There are now 67 Canadian billionaires and one of them, Calvin Ayre, is well connected to the Shuswap.
He was born in Saskatchewan, where his parents had a pig farm near Lloydminster until they moved to Grandview Bench near Salmon Arm. Calvin attended South Canoe Elementary School, then Shuswap Junior High and finally Salmon Arm Secondary, where he graduated in 1979. Hockey was the sport he loved to play after school, and he enjoyed skiing both on the water and on the mountain slopes.
His pride in school was his 1969 long box Chevy pickup, which he used for his first business venture, selling fruit. One of his classmates remembers him as a confident 鈥渟wash buckler鈥� with the gift of gab, who often enjoyed being the centre of attention.
Thanks in part to his three academic scholarships including one for receiving the highest local marks for the scholarship exam, Calvin attended the University of Waterloo, where he received a Bachelor of Science. For a side gig in college, he organized party trips to Cuba. His formal education culminated after he graduated from the City University of Seattle in 1989 with an MBA in management finance.
He began his career selling commercial real estate in Vancouver, where he realized the potential of using the latest technological wonder, the internet, for online gambling. After teaching himself network design by studying Cisco Systems manuals, in 1996 he developed a software support company based in Costa Rica.
Four years later, he created an online gambling company that he called Bodog, a name he chose after a late-night domain registration search for a unique moniker that had less than six letters, was easy to remember and spell, and was totally unlike any of his competitors.
Bodog鈥檚 marketing strategy revolved around his extravagant, jackpot winning, bachelor lifestyle that included hosting wild parties with bikini-clad 鈥淏odog Girls," celebrities and armed guards.
His 鈥渂ad-boy鈥� adventure image and TV appearances helped propel his company to the top and in 2006 he graced the cover of the Forbes magazine 鈥楤illionaire鈥� issue. When the U.S. changed the laws regulating online gambling, Calvin adjusted the business, so it operated in various countries, thus skirting the regulations.
Calvin has now moved on from his online gambling business and, inspired by Virgin founder Richard Branson, Bodog now operates other businesses, including a record label, television production, real estate, crypto-currency and even a martial arts league. Perhaps his most ambitious new project is 鈥淢etanet,鈥� which he considers to be the next evolution of the internet. Using blockchain technology, Metanet will enable cost-efficient micropayments to foster more direct connections with users and eliminate 鈥渞ent-seeking middlemen.鈥�
The Caribbean Island of Antigua is now Calvin鈥檚 home base, although he has homes and operations in other countries as well. With employees to run his businesses, Calvin focuses on his hobbies, which includes designing and building properties and, most recently, boats. To date, he has completed 10 house projects, including a massive estate in Sunnybrae on 73 acres that was completed in 2019 and is now for sale by local realtor Annette Cosens with Sotheby鈥檚 International Realty Canada.
The $22 million property (reduced from $30 million), Fighting Dog Ranch, includes two homes with a total of 11 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, a six-car, heated garage, 1,200 feet of private shoreline, five RV sites, two docks, a full-service beach cabana and much more. With his busy lifestyle, Calvin was only able to spend a total of four weeks at his Sunnybrae ranch, and he now envisions it could become either a corporate retreat or a boutique hotel.
Calvin gives back through a foundation he set up 15 years ago that focuses on emergency response, social development and education and sports in eight countries.
When he learned I was working on this article, Calvin sent an email with details about his current ventures, the principles that guide his work and his current goals. Functional design is at the core of all his projects, and he now also selects the art that adorns the wall using themes such the Great Gatsby, the Jazz Age and art deco.
His email began with some humour, 鈥淭ake it from a guy who grew up on a pig farm, a pig wearing lipstick is still a pig.鈥�
Jim Cooperman writes Shuswap Passion for the Salmon Arm Observer
