Blogs & Articles: “Cole Turner Is An Asshole” 🔗 2 years ago

Calvin Ayre’s website around 2010

Written by Arthur van Pelt

ABOUT EDITS to this article: as more material might become available after publication of this article, it will have edits and updates every now and then. In that sense, this article can be considered a work in progress, to become a reference piece for years to come.

Intro

“This is just the start of what we hope to be a weekly spoof on the igaming industry and some of its more colorful characters. Cole Turner, as many know was my alter ego for a number of interesting marketing campaigns. Some but not all of the Characters in this are based on real industry people….if you recognize yourself and are offended, of if you are just offended in general…we don’t give a fuck. :-)” — Calvin Ayre, October 15, 2010

Between October 15, 2010 (Cole Turner: The Misadventure Begins) and September 13, 2013 — with a hiatus between February 20, 2012 and January 30, 2013 to “Ok…so ya…we are changing artists and thought we would have some fun with this” as he described it on Facebook — Calvin Ayre ran a cartoon series of 71 episodes around his old Cole Turner roleplay on his website.

This cartoon series was called “Cole Turner Is An Asshole”. My next article is titled the same, because I think we can learn a lot, if not almost everything, about why Calvin has fallen for another, a far more fraudulent one, roleplay: Craig Wright pretending to be Satoshi Nakamoto. And we can try to learn why Calvin is still supporting Craig’s Faketoshi charade. Until he doesn’t, of course.

Craig Wright, the ATO and the bailout

Halfway 2015, Craig Wright was on the brink of bankruptcy. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO), who was inquiring Craig’s fraudulent tax claims in which he used Bitcoin as a scam tool since second half of 2013, had started to demand tax refunds back from him, with added penalties in the millions of dollars.

Craig was in urgent need of a bailout.

His friends Stefan Matthews and Robert McGregor helped Craig to get him in touch with Calvin Ayre.

Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6309656/1/15/kleiman-v-wright/

In hindsight, it strongly appears that Calvin was initially firmly bamboozled into Craig’s false claim to be Satoshi. Not only bamboozled, he was even defrauded by Craig Wright with a worthless, forged, Bitcoin paper wallet, back then representing a value of $20,000,000 (almost 80,000 BTC at June 2015 price levels) on the Bitcoin public address 1Feex .

Fast forward to 2022, it appears that Calvin doesn’t seem to care so much anymore whether Craig’s Satoshi story is true, or not true. Still defending, against all odds, the false Craig is Satoshi narrative, Calvin now mostly appears to have an strong urge to win the ‘we are the true Bitcoin’ race with his altcoin BSV, a knock off of a fork of the real Bitcoin. And as Calvin loves peddling in controversy — it is a sort of free advertising, after all — , Craig Wright appears to have become his new Cole Turner. But does this strategy work out for Calvin, as it worked out for putting his gambling outlet Bodog on everyone’s radar in the early 2000s? Will Craig Wright become Calvin’s next asshole? Let’s find out.

Everything Cole Turner

Source: https://twitter.com/calvinayre/status/5891792608165889

First, let’s dive into a historical timeline of every public outing under the Cole Turner moniker, a somewhat controversial adventurer Indiana Jones-style, as Calvin Ayre liked to describe his roleplay afterwards.

The earliest mention of Cole Turner that I could find with help of WayBack Machine is dated August 1, 2002. There might be earlier mentions of Cole Turner, but I did not manage to find them, even though WayBack Machine hosts the internet history since at least the year 2000. From here I’ll give you everything that I could trace back (links to sources provided, as usual), without too many comments. Believe me, this content is probably food for professional analysis. I’ll give it my best shot too at the end.

Let’s go. Warning: contains NSFW material.

Calvin Ayre’s website around 2013

August 1, 2002

“08.01.02 (6:49 PM EST) — Rumors that BoDog CEO Cole Turner will attempt to get into Betonsports party by dressing up as a woman and accompanying Sting as his date are totally fabricated and should be ignored.” — Gambling911, “Rumor Mill”

September 21, 2002

“09.21.02 (3:40 PM EST) — Our investigative reporting team has identified the guy in the middle of the photo below as Jason Gordon, Bodog’s hyper present COO and CFO. He is the one responsible for negotiating a number of the big industry relationships that Bodog has landed this season including taking over as the top sponsor of one of the industry leading sites out there Covers.com and the recent deal to sponsor The Gold Sheets Radio show. It was also confirmed by gambling911 sources that this toast is indeed at the final closing of the relationship leading up to the big radio sponsorship deal between The Gold Sheet and Bodog and took place last week at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Looks like our paparatzi will have to keep looking for an opportunity for a clear shot at Cole Turner.” — Gambling911, “Rumor Mill”

Source: gambling-online-wagering (via WayBack Machine)

“09.21.02 (3:05 PM EST) — Sports radio producer Christopher Maroe (on the left) who produces the highly popular Gold Sheet Radio show featuring Frank Marshall and Mark Collins is seen here with a few of the Bodog Sportsbook and Casino team. We know the guy on the right is Gaming Operations Manager Rob Gillespie, but who is that in the middle, and what are they toasting to? Could this be the first official photo of Bodog CEO Cole Turner?” — Gambling911, “Rumor Mill”

Source: Is this Cole? (Via WayBack Machine)

October 16, 2002

“”Congrats Gambling911.com, You are the toast of the town here in Vegas. I had close to 20 guys come up to us at the show yesterday talking about your site and we didn’t even have a booth. Way to go Sting and the Gang from Gambling911.” — Cole Turner, CEO of BoDog Sports” — Gambling911, “Rumor Mill”

November 27, 2002

“11.27.02 (7:49 PM EST) — Intrepid Bodog Sportsbook & Casino CEO Cole Turner seen here (Black headband) on White Water Rafting expedition in the jungles of Costa Rica yesterday with some of their industry leading Customer Service and Wager Center Staff. Also in the one photo standing in front of Mr Turner is Suzy Jackson, one of the “Bodog Girls”. Bodog is one of the best companies in the industry to work for because of Managements interest in the “quality of life” of its employees. It is the high moral of the Bodog Team that
creates the environment for the explosive growth Bodog is experiencing this
year. The last two shots are Cole Turner doing a tequila shooter with his
team and a shot of “Bodog Girl” Suzy Jackson at a Jungle Bar on the way
back to San Jose to prepare for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.” — Gambling911 homepage

Source: Gambling911 (via WayBack Machine)Source: Gambling911 (via WayBack Machine)Source: Gambling911 (via WayBack Machine)

February 16, 2003

“02.16.03 (1:00 pm EST) -BoDog CEO Cole Turner spotted partying the night away at trendy Makati night club fashion show in Makati Philippines during strategic planning retreat to Asia for few weeks of Feb. Also in attendance were a number of prominent members of the local business community.” — Gambling911, homepage

March 21, 2003

“03.21.03 (5:16 pm EST) -In a show of support for the Federal Governments decision to formally License sports books, BoDog Sportsbook & Casino today paid its Sportsbook licensing tax. BoDog is one of the first in the country to do this and is confident in the industry’s future in Costa Rica. BoDog CEO Cole Turner says “We are fully committed to Costa Rica, this is the best country in the world to operate this type of business, and now with the new federal licensing legislation there are no arguments against players playing here over any other jurisdiction. We are investing heavily into Costa Rica for the long haul. The recent local banking issues will soon be a thing of the past and the industry will be more secure than ever. We are not going anywhere.”” — Gambling911, “Rumor Mill”

May 8, 2003

“05.08.03 (10:28 am ET) — Cole Turner, CEO of BoDog.com, tours Europe.” — Gambling911, “Gambling News”

Link: https://www.gambling911.com/europe.shtml (unfortunately nothing on WayBack Machine)

June 4, 2003

“06.04.03 (7:30 pm ET) — Sports911 sources spot Bodog CEO Cole Turner and President Rob Gillespie celebrating a good season at Tex Mex restaurant in Santa Ana last Sat night. BoDog is currently significantly expanding operations to handle the huge growth they have experienced over the last two seasons.” — Gambling911, homepage

Link: https://www.gambling911.com/bodog-photos.shtml (unfortunately nothing on WayBack Machine)

June 13, 2003

“Gambling 911 is on location behind the scenes during Casino Times News Magazine Photo shoot of the BoDog Girls at the Camino Real Hotel pool in San Jose Costa Rica. Included is actual photos of BoDog CEO Cole Turner giving instructions to the girls. Tons more photos to be found in the August issue of CASINO TIMES NEWS.” — Gambling911, homepage

July 2, 2003

“07.02.03 (10:09 pm ET) — Cole Turner fishing exhibition turns up ugly fish” — Gambling911, homepage

“07/02/2003–10:03 PM ET

These photos came into us this evening. BoDog CEO Cole Turner has been up in North Western BC fishing since the big gaming show in Montreal for photos click here:

Here he is pulling in a 19 pound Halibut of Vancouver Island.

Here he is inspecting the days catch, Halibut sure is an ugly fish.” — Gambling911, photos unavailable

July 8, 2003

“SERVED WITH SUMMONS
Vika Zazoulina and the Big Book Mess hide and seek update. All but one of the individuals involved in absconding funds from The Big Book. As was exclusively reported here at 911 last week, BoDog Sports took over all accounts of The Big Book, which was part of a joint partnership with the owner of BoDog Sports. The woman behind accounting in this organization, and long time trusted associate of BoDog Sports CEO, Cole Turner, had skimmed several hundred thousands of dollars over the years, according to a complaint filed.”- Gambling911, homepage

July 11, 2003

“07.11.03 (4:37 pm ET) — BoDog CEO Cole Turner presses the flesh with shock rocker Maryline Manson at Bar None in Vancouver Canada Thursday night. 911 could not help but notice Manson looks more attractive than some of the girls Turner has been seen with of late (OUCH). Turner was overheard to say “I am a big fan of your music” to Mr/Ms Manson. When asked about this later by 911 Turners said “I don’t agree with his message, but some of his stuff is good, the next time we have to flush a despot out of a Vatican embassy like we had to do to Noriega in Panama, I am sure this will be the music of choice” Mr Turner leaves today for a few weeks of business travel in the US on route home to Costa Rica to get ready for the upcoming football season.” — Gambling911, homepage

August 2, 2003

“08.02.03 (6:40 pm ET) — Porn star India has special surprise for Cole Turner of BoDog Sports and Al from Hollywood Sports according to 911 sources. What can it be?” — Gambling911, homepage

August 29, 2003

“COLE’S NOTES — ARTICLES BY COLE TURNER, BODOG CEO
Branding in the On-line Sports Betting World

North America, maybe because of its puritan heritage, has always been, at least officially, somewhat out of step with the rest of the world when it comes to the issue of sports betting. In the majority of the rest of the world sports betting is considered a benign form of entertainment, something to do while spending quality time with your family on a sunny afternoon. In England, arguably the center of the sports betting universe, even the Queen herself is an avid sports bettor and horse owner. However, the enduring appeal of sports betting was not lost on the actual residents of North America, even as it is formally attacked as something that will bring western civilization to its knees. Because of this tradition, sports wagering has always been something that was done outside of the mainstream.

With the advent of the Internet, North American residents have been allowed to access sports betting like their brethren internationally. This has had a profound impact on not only how sports betting operations are run but also who runs them. Traditionally sportsbetting operations or Sportsbooks as they are called in the industry, were run by a person called a bookmaker. A Bookmaker is essentially a risk manager, so marketing was entirely word of mouth. As sports betting crossed over to the world of the Internet the guys in charge of the industry had to either come from mainstream business and learn bookmaking or bookmakers had to learn mainstream business practices. At today’s Sportsbooks the people in charge are just as likely to be university graduates with strengths in technology and marketing as they are to have a background in bookmaking. Of course there will always be a bookmaker in every successful operation and this will remain an important part of the business, but just as in the rest of the business world, marketing and operational efficiency are now the things that are going to separate the winners from the losers.

Progressive international Sportsbooks now look to quality brands like Nike and Virgin for leadership and not to the local bookies of the past. Our organization in particular has studied Richard Branson and Virgin Records as a mentor and model. We set out not to just create a great Sportsbook, but to create a great organization and a great brand. Our vision is to have the BoDog brand able to cross into any industry it wants in the future, not just to be successful in its current industry. We do not consider ourselves to be bookies, but rather a sophisticated mainstream business organization that happens to deliver a sports betting entertainment product. Looking at our space from this perspective enables us to stay detached from a lot of the distractions that plague our competitors and lets us draw from the entire business world for inspiration.

The process of creating a great brand starts right at the earliest days of the organization. You can create a great brand out of a bad name, but it just seems to be that much easier if you put some thinking into your name. I am amazed at how often I am asked, even by our competitors, where the BoDog name came from. Everyone seems to be looking for a great sentimental story of some sort, but it was actually done scientifically. When I came up with the BoDog name I did it using a formula. I was at home by myself sitting in front of a domain name search site. I had a checklist beside me that had all the criteria that the name had to meet and I just put combinations of letters together that met these criteria and then searched to see if I could get the root domain. We are focused on the Internet so we had to control our name in this environment. Additionally, if you cannot get the root domain of your name, it’s just going to be that much more difficult to create a meaningful brand. You need everything focused down on a core brand without any of the naming distractions that are so prevalent in our industry. Other criteria on my list included less than 6 letters, easy to remember and spell, it had to be entirely unlike any of the names used by our competitors and it had to have the ability to create a personality. There were also a number of others, and BoDog was the best from the names that were available when I searched.

Interestingly enough, we were just that much different from the rest of the industry with our choice of a name that we were ridiculed by many when we first rolled it out. I actually had to formally pass a rule inside our company that nobody was allowed to make jokes about our name in public. At that time many, even inside our organization, did not see the value of having a name that caused everyone to spend so much time thinking about it. The point that was not obvious to all is if you actually go through the process of wondering about a name, you are also embedding it into your memory.

But a great name choice does not make a great brand. Now you need to attach meaning to the name. We did this the old fashioned way, focusing aggressively on getting the quality of our offering up, because without quality you cannot go any further. Simultaneously, we introduced the world to a number of real personalities that are involved in our organization and created one more in our aggressive dog mascot. The beauty of this strategy was that in order to do the introduction properly we had to produce a lot of unique content. Since most of the sites and magazines covering our industry are always looking for content we got the triple whammy lift of getting an opportunity to introduce our personalities and getting lots of brand exposure for next to no cost. This gave us huge branding leverage. Some of you may recognize portions of this strategy from one of our mentors Richard Branson and his great brand, Virgin.

There is one other important part of this process. You also need distribution of your offering message and what is commonly called “Buzz” to create a brand in a reasonable time. We did this in a number of ways. For the distribution, we initiated a program I named “personality offensive”. This was a calculated plan to seek out and befriend all major persons who could be described as “points of influence” in our industry. We would then try to find a way to put mutually beneficial deals in place that got these points of influence forwarding our branding message onto everyone they dealt with. This allowed us to significantly increase the speed of delivery of our message. We then spun this program and the creation of a steady stream of creative marketing programs like our very successful “BoDog Girl” into our hosting of unique industry events like the big networking social we recently hosted in Vegas. One thing we make sure of is that everything we do also benefits others including the quality organizations that we compete with. We want to be friends with the competitors that we respect.

While I founded our organization in the mid 90’s, the BoDog brand is only two years old. In this time the formula we used has taken us from nowhere to now being the number one brand on the Internet for online sports betting. We have been so successful in this process that our competitors now consider our brand to be a keyword for sports betting and are doing all sorts of things to camp on our brand in the search engines, just to capture some of the traffic that falls off our plate. Though we are flattered by the acknowledgement of branding excellence that this indicates, we now have to initiate another program that is common in the mainstream industry, brand protection. Oh ya, I almost forgot, nobody makes fun of the name anymore.”

August 31, 2003

“BoDog Bogie Board Adventures

Shocking footage as BoDog President attempts to show his niece and nephew how to bogie board in Jaco Beach.”

Things look nice and tranquilLooks calm enough.

“With Sports911.com now being hosted out of Alberta, Canada perhaps this might be an opportune moment to crack some jokes about Canadian surfers….but we won’t even go there as our concern is with these kids.

Uh oh…Looks like an unwelcome guest has arrived”

You kids better not go out too far!

“Shark!

Oh My God! No!

Just a little shark bite….She should be fine.” — Gambling911, bogie

September 1, 2003

“BoDog CEO Cole Turner teaching his niece and nephew how to bogie board at Jaco Beach in Costa Rica prior to this weekends start to the new football season. Mr Turner is on his way to visit BetPanAm in Panama tomorrow and 911 will be there to report on this trip, but not before disaster strikes” — Gambling911, homepage

September 3, 2003

“09.03.03 (3:33 pm EST) — Trouble brewing in Panama as Cole Turner of BoDog Sports scheduled for night on the town this evening with Scotty Mathews and Marty Monroe (BetPanAm) while visiting Panama. Cole Turner has notified Sports911.com that his is so far impressed with the professionalism of this operation.” — Gambling911, homepage

BODOG CEO COLE TURNER VISITS PANAMA — Gambling911, Panama photos

BoDog CEO pictured in front of BetPanAm’s friendly team members

BUT while I know many of you would love to sit around and look at Cole Turner and the BetPanAm office…

We know what you really want….

Claudia (in back) is featured this month in CTN Magazine as part of the Panama feature story.

September 4, 2003

“09.04.03 (8:35 am EST) — BetPanAm big wigs Marty and Scotty take Cole Turner out on the town in Pamana…the score is Marty and Cole have to bow out near the end of the night and Scotty is magnanimous enough to make sure the weaker lads get home safe….Scotty wanted to make sure that the 911 reporter on site knew that this information did not come from him since he quite drinking 7 months ago so there is no way he was involved in any of this. The rest of the lads are not yet available for comment….but more details will follow.” — Gambling911, homepage

October 8, 2003

“10/08/03 (12:37 pm EST) — Last night Gamblers Avenue CEO Mike Silver and BoDog CEO Cole Turner met for dinner at Lucas Restaurant in El Pueblo San Jose Costa Rica. Areas of discussion were the current state of eCommerce in the industry and Costa Rica’s future as a international gaming jurisdiction.” — Gambling911, homepage

October 9, 2003

“10/09/03 (6:40 pm EST) — Canbet Chief Executive Colin Walker and BetDaq.com representative Peter Higgins stopped into visit BoDog Sportsbook & Casino head office operations in San Jose Costa Rica today. Walker and Turner discussed a wide range of issues related to the US market for sports betting. Walker is based out of London England and BetDaq.com is a betting exchange operation based out of Dublin Ireland. For a photo of Peter Higgins and Cole Turner in the BoDog wager center in San Jose Costa Rica:” — Gambling911, homepage

Source: Gambling911

“Canbet Chief Executive Colin Walker and BetDaq.com representative Peter Higgins stopped into visit BoDog Sportsbook & Casino head office operations in San Jose Costa Rica today. Walker and Turner discussed a wide range of issues related to the US market for sports betting. Walker is based out of London England and BetDaq.com is a betting exchange operation based out of Dublin Ireland. Peter Higgins and Cole Turner in the BoDog wager center in San Jose Costa Rica are pictured above.”

November 3, 2003

“11.03.03 (11:31 pm EST) — Head Bookmaker of Diamond sports, Anthony, spotted by 911 sources at San Jose Social event Sunday evening with BoDog CEO Cole Turner. Also in attendance but not necessarily at the same table was a senior executive of Tradewinds Sports, a troop of Russian Jazz dancers and a dwarf.”

“11.03.03 (11:31 pm EST) -One of the owners of the Betmaker group of companies meets with BoDog CEO Cole Turner at Halloween party in San Jose Costa Rica. 911 got this shot of Cole Turner in costume. Looks like he borrowed one of David Carruthers (of BetonSports.com) suits and went as a British bookmaker.” — Gambling911, homepage (image not available)

November 5, 2003

“11.05.03 (7:28 pm EST) — Cole Turner Meeting with the Coles, producers of CTN magazine at Ft Lauderdale Hooters Restaurant. Interviewing prospective new BoDog Girls…Jenny from Hooters restaurant says sure I wanna be in the movies! Unfortunately, sports911.com will have to do for now Jenny.” — Gambling911, homepage

Source: Gambling911

November 7, 2003

“11.07.03 (1:35 am EST) — Cole Turner from BoDog Sports hanging out with the new BoDog Girls and Brian Good of FreeSI INC at Blue Cafe in Miami Beach. The Girls will be featured in the January issue of CTN Magazine.” — Gambling911, homepage

November 9, 2003

“11.09.03 (12:39 pm EST) — BoDog CEO Cole Turner was just in Boston meeting with Dan Krusz of Endicott Media (endicottmedia.com). Mr Krusz has worked with a number of the larger on-line gaming companies in the world including BetonSports.com and sportingbet.com. Dan brought along his friend Laura Jones who Cole was able to talk into getting into a bodog girl shirt for these photos. First one is dinner at McCormic & Schmicks restaurant and the next two are a The Rack, both in the Back Bay area of Boston. After the last picture was taken both the Boston Bruins and the Dallas Stars showed up for post game drinks,” — Gambling911, homepage

Source: Gambling911

November 27, 2003

“11.27.03 (12:55 pm EST) — BoDog CEO Cole Turner lands in Manila after exhausting 23 hour trip. The direct flight flight got rerouted to Soul South Korea for gas when it was discovered that all the luggage and boxes going back to Philippines for Christmas had the plane loaded to heavy to get a full load of fuel. Mr Turner is in Manila to meet with Sage Casino Group (https://www.sagecasino.com), the largest on-line casino operators in Philippines and also PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation). PAGCOR is the government agency charged with the sole operation and licensing of gaming in the country. 911 will be covering this trip and will have plenty of details over the coming weeks.”

December 4, 2003

“BoDog CEO Meets With SageCasino in Philippines

SageCasino.com is the only government licensed on-line offering in Philippines today. They are targeting the global market as well as the local market. While in Manila Cole Turner stopped in to discuss the on-line gaming industry in Asia. Below is Turner at SageCasinos head office in Makati Philippines.

Then this:

Also while on this trip, Mr Turner met with a number of other prominent members of the Philippine business and political community. Pictured here is Cole Turner beside long time friend Lanie Aquino (right side), niece of the first post dictatorship President Corizon Aquino and her associates.

Sports911.com is currently in the planning stages of a trip to the Philippines some time in Fall of 2004” — Gambling911, Sage Casino

December 9, 2003

“12.09.03 (2:24 am EST) — Earlier this week BoDog Sportsbook & Casino CEO Cole Turner was in Bangkok Thailand meeting with now retired former Las Vegas Luminary Michael “Roxy” Roxborough. Stephen Nover of ThePrescription.com has an exclusive on coverage of this meeting and will have a feature article on this meeting coming out over the next week. 911 has been covering Mr Turners trip to Asia. For pictures of this meeting and other pictures from Asia:” — Gambling911, homepage

Source: Gambling911, BangkokSource: Gambling911, Bangkok

December 11, 2003

“12.11.03 (2:11 am EST) — Ladbrokes Director of Telephone Wagering Hugh Carr and Senior Account Manager Mike Embleton fly into Bangkok and bought dinner for BoDog CEO Cole Turner and Michael “Roxy” Roxborough. Also in attendance was long time Roxy friend, Canadian sports better Grant Cadwell Stephen Nover of theprescription.com will have coverage of this in the next week or so. After dinner the group went out to a famous Bangkok dinner club called The Coliseum.” — Gambling911, homepage

Left to Right, Grant Cadwell, Roxy Roxborough and Cole Turner. Source: Gambling911, BangkokSource: Gambling911, Bangkok

December 16, 2003

“12.16.03 (1:27 pm EST) — BoDog CEO Cole Turner takes some of BoDog’s larger Asian Clients out on the town in Manila. Turner says he does this both as a reward for the ongoing loyalty of these very large players and as a method of getting direct feedback from Asian Players on what they need from BoDog for a continuing strong relationship. After this Mr Turner is heading into Cambodia on an expedition and Sports911.com has hired a photographer to accompany the expedition and will have full coverage of the entire trip check back regularly for this unusual series.”

December 19, 2003

“BoDog CEO Leads Exhibition Into Jungles of Cambodia
BoDog CEO Cole Turner is leading an expedition up river into northern Cambodia and into remote jungle areas. He has heard rumors of a cell of Buddhist terrorists who operate up in this remote area. Though they don’t grab many of the headlines internationally given that instead of blowing them selves up, they typically just pour gas on themselves and light a match.Read More About The Exhibition and be Sure to Click on The Photos to Enlarge Them.”

December 22, 2003

“BoDog Expedition to Northern Cambodia.

Monday, December 22nd, 2003, 22:07 GMT

BoDog CEO Cole Turner is leading an expedition up river into northern Cambodia and into remote jungle areas. He has heard rumors of a cell of Buddhist terrorists who operate up in this remote area. Though they don’t grab many of the headlines internationally given that instead of blowing them selves up, they typically just pour gas on themselves and light a match. It’s hard to get the press coverage these days that they used to enjoy. Turner has decided that something needs to be done about this scourge and he is just the man for the job.

A well-known multi-discipline martial artist, seen here in his Bangkok Thailand hotel room training in advance of the expedition, Turner thought instead of sitting on a beach for a few weeks like most executives he would take on this group. Sports 911 has hired a local photographer and reporter to chronicle this expedition. He is shown below with Cole Turner before setting out firing their pistols in the air, as is tradition in many areas of the world.

Messages back to sports911.com will have to be carried by runners back out of the jungle to the river, be floated by Cambodian River boat to the Thai boarder, then transported by bus to Bangkok, where they are scanned into files and emailed to sports911.com offices for publishing. This will account for some of the unreliability of reporting but rest assured 911 is on this story. This was the first file to be emailed to us and shows the general lay of the land as Turner Crosses the border into Cambodia today. As the pictures show, the main road across the border is only passable during the current dry season, as is the river Turner must go up. If he is delayed up river he may have to stay up their until the next dry season. The good news is that this coincides with the start of the NFL season.

Cambodia is extremely dangerous and 911 will keep a close eye on this and get all the reports up as fast as they come in.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine provided no images, unfortunately)

December 23, 2003

“Bodog Expedition River Boat Boarded by Cambodian Army

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2003, 18:25 GMT

Sports911.com today received another dispatch from deep in the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia. As mentioned previously, 911 has a local reporter going along on this expedition. He is a former Khmer Rouge operative and very good at surviving in this area. We supplied him with a Polaroid camera to record what happens for 911 readers. These Polaroid pictures and hand written reports in English are received in Bangkok by our correspondent, scanned into files, and then emailed to 911 in New York for publishing.

According to this report, the Bodog expedition, led by Bodog CEO Cole Turner, has reached the river, acquired boats, and are on their way north towards the Laos border. The shots below show Cole Turner on board the Cambodian riverboat heading up the river and he appears to be contemplating what lies ahead for this intrepid group. The Cambodian Flag can be seen fluttering from the top of the boat.

As the group turns north near Batdambang, Cambodia they start to leave the Rice paddies behind and move further into the Jungle. Below are a few shots of the shore as they pass by.

According to the extremely frantic scribbles, it was after they had left the rice paddies behind and rounded a curve in the river that they were unexpectedly hailed in loud Cambodian by an Army river launch. The boat was packed full of solders with Soviet issue AK 47s leveled on the Bodog team. They pointed guns at the head of our reporter as he tried to take a photo so he had to put the camera down. One of them jumped onto the Bodog boat, gun drawn and demanded documentation from everyone. It was during this, when everyone was focused on the soldier in the boat that 911’s cameraman was able to sneak off the couple of shots below with the Camera on his lap while sitting on the bow of the boat.

Unfortunately according to this scanned transcript it seems that Cole Turner has been taken into custody and the rest of the expedition is holed up in a remote river village. Our man signs off by saying that he is going to be going to the local Cambodian Peoples party office in the morning, where he believes Cole Turner was taken to see if there is anything he can do to solve this problem. 911 will do all it can to try to get Cole Turner released. We are all waiting anxiously for any new reports on this devastating outcome and will report on it as soon as we hear anything. Monitor 911 regularly since we have no way to know where this exclusive story will go next and rainy season is not that far away.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine didn’t provide all images, unfortunately)

December 24, 2003

“Bodog CEO Cole Turner Released!

Wednesday, December 24th, 2003, 14:12 GMT

In the last package we received by bus in Bangkok and then scanned and emailed to us, we reported on Bodog CEO Cole Turner being taken into Custody by the Cambodian Army. News from the package received today is that he was taken to a remote Cambodian Peoples Party office and spent two nights sleeping on concrete floors with cockroaches and ants, and only getting two bowls of rice a day with water. However, a respresentitive of Bodog was able to get in contact with the US Ambassador to Cambodia, Charles A. Ray and was able to get Cole Turner released. Pictured at right is a clearly grumpy Cole Turner leaving the Cambodian Peoples Party lock up.

From here it was a short ride out of town back to the river. Enclosed is a shot of the main street of this dusty northern outpost.

Then it was down to the river past some startled peasant river homes and back in the boat.

Mockup of images from the article.

It was only one more day up river before the Bodog Expedition came to where it had to disembark and head into the bush. Before the boat was boarded, the Bodog Expedition had established contact with local representatives of the opium warlord Kun Su, who controls the North of Cambodia with his private militias. A meeting had been arranged to ask permission to trek through their territory. Pictured below is the Bodog Expedition as it sets out into the Jungle to meet with a senior representative of Kun Su at a hidden platform near the Laos boarder.

Clearly the Bodog team looks excited and even the female members pinch off a couple of rounds, as is the tradition. However 911 is a bit concerned as it is extremely unusual for Kun Su to be so hospitable based on briefing documents of the region that we have access to. We will keep the site updated on this since it’s getting pretty tense from the material we are receiving.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine didn’t provide all images, unfortunately)

December 26, 2003

“Bodog Expedition Safe in Opium Warlords Hands!

Friday, December 26th, 2003, 10:26 GMT

It seems 911 was jumping to conclusions. Based on today’s package of hand written notes and Polaroid photos, Kun Su is a man of his word. The Bodog expedition led by CEO Cole Turner hiked 3 days north of the drop off point and came to the wooden platform at the coordinates given by the Kun Su operative. It was easy to tell it was the right spot once the thieving monkeys showed up just as described. Below are a few shots of the Bodog Expedition around the platform and Cole Turner feeding one of those pesky Monkeys.

Shortly after this was shot, the Kun Su operative showed up. According to the notes, the guy said, in pretty good English, that his name was Loon Raksmey and that he was there to get details on the Bodog Expedition. At right is a shot of Loon discussing matters with Cole Turner and things seem calm.

Mockup of images from the article.

Once explained that they were searching for Terrorists and not Opium War Lords, permission was given to pass through and a hearty meal was served by the entourage that came with Loon.

The final notes in this package describe how Cole Turner and crew said their goodbyes and headed back into the Jungle towards where they have heard the terrorists are holed up. This looks like a positive development and 911 will keep everyone apprised of any changes.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine didn’t provide all images, unfortunately)

December 28, 2003

“Expedition Discovers Lost City in Cambodian Jungles

Sunday, December 28th, 2003, 10:24 GMT

The latest in this shocking series of developments shows the Bodog Expedition stumbling across a lost city deep in the jungles of Northern Cambodia. Since there were no trails where they were they were hacking their way through virgin jungle so its highly unlikely that this has ever been discovered before (and it was the French who ruled here in the past and we know they never liked to get too far from their coffee shops). Below are a number of photos of the Bodog expedition wandering around in the lost city.

Image from the article.

Unfortunately the package also says that the Bodog Expedition may have been lost themselves when they stumbled onto this lost city, so it may in fact still be lost. In order to send out a runner with these Polaroid’s they had to head out of the mountains (down hill) but are not sure which direction as their GPS (Global Positioning system) was malfunctioning.

This dispatch simply ends with them finding a place to camp for the night and sending one of their few remaining runners out with this package. 911 is concerned since it is extremely dangerous in Cambodia at the best of times, let alone to not have proper navigational equipment. We will be anxiously awaiting another dispatch from the field.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine didn’t provide all images, unfortunately)

December 29, 2003

“Bodog Expedition Double Crossed

Monday, December 29th, 2003, 09:56 GMT

When we last reported on the Bodog Expedition status they had found a lost city after meeting with a representative of Cambodian Drug Warlord Kun Su. They were also lost with their malfunctioning GPS system and had camped for the night and sent a runner out to bring the last dispatch. Today we received another dispatch and everyone at 911 has to say, this looks like the end of the line for Cole Turner and his expedition. According to the very messy and dirty hand written parchment our correspondent in Bangkok received, our man on the ground and the last of the two runners were out in the jungle getting some supplies and water when they heard a bunch of shooting. They went to the top of a hill and took the picture below with the telescopic lens on the Polaroid Camera supplied by 911. They zoomed in to see who was on the ground so the shot cut out the 40 other armed men surrounding the Bodog Expedition and its intrepid leader Cole Turner.

They also had binoculars and could make out that the guy holding the gun was none other than Kun Su representative Loon Racksmy. Additionally they saw that one of their own members was milling around with the armed men. It looks like the Bodog expedition has been set up. One of Kun Su’s men has been with them on the expedition all along and undoubtedly was the cause of the GPS system’s malfunctioning.

After getting this photo our man on the ground faded into the jungle to send this dispatch. In the text our correspondent says he is going back to see if he can do something to help, but that they are so far from civilization it makes dealing with such killers difficult. This may be the last we hear from any of them. In Cambodia, it is very common to saw off a guy’s head and plant it on a stake. There is also a chance the women will be sold off into prostitution and the men held for ransom or sold. All these are common scenarios in this part of the world. Unlike when the Cambodian Army had Cole Turner, there does not seem to be much anyone can do. We are not even sure where they are being held. This is indeed a dark day. If any further dispatches show up, 911 will post them, but hope is faint now.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine didn’t provide images, unfortunately)

December 31, 2003

“Dead or Alive? More than 24 hours has passed without a sign of BoDog Sports CEO Cole Turner’s whereabouts after being left for dead in the Cambodian jungle. Just this week a Khmer Rouge senior leader admitted for the very first time that he and others were responsible for the genocide of up to two million years. A number of foreign tourists continue to get kidnapped in this impoverished country. History of the Khmer Rouge, which still functions today in Cambodia.” — Gambling911, homepage

January 1, 2004

“BoDog CEO Turns up Alive
We are happy, but could not believe our eyes when we got this package. 911 expected that we were going to get a shot of Cole Turner’s head on a stake after being captured by militias loyal to Drug Warlord Kun Su in Northern Cambodia. Instead we got another shot of Cole Turner with his shirt off (just kidding). 911 is happy to report he is alive…but maybe not well. Read More Turner wounded in machete fight during escape. Explicit photos now available from our correspondent in Cambodia.” — Gambling911, homepage

“Cole Turner Wounded in Machete Fight During Escape!

Thursday, January 1st, 2004, 12:07 GMT

We are happy, but could not believe our eyes when we got this package. 911 expected that we were going to get a shot of Cole Turner’s head on a stake after being captured by militias loyal to Drug Warlord Kun Su in Northern Cambodia. After sending the last dispatch our cameraman went back to where he had last seen the Bodog Expedition, and using all the skills he developed over a decade of being a Khmer Rouge operative in these same jungles, followed the militia from a distance through the jungle for a day.

When they stopped to rest, the Bodog team was tied up and left under guard by the same guy that had been a member of the Bodog Expedition while the rest of the militia moved ahead on another mission. Seeing an opportunity to make a move, our man crawled up through the grass and cut Cole Turner lose and handed him a Machete. As you can see at right Cole Turner got the jump on the one guard before he could get a gun, he only had the machete in his belt.

The fight went on for quite some time and we know Cole Turner was wounded from the photo below and the fact that we got this dispatch tells us that they escaped, but there is no mention about what happened to the guard. 911 suspects this is probably one of those cases where what happens on the road stays on the road.

Image from the article.

The end of the message says that Cole Turner is leading the remnants of the expedition out of the jungle now with the goal of heading for the closest town to rest and recover. Lets hope he recovers fast enough to get out of their before the rainy season hits, and that no more misfortune plague this ill fated expedition. 911 will report if anything else comes out of Cambodia on this.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine didn’t provide all images, unfortunately)

January 3, 2003

“01.03.04 (8:54 pm EST) — Cole Turner leaves Cambodia unharmed after fight”

January 5, 2004

BoDog CEO Finally Safe and Sound 911 finally got a hold of Cole Turner from his hotel in Bangkok Thailand to get the final details of this story. Cole Turner also handed the last few photos over to our correspondent in Bangkok for this final dispatch. The BoDog.com Expedition limped out of the jungle with the help of the functioning GPS system.

“Cole Turner Back in Costa Rica Running Bodog

Monday, January 5th, 2004, 11:11 GMT

911 finally got a hold of Cole Turner from his hotel in Bangkok Thailand to get the final details of this story. Cole Turner also handed the last few photos over to our correspondent in Bangkok for this final dispatch. The Bodog Expedition limped out of the jungle with the help of the functioning GPS system. Once they got to the river it was only a days journey down river to Siam Riep, the northern capital. Cole Turner and team got medical attention before Turner rented a room above a Karaoke Bar for a few days. Above is a picture of Cole Turner sitting on a seat on the second floor deck of the Karaoke Bar with two of his Expedition

Also a shot of the view out of the window of his top floor room at the Karaoke Bar in Siam Riep.

From here Cole Turner was flown out of Siam Riep on a pontoon boat and taken to Bangkok, where 911 finally was able to contact him. The last photo we received is a shot of Cole Turner recovering for a few more days with his personal nurse in Bangkok Thailand.

We know that as of the publishing of this last dispatch from the field that Cole Turner is on a Thai Airways Jet heading across the Pacific for Los Angeles where he will catch his connecting flight onwards to San Jose Costa Rica.” — Gambling911, article (WayBack Machine didn’t provide images, unfortunately)

January 29, 2004

Calvin Ayre, not ready yet to admit that Cole Turner is his BoDog hype marketing roleplay, admits that this Cambodia adventure was a “publicity stunt” in a footnote of one of his articles.

“COLE’S NOTES — ARTICLES BY COLE TURNER, BODOG CEO
Life of a Sportsbook CEO on the Road

Last year I wrote an article on the life of a Sportsbook CEO living in San Jose, Costa Rica. I consider this to be the optimum jurisdiction for running an international Sportsbook for a number of reasons. Anyone wanting to read the precursor to this article as well as others I have written can go to www.coleturner.com.

This year as our business becomes more and more global, I thought it was time to pen an article about what the rest of our lives are like. In an industry like international wagering, you can imagine there is a lot of travel. Because BoDog.com has a large business development office in Canada I have to visit there regularly. Therefore, I am on the road more often than not. It is particularly applicable now since I just got back from a two-month trip where I visited 5 countries and I want to share with the readers what this lifestyle is like, since it is actually a critical part of the job.

In a previous article on marketing I outlined our philosophy of treating networking as a strategic necessity, not something left for chance. It’s why we show up at conferences with an eight-person team. It’s also why I spend more time on the road than anyone in our industry. I budget my time a year in advance and a certain amount of time is dedicated to our Vancouver office while other time is dedicated to meeting people we consider spheres of influence in our industry. In the past this was difficult, but now that we have become one of those larger spheres of influence ourselves, there is no one in the industry that I cannot drop in on and see, making this part of my job that much more enjoyable.

Additionally, it is my opinion that I can add more value to our organization as a strategic-thinker than I can by micromanaging areas of the company. I find that the exposure to new environments and ideas I get while traveling helps me from getting stuck in comfort zones, something all CEOs have to fight against in a competitive world like the one we live in.

Because BoDog.com has two major offices it was necessary to set each one up so it runs optimally whether or not I am actually physically present. This was helped by being, significantly, an Internet focused company, meaning most everything we do is digital and everyone uses email. The net result of this is that I am 99 plus percent effective no matter where I am in the world, as long as I can get my laptop plugged into a high speed Internet connection.

One other thing I have is a tri-band GSM cell phone that is international roaming enabled and allows me to communicate with all my top management from anywhere in the world by either text or voice. If there is an emergency they can call me or text me, in some cases just to tell me to check my email. I can do my work from any place on the planet where I can find these high-speed Internet connections and the list of places where this is possible is constantly growing, opening up the world to me.

On my last trip, I left Costa Rica in late November and flew to Miami, Florida. I stayed in The Tides Hotel on South Beach in a room looking out to the ocean. This is a great little hotel and has a trendy bar area downstairs. It also has an easy to use wireless high speed Internet connection. While in South Beach I met with Peter Gold and Jason Port of VegasInsider.com, Robert and Suzan Cole of Casino Times News Magazine and a number of other marketing and creative types to plan some upcoming BoDog.com marketing programs. BoDog Girl, Suzy Jackson was also in town for a photo shoot for one of her upcoming articles.

One of the highlights of this stop was a side trip up to Boca Raton to visit with Frank Rosenthal. Frank is the real life person behind the character played by Robert Deniro in the movie “Casino”. You can read more about Frank by visiting his web site www.frankrosenthal.com. We dinned at the top steak house in Boca Raton, New York Prime Steak House. Included here is a picture of Frank and myself at the steak house.

From here it was off to Boston, Massachusetts for two days where I stayed in The Colonnade Hotel in the Back Bay area of town. The Hotel of course met my minimum standard of high speed Internet and more. There I met with Dan Krus of Endicottmedia.com and his lovely friend Laura. Dan does marketing consulting for a number of International Sportsbooks and was an all around nice guy to meet.

From here it was off to Vancouver, Canada, my second home given how often I am there. Vancouver is a lovely city and if you go to Canada, it’s a must-see. All the areas of our business model that would be difficult to do in Costa Rica are done here and, at least over the last 5-years, wasn’t really any more expensive. The main departments housed in the Vancouver offices are software development, network design, creative, marketing and business development, such as event planning. The atmosphere and the offices are world class and are a big part of what has helped to make BoDog.com the industry leader it is. In Vancouver I stay at a company owned apartment, walking distance from the office on the shores of False Creek. This is actually a small fiord or inlet that is narrow enough to have a pretty good tidal current much of the time and hence the name.

After a few weeks at the Vancouver Office it was back on a plane for Makati in the Philippines. Makati is the main business district in the country and is just outside Manila. I stayed at an inauspiciously named hotel called City Garden Hotel. It is relatively cheap, but brand new, and has my requirement for high speed Internet in the rooms. It is well designed, with great views, and has a very cool rooftop pool and hot tub. It is also very close (walking distance) to lots of clubs and restaurants in a very safe part of the city. Additionally, it’s also very close to where my two Filipino friends live and is the reason I first found this place.

Since an ever-growing portion of our business is coming out of Asia, it’s high on our strategic plans for expansion into this region. The Philippines is one of the few optimized jurisdictions in the region to use as a base and one of the few countries in Asia where you can get an International Gaming license. While there, I stopped in to see Rafael Francisco. Rafael is the President of PAGCOR, the government owned corporation that has full jurisdiction over gaming in the country. I also stopped by the offices of SAGE (Sports and Games Entertainment Corporation) and met with CEO Antonio Lacdao. SAGE is an actual licensed and operating International Gaming company with its head office in Makati, not far from my hotel. I also met with a number of other leading members of the business and political community including a member of the Aquino family.

Next stop on the trip was everyone’s favorite destination in the region, Bangkok, Thailand. This is a city that has everything you could want, including, the residence of a famous member of our industry. Legendary oddsmaker Michael (Roxy) Roxborough, who for many years up until the late nineties, was the definitive final word on the starting line on all US sporting events. He now lives part-time in Bangkok and no trip to Asia is complete without a stop to visit him. On this trip I was also lucky enough to be taken out for dinner by Hugh Carr and Mick Embleton of UK gaming giant Ladbrokes. Pictured above is Roxy in between myself and a long time friend of Roxy’s and a fellow sportsbettor from Canada.

While in Bangkok I stayed at the JW Marriott Hotel right downtown. It has got everything you want: high speed Internet, raised pool, great gym, and is right in the heart of all the great nightlife. One of the most bizarre things a new person notices, when they first start wandering around downtown Bangkok, is that the city never seems to sleep and you can buy all manner of things on the street. For instance, there are carts full of cooked bugs for sale. I swore I would never try them when I first saw them, but while walking home after being out with Roxy one night, I actually did try three different kinds of cooked bugs. The white insect larva was disgusting, but the other two were surprisingly good. I must have had to too much to drink because the next day they looked disgusting again!

The last leg of this trip was originally supposed to just be a holiday, but I am an incorrigible workaholic and love what I do, so I turned the trip into Cambodia into a publicity stunt by doing a photo shoot for an 8 part Cambodian adventure. It was loosely based on fact since I was in there on an expedition anyway and was easy to do. The temples of Ancor Wat are without a doubt the highlight of any trip to Cambodia. With my doing a photo shoot there, it created enough of a buzz that it kind of took over the trip. They don’t get many visitors doing anything like this, so I was treated like a movie star on the way out, with the staff of the hotel asking me for my autograph. This one campaign alone would have paid for the entire trip from the low cost branding we got so it made for a nice conclusion to the trip.

From Cambodia, it was back home to Costa Rica where I can thankfully stay for a few months. As much as I love traveling, it is always nice to be back home in my beloved Costa Rica. In this particular case it was even nicer since I landed just in time for College Bowl season and the beginning of the dry weather season.”

February 29, 2004

“02.29.04 (10:48 pm EST) — BoDog.com CEO Cole Turner has changed his travel plans to stay in Rio Brazil for another week to take in the World Beach Soccer Championships which are being hosted this year on world famous Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro (Januay River in Portuguese). Click here to see photos of the soccer stadium constructed on the beach right in front of the opulent beach front hotel Turner is staying in. Also included is a few shots of the rooftop pool deck and hotel restaurant with panoramic beach views. Tuner was spotted having a pint with the German team yesterday on the deck of the Balcony American Bar on the strip. 911 will have full coverage of the world beach soccer championships as well as other goings on in Rio and specifically on Copacobana beach.” — Gambling911, homepage

Source: Gambling911

March 24, 2004

“Sports Betting Firm CEO Flexes His Muscles The May 17 through 19 Global Gaming Summit summit will feature every big name in the biz, including BetonSports CEO David Carruthers and BoDog.com CEO Cole Turner. Both men have reportedly engaged in heated diatribe over the past few weeks which has boiled into something far more volatile. The Summit organizer in fact has had to call in extra security reinforcements as a precaution.” — Gaming911, homepage

Source: Global Interactive Gaming Summit article

April 1, 2004: For April Fools Day, Calvin creates a fake betting website called Hail Mary Sportsbook, containing several little hints to BoDog and Cole Turner.

Mockup of the Hail Mary Sportsbook homepage. For full homepage, click link.

Hail Mary Sportsbook is worthy of a browse on WayBack Machine, it’s admittedly pretty funny what Calvin Ayre did here for April Fools Day.

July 25, 2004

“07.25.04 (10:38 pm ET) — Bodog.com CEO Cole Turner spotted relaxing at Vancouver’s Molson Indy car race in advance of his heading down to host the BoDog.com Handicapper Conference July 28th and 29th at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. Canadian Paul Tracy won his second Vancouver Indy in a row. Turner quoted as saying he was ahead from start to finish and made it a good day for local race fans being such a huge crowd favorite. Turner was at the Indy with well know Vancouver Restaurateur John Green. John is the manager of one of the top restaurants in Vancouver with Jean Claude Van dam and Shakeria dining there at separate times today.”

August 1, 2004: Few photos of Cole Turner in Las Vegas

“Bodog.com CEO Cole Turner a man possessed? If you thought this year’s Bodog.com Conference was good, Turner promises “You ain’t seen nothing yet, wait until next year”.”

Cole Turner at the Las Vegas afterparty

August 4, 2004

“Bodog.com CEO, Cole Turner, promises an event tripple the size of this year’s

Christopher Costigan, www.sports911.com

For an organization throwing its first ever conference, this one turned out to be a doozy. Sure it had its moments — which always come with the territory — one of the speakers had a panic attack and could not continue. That will be Yours Truly when I step up to the podium in front of some 300 plus people next year.

Though originally planned to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Bodog.com’s CEO Cole Turner has decided to keep next year’s conference in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay, citing ease of travel and better entertainment. Next year’s conference will incorporate online poker affiliates into the mix along with sports handicapping services.

“There is overlapping between sports handicapping and online poker,” Turner explained. “The sports bettor and poker player are more educated and intelligent gamblers who can make money over time. This does not happen with other casino games.”

Turner also emphasized that sports handicappers will want to advertise online poker sites since most of the legitimate sports wagering web sites will feature a poker room by this time next year, including Bodog.com.

One of Cole Turner’s main goals will be to invite more online gambling operators this time around. Though a few operators graced the conference with their presence, including Kevin King, CEO of Royal Sports, they were primarily incognito. King sneaked in using someone else’s badge.

“I will personally be calling operators myself,” Cole disclosed. “We could have used more participation from our competitors.”

Turner insists this conference is not about Bodog.com but rather the legitimization of a multi-billion dollar industry. He sees his company as the primary sponsor (not to mention financial backer) and encourages other operators to network with those in the lucrative sports handicapping business.

And just how lucrative a business is sports handicapping?

Wayne Root, one of the more high profile sports service owners, told the attendees at this year’s Bodog.com Conference that “You too can own a $4 ½ million dollar home like I do.”

Less than half of those in attendance had any type of business arrangements with Bodog.com. There was ample opportunity to build some lifetime relationships here for sure.

Bodog.com’s CEO provided Sports911 with four reasons why all sports handicappers should attend next year’s conference.

First, it is a rare opportunity for the industry to come together.

Second, unity creates strength.

Third, there will be a much larger selection of presenters, including Yours Truly who happens to have Attention Deficit Disorder, so this should make for some worthwhile entertainment at the very least. God only knows what I will be discussing.

And fourth, Bodog.com will be spending more money and guarantees the best party anyone will ever attend.

In order to make this the party of the century, Bodog.com has to bring on board more celebrities and they plan to do just that. The poker theme will appeal to some of the more high profile names in show biz. This year’s guest of honor, Joe Montana, even hinted he might return next go around.

“We have four pages of notes on how we can improve,” Cole stated. “A number of attendees told us that this was the best (industry) show they ever attended. It was more successful than we had anticipated. This will be the conference everyone wants to attend and we have a multi-year commitment to deliver such conferences.””

August 27, 2004: Cole Turner apparently has a lot of frequent flyer miles.

“08.27.04 (8:45 pm ET) — As if Royal Sports did not have enough problems. Last week we reported they were behind in paying for rental cars. Tonight one of the company’s employees crashed and totaled a company car while driving very fast and recklessly. Since Royal reportedly does not hold proper permits for its employees the crash victim was forced to tell police he was a tourist. Royal is doing all his things backwards the employee had to tell the police that he is a tourist. The employee was rushed to a local hospital and given blood transfusions. Meanwhile, Royal Sports CEO Kevin King is in Sacramento, California attending a wedding he was not even invited to, probably just to log more frequent flyer miles. King ranks number one in frequent flyer miles followed closely by former Royal CEO Roberto Castiglioni and Bodog.com CEO, Cole Turner. The Royal Sports employee is not likely to make it. He has a head wound.” — Gaming911, homepage

August 28, 2004

“08.28.04 (11:52 am ET) — Sports911.com learns Indiana ‘Cole Turner’ Jones is mounting a jail break for TOW in Panama. TOW is said to be furious that Cole Turner Jones is “stealing my show”. Cole Turner Jones responded by saying that TOW is infringing on his patented drama tactics.” — Gambling911, homepage

“08.28.04 (10:25 pm ET) — Jim Fiest spotted having wine with bodog.com CEO Cole Turner at trendy Vancouver restaurant. Jim is visiting Vancouver to get a break from the heat in Vegas in the summer.” — Gambling911, homepage

September 23, 2004

“09.23.04 (2:40 am ET) Jenny Woo played poker and watched Monday Night Football with Rob, Jason and Cole Turner of Bodog.com, golfed with Wager Web and Book Offshore executives, visited GC Sports Group, had lunch with Larry Mac, a big name offshore bookmaker formerly of CRIS, and ate dinner with Javier Pereira. Jenny Woo’s accommodations are being provided by Melvin Pereira, a gracious host while in Costa Rica. He is also keeping her out of trouble.” — Gambling911, homepage

“09.23.04 (11:50 pm ET) BoDog.com CEO Cole Turner currently winging his way across the Pacific to London England for the big Power 25 summit being organized by eGaming Review Magazine for the Savoy Hotel next week. This summit is the 25 most influential brands in on-line gaming world wide as ranked by senior editors of eGaming Review Magazine published out of London England. BoDog.com entourage said to include 4 BoDog Girls and 2 midgets as well as COO Jason Gordon and CFO Jim Philip. Sports911.com will have full coverage of this event and other festivities in London next week.” — Gambling911, homepage

October 9, 2004

“The Zen of Gambling? Has Wayne Root taken over as the top Sports911 celebrity? Well, with all the talk show spots and book signings, it’s easy to see how Root is uprooting Bodog.com CEO Cole Turner as the “Kingpin of Sports911”. Alas, Mr. Turner has a few tricks up his sleeve. We’ve learned he is off to Asia and that can only mean one thing……Sports911.com’s Jenny Woo will be tagging along….and there is bound to be trouble along the way.” — Gambling911, homepage

October 19, 2004

“Vote for the Bodog beauties Starting October 18th 2004 you can have your voice heard when you begin voting on who will become Bodog Girl 2004. Bodog CEO, Cole Turner, has spent the past few weeks searching far and wide for 14 beautiful Bodog Girls for you to choose from (what a horrible job!). Bodog needs your help narrowing down the search. And to sweeten the pot some more there is an incentive to vote. When you vote and make a deposit of $100 or more into your Bodog account you will be entered into a contest to win a trip to party with the sexy Bodog Girls at an exclusive location in one of the hottest locales in the world, South Beach, Miami.” — Gambling911, homepage

October 21, 2004

“10.21.04 (10:33 am ET) The adventures of Cole Turner. Bodog.com CEO, Cole Turner, turns up in the Philippines.” — Gambling911, homepage

November 3, 2004

“11.03.04 (3:56 pm ET) Bodog CEO Cole Turner in Saigon.” — Gambling911, homepage

November 30, 2004: Finally, after a little over two years, Calvin Ayre retires the Cole Turner roleplay. With a lengthy blog post he opens up about his motivations, and he goes to great lengths explaining how he experienced the Cole Turner roleplay. Quite frankly, Calvin’s piece contains a few surprising eye-openers.

“Bodog CEO comes out of the closet Bodog.com’s new CEO killed him and took his spot! Well, not exactly. Actually, Cole Turner was not an entirely real character.” — Gaming911, homepage

Left: Cole Turner (2003) Right: Calvin Ayre (end of 2004)

“Cole Turner Killed in Succession Duel!

Bodog.com’s new CEO killed him and took his spot! Well, not exactly. Actually, Cole Turner was not an entirely real character. Many years ago at the start of the big move to create online gaming and entertainment companies I created an alter ego named Cole Turner that was designed to be a fun character to be used to promote the Bodog.com brand. Though loosely based on fact, there was obviously plenty of room for a good spin on this character. I can say that this process was a huge success and you would have to have been hiding under a rock these last few years if you are in online gaming and have not seen some of our creative department’s Cole Turner material.

Compilation of images from the article. Top left: Calvin Ayre the real Bodog CEO, followed by Sports911.com Owner Chris Costigan, The faceless Cole Turner, Calvin with a few random girls, Photo from the now infamous Cambodia Adventure series, Calvin with more random girls, Cole Turner’s nemesis Dave Sanchez, CEO Hail Mary Sportsbook and Calvin with 2005 Bodog Girl Search Winner Milena.

Let me introduce myself, my name is Calvin Ayre. I am the real founder and CEO of the Bodog.com Machine. I am also the author of all articles that have been published under the Cole Turner handle over the last few years (These, plus my bio, can now be found archived at www.calvinayre.com). I will continue to publish articles that are of interest to the industry and the lifestyle articles I publish purely for entertainment value. The articles I published are all real, but I must confess I cannot say the same for some of the more outrageous stuff leaked over the years to www.sports911.com. This material was purely for the entertainment (and sometimes consternation) of the industry and was designed to do one other thing — that has been a huge success — indelibly brand Bodog.com into the heads of everyone in the industry.

I get quite a kick out of reading how excited some in the industry get from some of the material I have released over the years. Let’s go back to the start of the process and walk through the creation and evolution of an industry “Personality”. When Bodog.com got to the size that we were lucky enough to have articles written about us I had to decide how to handle this. I could use my legal name like Bodog.com President Rob Gillespie does, but I thought why not have a bit of fun with this and test out some of my branding hypotheses.

I came up with the name Cole Turner while sitting on the back of my boat with Bodog.com President Rob Gillespie, and Sports911.com owner Chris Costigan off the coast of Vancouver, Canada. We cooked up a plan to start leaking off the wall pictures of the Cole Turner character to Sports911.com using a formula similar to Wilson from the TV series “Home Improvement”. For those of you who have not seen this show, Wilson is the neighbor who is often in scenes but you never actually see his entire face and don’t know what he looks like. I thought this would be a brilliant campaign since it would build demand in the eyes of readership of his site for a look at Cole’s face (which I would of course be the model for). We ran this program for over a year with all sorts of funny shots of the back of Cole’s head only to reveal it at an event where it would become fairly big news that Cole Turner had finally been captured on film. I have included a few of the faceless Cole Turner shots here to give you some idea of what we did.

From here we evolved the character by releasing all sorts of shots of him with pretty girls and well-known industry names like Michael (Roxy) Roxborough. Sports911 also started to have fun with Cole by writing crazy articles about him and changing some of the shots we gave him with his photo editor, all for the entertainment of the industry.What really got everyone excited was when I dreamed up and produced a “Cole Turner Adventure” series based on my trip to Cambodia in the fall of 2003. To revisit this entire series click here. I storyboarded the whole thing on my plane while flying into Cambodia from Bangkok, Thailand and did the shoot over a two-day period using cab drivers and massage parlor girls for models. I then wrote all the copy and shipped it back to Vancouver to Riptown.com Media to put the copy and photos together on the web.

Source: Sportz Images

Once produced, and with the assistance of Sports911.com, we released episodes every few days over the course of the December college bowl season. I could not believe the reaction; it was even better than I had hoped. You know you hit a nerve when there are major and active threads on all the big industry forums saying how much they hated what I was doing, while others accurately pointed out that it was just a joke. I laughed every time I saw these. It was powerful evidence that for a small amount of work, while on a holiday, I could get the entire industry to waste huge amounts of time focusing on a fictional character’s fictional adventure, while indelibly imbedding the Bodog brand deeply into everyone’s brain. Somebody even called into our customer service center and refused to make a deposit until we told him if the CEO was dead or alive. It is now a year later and I still have guys make comments on this series and read references to it in the forums. It was millions of dollars worth of intra-industry branding for next to nothing, and I had a great time doing it!

The next branding exercise we did around the Cole Turner character is also a funny one. We put up a fictional new sports book called Hail Mary Sports (www.hailmarysportsbook.com). We bought stock photography, created a website and unique brand, created banner ads, and even wrote up a press release and article announcing the launch of a new sportsbook published by Sting on Sports911.com. April 1, 2004, in the middle of the night we replaced all our Bodog.com banners with these hilariously funny Hail Mary Sports (A Hail Mary pass in football is one that needs the help of God to be successful, hence the joke; you need divine intervention to ever get paid with this joint). It was a massive April Fool’s joke on the entire industry, and of course the CEO of this Sportsbook was obsessed with Cole Turner and his martial arts abilities, constantly challenging him to a duel. We all got a great laugh out of this one and all the threads that were created by guys who tried to join up were priceless. The funniest comment we received was by a guy that finally figured out it was a joke and still thought it was a better site than most of the real ones out there.

What could be better than inventing a competitor, getting into a public scrap with them and have the rest of the industry talking about it and forgetting everyone else? This was a funny one. We even used this to promote the 2004 Bodog.com Conference we hold in Vegas every year (www.bodogconference.com). This is an industry conference we sponsor every year to help companies who do marketing for online poker and sports betting sites. We had the Fictional Hail Mary CEO Dave Sanchez sending out press releases threatening to crash the massive Bodog Girl Party held at this conference if another fictional character (Cole) did not agree to his challenge for a grudge match. Again, more threads in forums all analyzing this and again, both Bodog.com and the Bodog.com Conference were front and center in the minds of the industry.

Even last week there was a thread on one of the major forums dedicated entirely to debating whether it was right to hate Cole Turner for his glamorous lifestyle, his taste in jewelry, how much exercise he gets (or should get), what country he was in, what beer he is drinking, and his taste in women. All this energy for a fictional character is indeed very rewarding to everyone in Bodog.com’s creative team who works on these programs.

So why kill off a good thing now? Poor old Cole has become a victim of his own success and Bodog.com, as an organization, is now so large and so mainstream that it needs a real CEO, not “Indiana Jones” at the helm. I am going to miss him and even those that hated him will probably also miss him, but I have to agree. While we are always going to keep Bodog fun, and I will try hard to fill Cole’s rather large boots, the fact of the matter is we are now a large multinational organization and we need the real leader to step forward publicly and assume control of the helm. One thing we are all proud of is that the intra-industry branding we set out to obtain with this program has worked better than we even thought possible.

I was always just beneath the surface, but now with Cole out of the way, I can concentrate on taking Bodog to the next level. Of course that means the articles that you have come to expect from me — such as “The Bombay Manifesto” or “Rock-a-Bye Baby: Corporate Culture and Customer Service” — will continue as always.”

For Calvin Ayre, it appears the books were now closed on the Cole Turner roleplay. But in the years after, the media kept referring to Cole’s made up adventures. Let’s take a few notable examples. For example Forbes, who put Calvin front page in the same year — 2006 — that he apparently became billionaire, couldn’t avoid mentioning the fictitious Cambodia adventure in their long form bio about Calvin: Catch Me If You Can.

March 11, 2006

“In 2003, for example, Ayre turned his vacation to Thailand into a Cole Turner Internet adventure. Using a digital camera, a machete, fake blood and a cast of taxi drivers and massage-parlor girls, Ayre spun the tale of Turner leading an expedition into Cambodia to fight a cell of Buddhist terrorists. Along the way Turner was captured by the Cambodian army, double-crossed by opium warlords in a lost ancient city and wounded in a knife duel while escaping the country. Ayre wrote the eight-story series on the plane back to Costa Rica. It was released during the college bowl season.

The series got noticed. Disgusted bookies at rival companies posted notes on Internet forums saying Turner was a terrible businessman because he was off on an adventure rather than at his desk during one of the busiest betting times of the year. One gambler called Bodog and said he wouldn’t place another bet until he knew if Turner was alive.

But the joke got old. After being quoted in a 2004 Cigar Aficionado magazine story as Cole Turner, Ayre got tired of explaining to reporters that Turner was just a marketing trick. Still Ayre hasn’t lost his crude touch: He sometimes hands out thong underwear as business cards. For an April Fool’s gag last year he released a statement apologizing to customers for losing Bodog to Virgin’s Richard Branson in a drunken poker match.” — Forbes, “Catch Me If You Can”

March 11, 2006

“I can’t decide yet whether this is another *Cole Turner* style Bodog publicity stunt or a genuine arrest, but the message boards are humming with as yet unconfirmed reports from Costa Rica that Bodog’s Calvin Ayre has been picked up by police.

911 is carrying the following, but as Chris C is closely associated with Ayre (as he was in the Cole Turner deception) that could mean zilch.

If it is a publicity stunt it is well-timed following Ayre’s “catch me if you can” jibe at US authorities in his recent Forbes Magazine interview. It would also suit his most recent initiatives like the reality show production getting into gear.

Here’s the 911 take on the story:

Ayre-ested! Calvin Ayre arrested in Costa Rica?

Local news stations in San Jose, Costa Rica reported Friday night that the home of Bodog.com Founder and CEO was surrounded by law enforcement and Ayre taken into custody. It was announced yesterday that Ayre is appearing on the cover of Forbes Magazine’s “Billionaire” issue.

Calvin Ayre indeed appeared on the cover of Forbes in 2006.

It is not known the reasons for this reported arrest.

Gambling911.com reported yesterday that shooting for a Fox Sports reality series had neighbors up in arms. It is not known if this is what prompted law enforcement to descend upon the Ayre home.

However, reports are coming in that Ayre had been hosting a poker game at his home and local authorities may have been tipped off to this effect.

The Fox Sports crew is believed to have been on location at Ayre’s home at the time of the raid, which has now been confirmed by Gambling911.com and media enterprises within the United States.

Ayre’s sprawling home is fortified with extensive armed security, which required a much larger police response.

Ayre was expected to be released shortly.

PS: I think 911 was in CR covering this party to launch the reality show shoot, so that would suggest that 911 was on-site when this happened?” — Casinomeister, “Calvin Ayre Arrested?”

March 18, 2006

“Of course, Bodog’s success has as much to do with its outrageous marketing tactics, which once included a fictitious CEO whose exploits were featured on its website.

When Mr. Ayre’s alter-ego “Cole Turner” wasn’t running Bodog, he was intrepidly fighting terrorists or cavorting in Southeast Asian karaoke bars. Few people found any of this believable, but it generated some buzz.

Mr. Ayre had his doppelganger “killed” in a duel three years ago, and unveiled himself as the public face of Bodog. [AvP: note that this actually happened in November 2004, less than 1.5 years ago]” — The Globe And Mail, “Calvin Ayre: Working on his second billion”

July 1, 2008

“But what Ayre did best was marketing. Instead of lying low and counting his dollars quietly, he plastered his face all over Bodog’s Web sites and tied the brand to his own lifestyle. Collaborating with his friend Christopher Costigan of Gambling911.com, a popular industry news site, he created a public alter ego, Cole Turner the CEO, and faked elaborate adventures that Bodog users could follow online. There was a 2003 party excursion to Cambodia pitched to the Web audience as an expedition gone awry, involving hookers, terrorists, opium smugglers, and, ultimately, Turner’s kidnapping. Ayre dressed hotel employees as gun-toting rebels and posted the photos. At least one concerned customer phoned to plead for the release of Bodog’s beloved faux CEO.

“I said, ‘Man, it’s kind of embarrassing, but I’ll do it,’ ” Costigan recalls. “I remember people asking if it’s really happening. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? You actually believe this stuff?’ ”

In 2004, Ayre outed Turner, then picked up the old boy’s fedora himself, flaunting a playboy lifestyle under his own name and modeling himself after his two idols, Hugh Hefner and Richard Branson — hiding nothing while exaggerating everything. “There is no personal in my life,” he told me.

Ayre posted photos, videos, and blog entries from his bachelor pad in Costa Rica, where he threw wild parties overstuffed with bikini-clad women who jiggled around in the pool. He bragged of a bulletproof Hummer and a team of “snipers” assigned to protect him.” — Fastcompany, “The Personality Behind Online Gaming Site Bodog”

So far for a few examples how the media picked up on the Cole Turner roleplay of Calvin Ayre between 2005 and 2010. Then, in October 2010 something happened, something that kicked off this article and inspired its title.

October 15, 2010

The “Cole Turner Is An Asshole” cartoon series starts. Throughout the series we will find Calvin Ayre’s signature approach of life, and a slide show of his main interests.

Pukes.

October 28, 2010

Farts.

February 26, 2011

Sex, and drugs.

December 27, 2011

On a little sidenote, this is the date where we find Calvin Ayre mentioning Bitcoin for the first time in his life, five months after his (future) sugar baby Craig Wright learned about Bitcoin. Hidden deep down Calvin’s predictions for 2012, on number 14 of his list, he talks about a “modified, stealthy affair, version of Bitcoin hitting the net”. Seven years later, Calvin would start supporting a Bitcoin knockoff called BSV that is “set in stone”, that wouldn’t allow for modifications (while Satoshi Nakamoto stated in the Bitcoin whitepaper that “Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism.”), that is an immutable, government friendly, law abiding chain, that is a public evidence trail blockchain also hosting arbitrary data that Satoshi Nakamoto strongly advised against, that is acting as a monetarysurveillance machine where tokens can be moved based on court orders… but that’s probably another story for another day.

Source: his website

April 5, 2013

Bitcoin, and brothels.

April 12, 2013

The occasional horror.

August 19, 2013

Shooting, and scolding

September 13, 2013

Animal abuse.

This “Fucking A Sheep” episode in September 2013 also marked the abrupt end of the Cole Turner cartoon series. At the same time, this is also the era where Craig Wright started to defraud the Australian taxpayers for tens of millions of dollars, by filing fraudulent tax refund claims at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and using Bitcoin as a scam tool in the process.

Halfway 2015, Calvin and Craig would cross paths again (as Craig had been a security infrastructure contractor for BoDog before, in 2010) when Craig urgently needed a bailout after being requested to pay ATO millions back in falsely claimed tax refunds, with fines on top of them. And from there, Calvin financially enabled the continuation of Craig’s Satoshi cosplay till today.

This article tries to find an answer to how and why that could happen, while almost everyone with a few braincells rightfully rejects the idea of Craig Wright being Satoshi Nakamoto, as Craig’s claim is not supported by any evidence whatsoever. At the same time, all the evidence that Craig produced over the years has been found, without exceptions, forgeries created after April 2013.

So what made Calvin Ayre the perfect mark for Craig Wright after all?

Different times, different people, same story: Victor Lustig and André Poisson. Source: Wikipedia

First, for the fun of it, let’s note that eight years after the “Cole Turner Is An Asshole” cartoon series stopped, Calvin Ayre’s outlet Taal also released a, still running but compared to the Cole Turner cartoons a pretty boring and uninteresting, cartoon series (feel free to click the link and judge for yourself) around the two main characters Sat and Oshi.

August — December 2021

As we speak, in this timeframe five episodes of TAAL Tales have been released. It appears that Calvin considered that the cartoon marketing worked pretty well, to a certain extent, for his gaming and betting endeavors with BoDog a decade ago. It remains to be seen though if the same can be said for enterprise and central bank adoption of a centrally controlled bitcoin copycat rooted in Craig Wright’s Satoshi cosplay… Nevertheless, they’re trying.

But so far, TAAL Tales only appears to inspire parodies in the Bitcoin community. Let’s dive into a few of them instead, as they are way more funny as the TAAL originals.

The undersigned gave it try too.*WuCoin*You know who you are. ;)

And someone even took the effort to make a parody of the whole first episode:

Outtro

Now how does this all tie together with Craig Wright, the Satoshi Nakamoto cosplayer? First of all, let’s go back to this November 30, 2004 quote of Calvin Ayre, where he explained his motivation for the Cole Turner roleplay.

“You know you hit a nerve when there are major and active threads on all the big industry forums saying how much they hated what I was doing, while others accurately pointed out that it was just a joke. I laughed every time I saw these. It was powerful evidence that for a small amount of work, while on a holiday, I could get the entire industry to waste huge amounts of time focusing on a fictional character’s fictional adventure, while indelibly imbedding the Bodog brand deeply into everyone’s brain.”

Calvin Ayre seems to think that the marketing approach of creating controversy with ‘a fictional character’s fictional adventure’, an approach that indeed worked well in the retail gaming industry almost 20 years ago, also works to get Central Banks and enterprises adopting Craig Wright’s brainchild, the Bitcoin rip off BSV, in droves.

But Calvin is wrong, I’m afraid. And that will not be the first time either.

Source: https://fullycrypto.com/calvin-ayres-2020-bsv-predictions-how-did-he-do

Fourteen months later, BSV has dropped from position 12 and sits now on spot 67 on CoinGecko. And $184 has almost sliced in half since December 2020 when this FullyCrypto article was published: BSV investors are now looking in horror at a BSV token price of $93.57 (or 0.002166 BTC).

The reason is simple. Since November 2018, when BSV was spawned from the Bitcoin fork Bitcoin Cash (BCH), BSV has failed to get any meaningful real life attraction. BSV, so far, is only kept on life support because Calvin — presumably still a billionaire — keeps dumping his money in BSV infra projects. These projects are mostly shortlived (Bitstocks) or have repeatedly technical issues (CryptoFights) or are not materializing at all (EHR Data, Tuvalu). Meanwhile, the few 100 BSV fans entertain themselves with daily free giveaways of the BSV token and trading NFTs between each other. Those services are not unique, and available elsewhere too, of course.

Source: https://twitter.com/outputintern/status/1493247061776650247

And besides the unviable technical direction of BSV(1), Calvin Ayre repeatedly showcasing himself on social media with barely legal, barely dressed female teenagers in barely decent situations like lap dancing, hanging around his neck or twerking in front of his eyes is not very helpful to build a reputation either.

Images and conversations found in Calvin Ayre’s Twitter history.

No organic adoption whatsoever of his self-proclaimed law-abiding and enterprise-ready blockchain project has taken place since November 2018 when, as said, BSV split from BCH, by itself already another failing knock off of Bitcoin now positioned on number 25 of the CoinGecko market cap list. Some readers might remember that BCH once, for a little while, hold the 2nd position on these lists.

(1) BSV doesn’t scale, especially not after the decision to go against Satoshi Nakamoto’s advice “Piling every proof-of-work quorum system in the world into one dataset doesn’t scale. Bitcoin and BitDNS can be used separately.”: BSV nodes are dropping like flies trying to handle the occasional GB blocks with arbitrary data, as only a little above 10 nodes (11, to be precise, are left from the haydays of 650 nodes 2.5 years ago) hashing on the BSV chaintip at the moment of writing.

Halfway 2021, BSV was also plagued by more than a handful of 51% attacks. Bitmart Exchange tried to recover over $6 million in double spend damages in that era. And absolutely killing for the reputation of Calvin Ayre and his BSV altcoin project is… Craig Wright being a badmouthed trigger happy litigator. Here we see an example where the Australian government simply rejects to support projects that involve BSV, because of its reputation.

Source: https://twitter.com/ElasDotCo/status/1414422971779665924

It is now ending up that Calvin is apparently suffering a severe sunk cost fallacy. And not only on the BSV project. Since 2015, supporting Craig Wright’s Faketoshi pipe dreams, paying for hundreds of patents with a technical relevance of exactly zero, and sponsoring his failing legal stampede has cost him tens of millions, if not a few hundred millions, of dollars.

“nChain Holdings Limited […] have the weakest portfolios in this regard.”

Report: Who are the patent leaders in blockchain?

It strongly appears that Calvin Ayre’s continuing support for Craig Wright is also based on the inability to admit that he was thoroughly duped, combined with the disregard for the investments of others.

Disregard, you say?

Yes.

As Calvin has shown before: he had no regards for other investors when it came to the Bicer Medical insider trading scandal.

“It didn’t take him long to land in trouble. With an M.B.A. from City University in Seattle, Ayre took a job in June 1990 as president of Bicer Medical Systems, a Vancouver, B.C. heart-valve maker. The company was underfinanced, he says. According to British Columbia Securities Commission documents, Ayre sold 300,000 Bicer shares without releasing a prospectus. He also moved millions of shares between several accounts, including his own, without filing insider trading reports. “I knew that I wasn’t following all the rules,” he says. “But I also knew I had to do it to keep the budget alive.” Though he was never charged, Ayre settled in 1996 for a $10,000 fine and a 20-year prohibition from running a company listed on the Vancouver Exchange.” — Forbes, “Catch Me If You Can”

So the Craig Wright scandals keep BSV in the news, it’s free advertising, Calvin Ayre surely must think. He’s street smart in the gambling business that brought him riches and some fame, but otherwise Calvin is easily duped, bamboozled and defrauded outside of his comfort zone.

Why so rough on the guy, the reader might wonder. Because Calvin claims that he, with assistance of his lawyers, inquired Craig Wright’s evidence.

I can assure you, Calvin, nor his lawyers, did not “comb through his evidence”. Here, Calvin is not showing all his cards about the (lack of) depth of his due diligence. As a matter of fact, it mostly appears that Calvin Ayre is just as bamboozled by Craig Wright as the average BSV cult member. It is perfectly clear that Calvin is not aware of the full picture , as for example none of the damning ATO Decision reports and ATO hearing transcripts were, willingly or not, never brought to his attention. As said before, Calvin is not aware that he has been defrauded by Craig Wright with a fake paper wallet.

Calvin, in the unlikely case you or your counsel are reading this, here are several must read ATO reports for you to ‘comb through’.

• ATO report 1 (Reasons for decision Coin-Exch & related entities July 2013/September 2013 tax quarter — unknown release date)
• ATO report 2 (starting page 35) (Reasons for decision Craig Wright R&D & related entities July 2013/September 2013 tax quarter — unknown release date)
• ATO report 3 (Reasons for decision C01n 2012/2013 tax year — released March 11, 2016)
• ATO report 4 (starting page 2) (Penalty and interest position paper C01n 2012/2013 tax year — released March 11, 2016)
• ATO report 5 (Reasons for decision Integyrz 2013/2014 tax year — released March 21, 2016)
• ATO report 6 (Reasons for Decision Zuhl 2013/2014 tax year — released April 12, 2016)

Based on their inquiries, the ATO firmly concluded that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, as Weekend Australian reported in January 2016:

“Australian authorities are understood to firmly believe Mr Wright is not the creator of Bitcoin and that he may have created the hoax to distract from his tax issues.”

Will Craig Wright become Calvin Ayre’s next asshole, like Cole Turner?

We will learn soon enough, I’m sure. The currently running lawsuits, especially those against the Bitcoin developers, COPA who is chasing him for his false Bitcoin whitepaper and source code copyright claims, and let’s not forget hodlonaut’s case in Norway, will present the perfect opportunity for Calvin to learn a lot more about Craig’s lies about being Satoshi, and the forgeries he is using to support that false claim.

A LOT MORE.

Thanks for reading!

The end.

We know, we know, Craig.