Bodog

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Bodog was founded in 1994 by Calvin Ayre as an online gambling company. The company later diversified with bodogFight, a mixed-martial arts promotion business as well as record label Bodog Music. Those projects were both shut down in 2008.

In 2008, the business model was changed and the company claims to have ceased operation of all gambling related sites directly. The new business model has Bodog licensing its name to a third party company for the rights to run those sites under the Bodog brand name to various licensees. Bodog founder, Calvin Ayre, describes the BodogBrand.com licensing model “not unlike the Virgin-branded venture capital organization founded by Richard Branson”.^[1]

BodogBrand.com's main licensee is Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, which runs Bodog.com, the online gambling services within the United States. Morris Mohawk’s CEO is Alwyn Morris is a recipient of the Order of Canada. In a May 2009 interview, Morris describes the brand licensee relationship with Bodog as "a kind of franchise".^[2] Morris Mohawk is based in Kahnawake, a native reserve in Quebec, Canada, pursuant to its online gaming license granted by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

Bodog Europe, operates Bodog.co.uk in Europe and Bodog.ca in Canada. Haydock Sports, runs Bodog88.com serving Asia.^[3] Haydock is headquartered in Manila and run by former Managing Director of Asia for Victor Chandler International, operating pursuant to its own remote gaming license granted by First Cagayan in the Philippines.

Events

In May 2007 Bodog garnered media attention with an entertainment bet that asked if Heather Mills [the ex-wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney] would lose her prosthetic leg during taping of "Dancing with the Stars".^[4] "The Sopranos" season finale in June 2007 was another popular prop bet for Bodog,^[5] as was the June 27, 2007 Paris Hilton-Larry King interview, in which the gambling Web site accepted wagers on what the hotel heiress would say and wear during her first televised interview following her release from a Los Angeles jail.^[6]

In 2006, Bodog launched a mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion called BodogFight. It aired on the Outdoor Life Network and The Fight Network (in Canada), as well as being broadcast online. BodogFight also had a distribution deal with ION Media Networks.

The game Scarface: The World Is Yours features a Bodog Stampede, a large, fast vehicle with an automatic machine gun attached on the top. The in-game car was designed by Bodog. Several minigames in Scarface bear the Bodog name, including video poker machines, slot machines, and games of blackjack. In-game billboards also include the names of several Bodog Music bands. The Bodog founder (and recent Forbes billionaire) Calvin Ayre will appear as a nonplayable character in the game.

In 2008, Bodog announced the signing of hip hop legend DMX and will release two albums on the same day titled Walk with Me Now and You'll Fly with Me Later later this year, making it his debut on the label.

Bodogsite

Bodog Music

Bodog Music is the former record company owned by Bodog.com Entertainment Group. Its roster of past artists included:

• Bif Naked
• Bishop Brigante
• Britt Black
• Fall from Grace (the winners of the Fuse TV reality show Bodog Music Battle of the Bands)
• Overkill
• Nazanin Afshin-Jam
• Neurosonic
• The Vincent Black Shadow
• DMX
• Dead Celebrity Status
• The RZA as Bobby Digital
• The Wu Tang-Clan
• The Carburetors

Legal

The ABC news magazine show Nightline highlighted the website and its legal ambiguities in an episode that originally aired on July 7, 2006.^[7]

In August 2006, a lawsuit was filed and later withdrawn by Bluemoon Entertainment. The lawsuit was withdrawn because Bodog had very few assets based in the United States.^[8]

In October 2006, the U.S. government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act which prohibits banks from processing transactions relating to any "unlawful Internet gambling", as defined by existing State or Federal law. The UIGEA did not purport to redefine "illegal Internet gambling", relying instead on the existing U.S. State and Federal legislation, and therefore did not "make Internet gambling illegal" as was often erroneously reported. Rather, it made it illegal for financial institutions to process transactions for what existing law defined as "unlawful Internet gambling". Nonetheless, following the passage of the UIGEA, many online casinos, poker rooms and sportsbooks withdrew from the U.S. market. Following the passage of the UIGEA, the then-existing Bodog.com business and infrastructure was sold to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, who continued to provide betting and wagering services to the U.S. market.

On June 13, 2007 a judge for the District Court of Nevada issued a default judgment in the amount of $ 46,597,849.00 in the case of 1st Technology LLC v. RATIONAL ENTERPRISES LTDA., RATIONAL POKER SCHOOL LIMITED, BODOG ENTERTAINMENT GROUP S.A., BODOG.COM, AND FUTUREBET SYSTEMS LTD. for 1st Technology's patent infringement claim.^[9] As a result, the Bodog.com URL, which was registered in Washington State, was seized as part of the collection effort on the default judgment. That day, the site was moved to a new URL, newbodog.com and then later, in September 2007, to bodoglife.com. In April 2009, the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, though not a party to the litigation or the judgement, settled the case with 1st Technology and acquired all of the seized domains.^[10] The case was dismissed and the default judgment was completely vacated by the Nevada court on April 1, 2009.

On July 30, 2008 Forbes magazine released news^[11] of an IRS affidavit^[12] from forfeiture lawsuit in Baltimore, Maryland reporting an investigation conducted by IRS Special agent Randall S. Carrow in the matter of the seizure of over $24M in assets from bank accounts inside the United States that are said to involved in what appears to be money laundering^[12] activities in order to process payments to users of the Bodog online gambling casino. The filings are said to involve an elaborate international structure of bank accounts at numerous institutions such as Wachovia, Sun Trust Banks, Bank of America, Regions Bank, Nevada State Bank, a division of Zions Bancorporation in the name of Zaftig Instantly Processed Payments, doing business as ZipPayments.com and business' said to be linked directly to Calvin Ayre. The filings list dozens of businesses involved in processing Bodog transactions. The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group's CEO Alwyn Morris replied that the Forbes article created "several misimpressions" and offered a "misleading picture."^[13]

Poker

Professional poker players David Williams, Justin Bonomo, Jean-Robert Bellande and Evelyn Ng are members of Team Bodog and play regularly in the Bodog poker room. At the time of his victory, 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Jamie Gold was also a member of Team Bodog, but that business relationship ended on January 25, 2007.^[14] Team Bodog poker player Matt McCullough finished third at the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event taking home £381,910 ($766,674 US).^[15]

References

External links

• Official site
• Official MySpace page
• EGRmagazine.com: Bodog seeks new poker network, media ventures, coffee business; South America tie