Calvin Edward Ayre was born on May 25,1961 and is a Canadian-Antiguan entrepreneur based in Antigua and Barbuda.
29 Facts About Calvin Ayre
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Calvin Ayre is the founder of the Ayre Group and Bodog entertainment brand.
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In 2000, Ayre launched online gambling company Bodog, the success of which made him a billionaire.
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Calvin Ayre's profile increased in the mid-2000s as online gaming's popularity surged, landing him on the cover of Forbes magazine's 2006 annual Billionaires edition and Star magazine's "Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelors" list in late 2007.
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In 2012, Calvin Ayre was indicted by the US Attorney for Maryland on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering.
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Calvin Ayre grew up on a farm outside Lloydminster, Saskatchewan and graduated from high school in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.
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In 1992, after reading a newspaper article about a Caribbean-based company offering betting services over the telephone, Calvin Ayre concluded that gambling was tailor-made for the internet.
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Calvin Ayre was able to license his software to several online casinos but soon realized the real money was in running his own gaming operation.
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Calvin Ayre came up with it while typing potential brand names into an Internet domain-registration search engine one night.
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Calvin Ayre chose the appellation like a major corporation would pick the name of a new car or brand of soft drink: it had to have six letters or less, be easy to spell and remember, have some personality and be unlike any competitor's moniker.
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Calvin Ayre was featured as the cover story for Forbes 2006 annual Billionaires edition.
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Calvin Ayre chose to make himself the focus of Bodog's marketing strategy, creating a public profile designed to showcase the trappings of a jackpot-winning lifestyle.
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Calvin Ayre hosted lavish parties in Costa Rica and Antigua, with bikini-clad "Bodog Girls" and armed bodyguards in attendance, and the media noted his reputation as a man who likes to party.
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In 2006, Calvin Ayre was named one of People magazine's 40 hottest bachelors and appeared on the cover of the Forbes Billionaires issue.
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Calvin Ayre expressed his admiration for Virgin Group founder Richard Branson's use of his personal brand to promote his companies.
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Calvin Ayre, who was not charged, used the media spotlight provided by the raid to promote the series and the Bodog brand.
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In 2018, Calvin Ayre revealed plans to build a $100 million five-star resort on Antigua's Valley Church beach.
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Calvin Ayre claimed that the project would be entirely funded by profits he made from trading Bitcoin, of which he was an early investor.
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Calvin Ayre sold Bodog's US-facing online gambling business to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group of Kahnawake, Quebec, with Calvin Ayre retaining rights to the Bodog brand.
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Calvin Ayre subsequently announced his retirement from the online gambling business.
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In November 2019, Calvin Ayre opened Canada Place, a $40 million, five-story office complex in St John's, Antigua that will host up to 600 workers by 2020.
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On October 16,2024, Calvin Ayre helped break ground on the US$400 million Nikki Beach Resort and Spa Antigua, a partnership between the Calvin Ayre Group and Nikki Beach Hospitality Group.
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The study states that Calvin Ayre's conviction ran afoul of the WTO's ruling as to America's General Agreement on Trade in Services obligations.
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Calvin Ayre revealed Ayre to be part of the business operation behind this affair, possibly even its ultimate organizer and the financial backer of the $30 million acquisition and development of Craig Wright's assets.
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In 2020, Calvin Ayre sold his Bitcoin mining operations to Canadian firm TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc.
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Calvin Ayre briefly supported the Bitcoin Cash blockchain but withdrew his support in 2018 because the chain was preparing to make changes to the protocol that Calvin Ayre opposed.
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Calvin Ayre maintains that although Bitcoin SV trades under the ticker BSV, it is the original Bitcoin protocol because it hasn't undergone the significant deviations from the Bitcoin white paper that have been imposed on the BCH and BTC blockchains.
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In 2006, Calvin Ayre produced Bodog Salutes The Troops, a weekend of entertainment for US military personnel in Hawaii, footage of which appeared in a one-hour special on Spike TV.
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In 2016, Calvin Ayre's foundation was operating in Antigua, where Calvin Ayre is based, and the Philippines, providing relief and rehabilitation assistance to a school and communities devastated by typhoons in Northern Samar located in central Philippines, and donating $200,000 to a fund dedicated to ensuring deserving Antiguan students get access to premier education.