Article from iGaming Business Q2 2005 Magazine (pg 51), where Top Gaming execs were posed the question;

“What’s the Best Business Decision You’ve Ever Made.”

Calvin Ayre, CEO, BoDog.com - In 1995 Calvin Ayre founded what would later become the BoDog.com Entertainment Group of Companies. This now includes the first Internet-based sportsbook based in Costa Rica, and has emerged as the number-one rated sportsbook, casino, and poker room operation in the world.

Calvin’s response: The best business decision I ever made was buying 100% rights to Micropower’s poker software last summer, and all of it’s development team. We paid off a $5M investment, and more, in revenues; and I believe that if you look at current evaluations of companies of our type on the London Stock Exchange, it was the equivalent of adding about half a billion dollars in value to us as an organization.

We already had a strong, well-positioned brand, we added another product channel and crossed-over our existing loyal player base and we immediately had a significant revenue stream. The value was enhanced by the talent pool we acquired. We bought the entire development team and the product we have today is now significantly advanced from the original Micropower product. We’re coming with a new generation of software that will be browser-based system, with no download, that’s going to take the whole industry to another level. From our perspective it was an excellent deal because of the talent we acquired.