now, with all the info out there, would be Darwinism in action, online gaming style. I think that's it in a nutshell.

Other than OGD, the only other site at which I'm not banned is TOW. I rarely post there, but I see Roberto is saying that I and the brother Brunhuber would be responsible for all these punters losing their money if Bodog goes under. Not a liar, and a psycopath, and a thief, but the two brothers who pointed out that that was exactly what he was and said get your money the hell out of Bodog.

We've taken a lot of abuse for putting out that message because we are nobodies, or "stalkers". It's nice to see somebodies like Dirty and Pete now coming out with the same message. I don't really care who gets it out, so long as it gets out.

Well done, boys.

Paddy..good to see you posting here and good luck in everything. The writing is on the wall and no one should be playing at this book again. Thanks for the post and history lesson.

I know Roberto and I like Roberto... and his blaming you two for this debacle is nothing but irresponsible and totally uncalled for. Especially for a forum owner. He is trying to pass the buck and in the process it could cost no telling how many people money.

Generally, more than 50 business days. That is actually 2 1/2 real months. For my final payout from Bodog, my request was approved April 2008. I am still waiting for the check to arrive.

Unreal taking that long for a payout... I would be

Why doesnt bodog just get more processors? Many more, and immediately, seems like an obvious solution, that i have not heard a reasonable answer to. If they have so much $$, and so much at risk, I would think they would do everything possible to get this situation cleared up? yet it goes on

Here's the deal.

It isn't business as usual at Bodog. Bodog are busted by the US government. That's not a rumor or suspicion. It's a fact. The seizure of the $24 million before Ayre retired was part of a CRIMINAL investigation, it wasn't just some angry accountants with nothing better to do. It was the beginning, not the end, of the process. There is much more to come. The evidence gathered was overwhelming against Bodog and particularly against Calvin Ayre. The paperwork behind the seizures had to be released. Sealed indictments don't.

Consider this analogy. You're a contract killer. You've carried out a couple of hits and you find out that the police have most of your license plate number on video and most of your face on the same video. They know your name and where you live. What do you do? You stop being a hitman and go far away.

Now let's say you are a serial killer and you become aware that the police have the same knowledge. What do you do? Business as usual.

Get the picture. Bodog says its business as usual.

As the article says, it ain't like you don't have choices you should have made long, long ago.

And as for more processors, what kind of a processor is going to walk into a very advanced and sophisticated DOJ investigation and say, "Hi there, I'm XYZ processor and I'd like my name in a federal indictment too"?

Paddy summed it up pretty good akillies... who in their right mind would process payments for them now.

I will not fund money in a book like this.

Good for you Horse Fan..... thanks for posting and If one person is saved money in this situation then it is all worth it.... I hope many many more stay away from this book because of the problems...

[Dirty]

Brunhuber at OGD


Comments from past and present BoDog employees.....

QUOTE (dieseldriver @ Apr 11 2008, 11:21 PM)
I started training there over a year ago and left after 2 weeks into training. The training was mundane and I didn't learn anything at all. During training, we got news that Western Union (some wire transfer company) will not be used as a method of payment. They informed us in class that "things didn't work out". I heard stories that the mangers there are young and go on massive power trips and they are not flexible with the hours. Pretty much you would be doing graveyard shiftx which doesn't fly with me in particular. I simply whipped up a letter of resignation and left.

As of a few day ago, I heard that the Bodog office in Burnaby is moving to Montreal and are performing massive layoffs. I feel bad for I knew a lot of good people working there. I am happy that I did find another, legit, job that doesn't have a CEO as a wanted man. It may not be as bad as Enron, but still.

the owner is not allowed in the U.S.

guest Apr 11 2008, 11:26 PM Post #67

He also has so much plastic surgery, it makes you quivver. and he hits on girls 20 years younger than him, and they all bitc about how they hate it.
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Jun 16 2008, 12:13 PM Post #70

I am a friend of a former a US employee who worked for their Battle of the Bands program in the United States. They payed them as contractors for 2006 and 2007 to avoid the IRS and then through a shell payroll service in Burbank California. Every vendor they do business through is funded by Bodog, created by Bodog and Bodog is their only client.

They lost 38 million dollars in 2007 because some asshats at Riptown didn't bother to make sure that their domains were registered outside the US and they got sued for 49 million dollars over a patent infringement case which severely hurt their earnings. So just like all the other vendors they did business through who's only clients were Bodog, they went and bought their own registrar to prevent anyone from taking control of thier domains again. Of course those douchebags still have their jobs while all the other projects funding was cut. Over 200 talented people were just canned with NO warning.

Story is this: Bodog/Riptown got sued in July/August of 2007 for a method patent. Around that time Calvin Ayre transferred licensing/ownership of North American Operations to Morris Mohawk Gaming which is on an Indian Reservation in Montreal to further buffer himself from US DOJ laws. Around that time Calvin started doing video blogs stressing that he had no interests or assets inside the United States. If that was the case, then why did they shuffle so quickly after shutting down the entire music division inside the united states and send 3 thugs to that office to seize all the equipment in that office in a rented vehicle they then used to transfer the equipment back to another vehicle they drove into the US from Canada? If calvin was so sure that he was clean in the US, why was it so important to seize that equipment that was being used to run the US arm of the record label, an LLC again, who's only client was Bodog?

If Calvin Ayre was so sure he had no assets in the United states then why in 2007 did he have all the local managers who worked for Bodog Battle of the Bands divide up about a million dollars in ticket sales into 5-9K deposits to Bank of America accounts across the United States in order to smuggle the money out of the country so not to spark the interest of the IRS?

Riptown Media is no longer, but is now Fiver Media - Online Product Development & Marketing Services and if you look at their website they say they have offices in Vancouver and Toronto just as riptown did and the adresses are the same exact locations as their riptown offices were. LOL.

To each his own, all the employees will go on with their lives and learn lessons from this. If you want to work for a company that 'seems' cool up front but will toss you to the curb when the heat is on regardless of how talented or successful you made them then feel free. I know that outside the gamling industry no one respects this brand and no one give them any credit for thier success as large as they might be. Business is business and Bodog had to do what they had to do to protect themsleves but people have a right know that they are putting themselves at risk when working for an online gambling company. These people do not care about you or your future or well being. As long as you bust your ass working tireless hours for them providing your talent to them they will be cool... until they are ready to close shop and start all over again like they have done when they were esports.com, kazootek.com, riptown.com and a slew of other shell companies.

Obviously riptown and fiver media employees monitor this thread. To you I say anyone who works for you is signing a pact with the devil.
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Jun 16 2008, 12:29 PM Post #71

I know people who worked there who got detained in customs for 4-6 hours every time they flew in and out of the country. They refused to pay for work visas for their employees to travel because well... even though they are a 7 billion dollar a year company who can certainly afford work visa's for their employees they aren't legally allowed to have people traveling through the United States for work. If you feel like traveling James Bond style in fear of being questioned and detained the by all means go for it. This company nor the re invention of itself as Fiver Media does not deserve your talent.
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Aug 22 2008, 01:22 PM Post #81

I( was a t a xmas part where Calvin Ayre was announcing Bodog at a yaletown restaurant that he just bought. While I was in the bathroom one of the servers of the private party told myself and an employee that she was given notice that since he bought the place that the private party was her last job.

...2 weeks before Xmas with no warning.

she had to serve everyone appluading him and his video launch about what the company was going to be. His whole speech was that he was already rich and his goal was to brand his own self and it really had nothing to do about anyone else.


..then he hit on some girl he recently hired who was at least 30 years younger than him.
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Aug 22 2008, 01:31 PM Post #82
A very crazy company for sure.

Guest Aug 23 2008, 10:33 AM Post #83

I left months ago and it's definitely one of the best decision i've ever made. To sum this company up, it's the ultimate gong show. Not surprised the house of cards has finally come down

guest Aug 27 2008, 08:55 PM Post #84

The place is run by a bunch of idiots that don't know their a*s from their elbow! I've never worked with such a disorganised, inexperienced and uneducated management team. The VP of doing nothing Aaron Gould, and the Senior Director of cr*p communication skills Saxon Shadforth have run the place into the ground. They should be embarrassed in how bad they are at their jobs, and realise that everyone at Fiver considers them the biggest jokes in Vancouver.

The times I've heard people mention how close they've come to smacking these two idiots about kind of sums up the environement at Fiver...lol!

Seriously, the place is a joke, the owner is a self made playboy idiot and the management team should be shot and never given jobs in this part of the world again.

Oh and did I mention how much of a sad cu*t Aaron Gould is....one day I hope someone from Riptown/Fiver teaches that balding idiot a lesson!
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Aug 28 2008, 03:08 PM Post #87

I have to admit I do agree with the above comment naming the VP.....if you worked there you'd appreciate why this person feels so strongly!

The VP has no experience, and looks nervous everytime he's in a meeting....nothing intelligent comes out of his mouth, it'll not be long before he's dealt the blow that he deserves!

Bitter....try working for a company that looks for every opportunity to f*ck you over.....those that didn't like it did get new jobs, the ones who just lost their jobs are probably relieved inside.
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Aug 28 2008, 05:39 PM Post #89

Aaron Gould IS an assclown. Poor Olivia - she is such a nice girl and has no idea how many other girls he's got on the side. I love that he acts so ultra cool but is from Prince FREAKIN George and has trailer park trash oozing out of every orifice.

I joined Bodog very early on and quickly learned what a boys club it is. If you shamelessly spend your money on blow, if you hit on girls half your age, if you can convince your subordinates to do all your work while you eagerly fellate Peter Caroll and other useless arses you are a prime candidate for Bodog management.

Its an absolute gong show over there and I am so happy I got out long ago.

guest Aug 28 2008, 06:12 PM Post #90

Well said!

I agree about Olivia....I have first hand experience of his dirty exploits with others. He's a sleaze, and like you say considers himself 'cool' but is the biggest loser I've ever been around. He couldn't fight his way out of wet paper bag, he's got no class, and very little in the way social skills...he's an arrogant d*ck who just needs his a*s kicking!

And did anyone mention how useless he is at his job....come on Aaron, do you really believe people at the company ever had any respect for you! He would talk and people would laugh and call him a wank*r....its sad but true!

People wonder why the company folded...yes he'll probably do alright (for now), but he's a dirty, coke snorting, trailer park trash nerd that needs to recognse how people look at him...LOL

Aug 28 2008, 05:39 PM Post #89

Aaron Gould IS an assclown. Poor Olivia - she is such a nice girl and has no idea how many other girls he's got on the side. I love that he acts so ultra cool but is from Prince FREAKIN George and has trailer park trash oozing out of every orifice.

I joined Bodog very early on and quickly learned what a boys club it is. If you shamelessly spend your money on blow, if you hit on girls half your age, if you can convince your subordinates to do all your work while you eagerly fellate Peter Caroll and other useless arses you are a prime candidate for Bodog management.

Its an absolute gong show over there and I am so happy I got out long ago.

Aug 28 2008, 08:43 PM Post #91

You people really need to get a life... you can easily post your seedy comments in the darkness of your smelly basement suites... while stuffing your face with twinkies. It will not help you get a new job... nor will it make people feel sorry for you. All this name calling business is childish and so very preschool!

If you want to be in control of your employement future why dont you become self employed or start your own company. It will be a definate eye opener for you... help you wake up to reality!

Now I have to get back to my life... Ahem... because I have one!

Wow Aug 28 2008, 09:18 PM Post #92

Your life is to monitor threads like this and call good people losers.

I personally have moved on VERY quickly from Bodog. I will say that my resume looks quite nice and I do owe the fact that I nearly doubled my salary at my new job and am now actually getting paid what I am worth. I do owe that to my experience working for Bodog but then again I was hired by them because of my experience. I honestly hesitate to tell people at my new job who I actually worked for. I'm proud of the work I did but not proud of the fact that as hard as some of us worked management and Calvin Ayre gave the brand such a bad name.

Peter Karroll, Jim Phillips, Arron Gould, lawyer Bryce and even Peter's daughter Riley are seedy characters....crooks.... I'll save the expletives since everyone else has done a good enough job with that. Plus, these people make themselves look bad on a daily basis just fine. Anyone doing business with these people should know they do not honor contracts and if they do pay up it is like pulling teeth. I have personally seen them hire developers to create their entire back end software to run one of their sites and then turn around and screw them out of tens of thousands of dollars in pay.

Working for Bodog was probably one of the coolest Jobs I have had but at the same time the management made vanity decisions based on ego.... decisions that bit them in the ass that were swept under the rug time and time again. As far as I am concerned as talented as we were as a staff, management blew the true potential that was given to them.... I shouldn't say blew... I should say embezzled, drank, snorted or all three.

Close This Aug 29 2008, 08:54 AM Post #93

Please shut this thread down. It's embarrassing.

Guest Aug 29 2008, 10:26 AM Post #94

QUOTE (Close This @ Aug 29 2008, 08:54 AM)
Please shut this thread down. It's embarrassing.

You must work at Fiver.

Guest Aug 29 2008, 05:04 PM Post #97

QUOTE (Close This @ Aug 29 2008, 08:54 AM)
Please shut this thread down. It's embarrassing

Damn Aug 29 2008, 09:45 PM Post #99

nothing can really justify some of the horsesh*t written on here but let's face facts. when a company goes so far south so quickly, there are going to be hard feelings.

the fundamental problem for riptown? the company got in over its head. as bodog tried to become a major player in the US entertainment/tv/music industries, several well-meaning but underqualified riptown employees were totally out of their elements. at one point, the office at 333 seymour housed a music label, a tv production team, software development and marketing departments. the only thing missing was the riptown bakery and nuclear arms division.

calvin ayre wanted to be known as more than the online gambling billionaire. he wanted the richard branson and hugh heffner comparisons. the problem, of course, is that those guys (in their own bizarre ways) were business savvy. ayre got into online gambling in the right place at the right time and made a mint. it wasn't for his entreprenuial acumen or shrewd deal making. of course, billions of dollars and a massive ego can convince you to do many strange things. one of those things was to transform ayre from the face of online gambling (dubbed as such by Forbes magazine) to a new-age entertainment guru (even though he nor his shell companies had any experience in anything outside of online gambling).

for most of 2006 and 2007, this transformation riptown's primary objective.

Of course, few riptowners were adequately trained to work in music and television, arguably the two most cutthroat industries in american entertainment. but ego reigned supreme once again - "we dominated the online gambling market so hey, television should be a piece of cake." determined to create everything internally, riptowners were constantly being promoted to unfathomable heights, despite lacking the qualifications and/or basic intelligence. for example - a former phone jockey from riptown customer service ran bodogfight. peter karroll's daughter ran the music label. the head of pr used to be a quality assurance spellchecker. no joke. throw in all the fake jobs and titles created in the tv and music departments (thanks to karroll, who must shoulder a lion's share of blame for riptown's demise) and you've got a lot of underqualified people getting paid a lot of money to make really lousy products, if anything at all. throw in a marketing department that had no clue - "sure, i can handle band promotions! sounds easy!" - and the writing was on the wall.

everybody just assumed it would work because they believed it would.

in closing. keep throwing gould, phillips et al under the bus if it makes you feel better but they're not to blame. the entire company was cloaked in greed and naievete - people saw a cash cow and they jumped on it. what's happening now has been in the works for two years, so the shock and awe routine is pathetic. anybody who says they didn't see this coming is either blind, stupid or lying.

in the know Today, 11:49 AM Post #100

"throw in all the fake jobs and titles created in the tv and music departments (thanks to karroll, who must shoulder a lion's share of blame for riptown's demise) and you've got a lot of underqualified people getting paid a lot of money to make really lousy products, if anything at all. throw in a marketing department that had no clue - "sure, i can handle band promotions! sounds easy!""

This is right on the money - as far as the Canadian arm of the music label who were the ones getting paid a lot more than they should have with bogus titles. As for their American counterparts, those people were knee deep in music promotion earning a fraction of what the Canadians were making and working much longer hours at their own expense as private contractors. Unfortunately it was the Canadians and their inexperienced egos with no clue about the US market forcing their hand in foolish incest driven decisions. The marketing team did the best they could and accomplished great things but let's face it look what they had to work with. Britt Black? Neurosonic? Naszanin? 3 artists with NO talent who's only interest in being on the label was because a) She was Peter Karroll's daughter and Riley's sister b) he was sleeping with Peter's daughter Riley (who cluelessly ran the label) c) she is Peter's wife's sister. As you can see this whole company is incestous in it's decision making and management choices. You had to be sleeping with someone or a relative of someone to be considered a manager, decision maker or someone of importance. The people with the real talent who should have been making decisions had their ideas stolen from them and edited into a giant branding campaign for Calvin Ayre and Bodog and then secondly to serve the incestous motives of Peter and Riley Karroll. So you see the talent (or lack of) that they had to work with?


Gambling IQ Commentary On the Bodog Fiasco - OGD


Any worked or working at Riptown?

[Dirty]

Bodog Continues to Frustrate Vendors, Players

Submitted by C Costigan on Sun, 08/31/2008 - 18:57.

Stories of Bodog refusing to honor contracts with vendors and advertising vehicles continued to surface over recent days with a number of affiliates complaining to Gambling911.com.
Affiliates, while still receiving installment checks from Bodog (BodogLife.com) were complaining that "customer conversions were way down" and that the company was changing its payment terms without notice.
The troubled online gambling firm - once a powerhouse among Gambling911.com sponsors - was taken down from the site last week. It has been unable to process payments to and from gamblers since Forbes reported that bank accounts were seized from the US Government over the last six months.
According to the article on Forbes.com, $24 Million in funds has been seized by the US government over the past six months, funds the feds claim are in bank accounts used to fund operations and make payments to US-based customers of Bodog. Court documents obtained by Forbes cite that the seizures began in January of this year, and had continued through July.
"Processing is an issue industry-wide," a source tells Gambling911.com. "But in the case of Bodog, nobody (the processors) wants to do business with them due to their high profile and the problems they are having with the US Government."
This same source tells Gambling911.com that Bodog is discussing its options, including pulling out of the US market after football season in February of 2009, though it remained unclear if they would keep current US customers - or whatever is left of them.
BodogLife.com has been able to take money in over recent days, which should help some online gambling and poker affiliates in the short term, but payouts are few and far between.
Bodog is one of the few sports books with a successful standalone online poker room though Cake Poker's success has been attributed mostly to its affiliation with online sports betting companies.
Elsewhere, news that the US Government has been monitoring posting forums has led to difficulties in sports betting sites being able to accept ********* and Western Union deposits leading into the new football season. This deposit option was cancelled by several websites in recent days.





Bodog Continues to Frustrate Vendors, Players | Gambling911.com

[Paddy]

This just went up over at TOW. It had to be said.

[Dirty]

Bet911 and USDBet have never or will ever be on this site.... Nor will any book that is like that. Sure they paid my salary at my old haunt, but I had no control over that. Shrink brought in all the advertisers except for a couple.

I have posted at SBR and at OGD my thoughts and how I felt about those places and how it still Haunts me that USDBET did not pay people... That feeling alone is one reason that bad books will never be on this site... General and Shortbus agree and that was one of our biggest things when we opened this place.


Roberto I do believe you owe Gambling IQ an apology be even suggesting that those types of books are affiliated with GIQ. They are not and they never will be. WE will shut the doors before that happens.

No hard feelings with you man...just want the record set straight.

[Cooper]

Last let me say that the only irresponsible and uncalled for choice I read out there these days is BetFirstClass ... kinda reminds me of USBet and Bet911... both of which have paid Dirty's, General's and Shortbus' fees for a while while stiffing players left and right....

We don't have nor have we had, nor will we ever have a bad book on our site. Our books are all first rate books.

If you want to go by SBR's grades, the lowest rated book we have is a B-, last time I checked.

I promise you we will lose money before allowing a stiff book to advertise here. I can't make any promises that something out of the blue doesn't happen, because things like that happen, but I can promise that as long as we are aware of slow pay or no pay, they won't be listed here.

I don't solicit the books, I don't talk to the books, that's not my area of responsibility on the site, however we are all equal partners and I do have equal say regarding who comes on.

I'm pretty sure Dirty and General both agree 100% and that's what we all stated when we started this forum. It might cost us a lot of money, but so be it. And maybe they outvote me on a questionable book down the road, but unless those guys change something in their minds, that's not going to happen.

I don't want "shit books" as Roberto has called them in the past, advertising on our forum. It's not worth it. And not only do we owe it to our players not to advertise shit books we owe it to our top flight advertisers not to put shit books up next to them.

[NickPappagiorgio]

Never played there and never will. Hate to hear players getting stiffed, this is supposed to be a honor business.

As for this back and forth between forums, D you said this place was not going to turn into the romper room that you came from. One of the things that turned that place into your description was forum wars.