After nearly 12 years online, prolific gambling news site CalvinAyre.com is apparently ceasing operations. The site began directing visitors to an announcement page in February with a message written by Calvin Ayre in lieu of his usual annual predictions article. In the announcement, the Canadian-Antiguan entrepreneur details his intentions to archive the site and shift focus toward cryptocurrency. It’s no secret that Calvin Ayre has long been interested in cryptocurrency and its potential, but now he is moving to center the success of his crypto mining site, Coingeek.
Articles on the Ayre Group gambling news site are still available in the CalvinAyre Archive on everything from live casinos in Canada to genuine self-help. Some of the most recent reads appeared from long-standing writers and contributors such as Erik Gibbs, Rafi Farber, Derek Tonin, Daniel Gardner, and Paul Seaton, sharing their thoughts, plans beyond Ayre, and farewells to the site. The site’s Editor-in-Chief, Bill Beatty, will be leaving the site permanently, while lead industry reporter Rebecca Liggero confirmed that she will move to Coingeek to provide coverage on crypto-related business developments.
The Ayre Empire
Founder of the Bodog entertainment brand, Calvin Ayre started the gambling reporting site in 2010 during a time when gambling in the United States was a touchy topic. In his announcement this year, he writes, “I launched CalvinAyre.com due to my dissatisfaction with the news sites that then dominated discussion of the gaming sector. I found their coverage too deferential to the established giants of the day and too oblivious of the changes I saw looming on the horizon.”
In the years to come, CalvinAyre.com would come to be known as one of the leading sources for speculation and reporting in the gambling world, even after Ayre himself faced some legal controversy. Although Ayre had left the gambling industry, the Ayre Group is a name most anyone in the business would recognize, and that won’t change anytime soon.
Early years online
When Ayre started Bodog, he recognized that the internet was going to change gambling and that it was going to happen in a big way. He was ahead of the curve, offering software for online casinos and then opening operations with his own gaming site in 2000. In 2006, Calvin Ayre was featured in the Annual Forbes Billionaires Edition, having made a fortune off of his industry predictions. He garnered a bit of a reputation as a playboy and living “the Bodog life” became synonymous with luxury and pleasure.
Other operators caught on and the popularity of off-shore gambling skyrocketed in the United States, causing the Federal Government crackdown that led to events like poker’s Black Friday. Using the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, the US brought charges against Calvin Ayre and Bodog, most of which were dropped in time. The message was clear to operators outside the United States, however. Ayre decided to pull Bodog from the market and recast his net instead, the possibilities cryptocurrency had to offer already in his scope.
Fueling a future in crypto
Calvin Ayre’s penchant for cryptocurrency goes almost as far back as the CalvinAyre.com site itself, with views about the rise of bitcoin appearing in his signature annual predictions. In 2016, he purchased Coingeek, a cryptocurrency news website. By 2018, Coingeek was the largest bitcoin Cash miner in the industry. Obviously, his ability to spot a trend and his faith in crypto provided an opportunity to get in on the increasingly popular digital cash alternative. Ayre’s wealth also affords him the ability to invest, however, and to even influence and fuel the rise and fall of trends like crypto.
From Bodog to Bitcoin
Getting a foot in the door in the online gambling industry has made Calvin Ayre a billionaire, which he attributes to his keen eye for market movements. He feels similarly about his gravitation towards cryptocurrency.
“I didn’t invent online gambling, but I saw its potential early enough to help shape the industry in ways that allowed it to emerge from the shadows into the mainstream. My support for Dr. Wright’s vision is intended to realize a similar Cambrian explosion of innovation that will leave this world a better place than I found it,” Ayre says in his statement. He refers to Dr. Craig Wright who has, in recent years, attempted to claim the pseudonym responsible for authoring the bitcoin white paper, Satoshi Nakamoto.
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