Bodog

The Bodog Group

Type	Private
Industry	Intellectual Property Licensing
Founded	1994
Founder	Calvin Ayre
Headquarters	Antigua
Key people	Calvin Ayre, Founder
Products	Online gambling Beverage Internet Music
Number of employees	1,000+
Website	bodog.eu

Bodog is an entertainment brand founded in 1994 by Canadian entrepreneur Calvin Ayre. While primarily associated with online gambling companies, the brand has adorned a diverse crop of ventures, including music and television productions, a mixed martial arts (MMA) league and consumer coffee sales.

The Bodog brand was founded as an online gambling company in 2000, while Ayre was working as a technology supplier to established online gambling companies. Unlike most of his competitors, Ayre chose a company name that made no reference to gambling in order not to limit the brand’s future scope. Ayre has spoken at length about the criteria that factored into coming up with the Bodog name, including having six letters or fewer, being easy to spell and pronounce, and having some personality.

With Ayre serving as the company’s CEO and pitchman, the Bodog gambling site quickly became a market leader, culminating in Ayre’s appearance on the 2006 Forbes Magazine ‘billionaires’ issue. In the same year, Bodog relocated its global headquarters from Costa Rica to Antigua. By that time, the Bodog brand was associated with the Bodog Music record label, the Bodog Fight MMA league and its associated television series, as well as the annual Bodog.com Poker and Sports Marketing Conference in Las Vegas. In keeping with Ayre’s Scots lineage, Bodog had its own tartan officially recognized by the Scottish Tartans Authority.

The Bodog name also lent itself to charitable efforts including Bodog Salutes The Troops, a weekend-long music festival and poker tournament held in Hawaii in 2006 for the benefit of the Fisher House Foundation, which provides accommodation for families of US military veterans undergoing hospital treatment.

Following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, Ayre sold the Bodog.com online gambling business to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG) based in Kanhawake, Quebec. Despite his retirement from the online gambling industry, Ayre retained ownership of the Bodog brand, which he began licensing to other companies via the BodogBrand.com portal.

The Bodog brand has since been associated with regional online gambling companies in Canada, the UK, mainland Europe and Asia, as well as the worldwide Bodog Poker Network. Bodog also signed a deal to market Illy coffee products in the Philippines under the Bodog Coffee banner. In May 2010, the Bodog brand acquired the Slots.com domain at auction for $5.5m, the then fifth-highest price ever paid for a domain, in order to expand the brand’s licensing opportunities.