History of Bodog
How Bodog Began
Calvin Ayre had a vision to create a world-class brand and company unlike any created before. In 1994 he founded BODOG, an online gambling and entertainment company. At the time, little did he know that years later he would create a globally recognized multi-billion dollar powerhouse company, the BodogNetwork.
Bodog Evolves
Over the years, Bodog has evolved to include online sports betting, poker, casinos, mixed-marital arts production, reality TV, and even created its own record label. Today, Bodog is one of most diversified, recognizable, and evolutionary brands in the world.
In the beginning, Bodog’s key focus was the U.S. market although future plans for global expansion were always in close sight. We will discuss this soon in their “network/skin” creation for a multitude of markets. They secured a dominant presence in the U.S. quickly and gained a reputation as one of the best online gambling companies.
Bodog.com WHO? NewBodog or Bodoglife?
This was a rough time for “Bodog”. At this time, they lost the rights to their domain in a patent lawsuit when 1st Technology sued Bodog over illegal use of their trademarked system that allowed a site to use less bandwidth. The judge awarded 1st Technology a win to the amount of $49 million dollars. Bodog doesn’t pay, and instead the web host for Bodog.com was ordered to transfer the domain of Bodog.com to 1st Technology. Bodog then became newbodog.com, then bodoglife.com until eventually Calvin caved and came to an agreement with 1st Technology and Bodog.com was born again.
This was the largest bump in the road for Bodog as millions of dollars was paid out to affiliates and due to loss in Search Engine rankings for the likes of Google and Yahoo. I personally know affiliates who made near 7 figures off this domain loss by ranking for “Bodog”.
Bodog Goes Global
In 2007/2008, Ayre changed Bodog’s business model by ceasing to operate the gambling websites directly, and instead licensed the rights to run those sites under the Bodog brand name to various licensees. BodogBrand.com is exclusively licensed to and operated by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, based in Canada, which runs Bodog.com to offer online gambling services within Canada and the United States. Bodog then embarked on a journey for international expansion, licensing the brand in Europe for the use in UK and Euro markets, and licensing the brand to Haydock Entertainment for the use in Asian markets.
Bodog Poker provides players a unique online poker room experience, offering a variety of game types to choose from including: no-limit texas holdem, heads-up texas holdem, pot limit texas holdem, fixed limit texas holdem, omaha, omaha hi/low, 5-card stud, 7-card stud, 7-card stud hi/low, along with a wide-range of sit-n-go’s and multi-table tournaments. Additionally, Bodog Poker is one of the few online companies that offer players a web and flash-based poker designed specifically for Mac users.
The Bodog Casino features more than 100 exciting games to choose from, along with playable in-browser with the web and flash-based online casinos, or by their downloadable desktop-based online casino software. Bodog improved its casino products even further in 2008, by expanding into the mobile gambling markets.
Something called “Bodog Live” gives players the ability to wager on specific events and plays in a game as they happen. This feature was added from the popular Europe betting style known as “in running betting”.
Bodog Beat is a gambling/entertainment blog, known for its trusted source for gambling and entertainment news. It is very active, receiving thousands of views each day.
Calvin and Bodog
Although Calvin Ayres, founder of Bodog, retired in 2008, he holds tight to his roots as a global ambassador for the Bodog brand. His “retirement” isn’t really considered a retirement anymore because he’s so involved. Ayres retains an interest in the BodogBrand.com venture capital and licensing enterprise that holds the global rights to license the brand worldwide. BodogBrand.com licenses the Bodog brand to several online gambling companies, and continues to examine several opportunities in new markets to build the Bodog brand to become even more prevalent around the world.
