Calvin Ayres Bodog.com / LostOpportunityLife.com

I feel for Calvin Ayre at Bodog..  A fellow Canadian, living the James Bond / Rockstar life in the Caribbean, (albeit in a more sexy and mysterious industry than a domain wonk like me).

First he looses his corporate domain through chicanery, then his co. "reacts" by creating newbodog.com in order to re-open his operation..  then, realizing that getting his core Bodog.com name back is going to be a bit of a wait, he uses the opportunity to rebrand as BodogLife.com  ..  I actually think "Bodog Life" is okay for a Bodog related name, but I've never loved the Bodog brand name..  and these incessant changes are enough to make a loyal user dizzy and steer them to a competing casino.

It's the equivalent of moving the front entrance to your real casino..  Do it once and users might play ball, Google too will use news stories about the loss of your name to index the new name relatively quickly.. acting like a bus service to drive those gamblers to your new front door.  Do it a second time in short-order and folks/Google might start to get perturbed/lost.  The saving grace is he's refreshing newbodog.com over to bodoglife.com

IMO Calvin should have used this opportunity to buy InternetCasino.com from Xedoc (who acquired the name from Marchex, who acquired the name from Yun Ye) ..It would have had a nice ring to it... "Calvin Ayre's Internet Casino .com (with a little jingle for the .com part like Expedia does)... That name is a huge keyword..  It has tons of organic type-in traffic for the keyword weight of the phrase (like freecreditreport.com would). He could have owned said name via a non-US based domain registrar.. perhaps a Caribbean registrar in a jurisdiction more relevant to his gaming operation. As valuable as his name is,  he could have paid the 20-30k to own his own ICANN accredited registrar.. Then he'd know when people start rattling his cage and try to shake his names loose.  Think about all the lost opportunity and break in cashflow continuity that this name-loss represented..

People often ask me how many domain names do you need to own before it makes financial sense to own your own registrar..  If your name makes as much money as Bodog.com,  the answer is 1.

Oh well .. I'm not going to cry the blues for my fellow Countryman..  He's done a great job getting to where he is and I'm sure he has his naming in hand now and will land on his feet ..  If not he can always send me an email ;)

Comments

[Snoopy]

InternetCasino.com - good as far a generic names go but it sounds to me like a very poor brand, and the internet part is pretty redundant.

[Andrew Johnson]

According to Alexa stats, whatever their accuracy and value, he is doing just fine for traffic --http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?site0=bodog.com&site1=newbodog.com&site2=bodoglife.com&y=r&z=3&h=300&w=610&range=1y&size=Medium&url=mtv.com

[Scott Smith]

Frank,

I was happy to see you weigh in on our beleaguered fellow Canuck, Calvin Ayres. Though many will not be losing sleep over his sad state of affairs, Calvin's plight certainly highlights the deficiencies in his domain management abilities. Don't get me wrong, I too applaud his efforts to build a worldwide brand through schtick, pluck, hard work and later on, a ton of $$$. No doubt my Mohawk brethren Alwyn Morris will successfully continue to fight the good fight for the young billionaire.

But Je digress. Calvin had many options to use this quasi $50 million "wake-up" call to turn a negative into a positive. As you say, he could have picked up the keyword powerhouse InternetCasino.com and profited greatly. Heck, the type-in traffic alone would shortly be worth the price of admission.

He obviously had no desire/instinct to attract the millions of people scouring the net for a place to plonk down their hard-earned disposable dineros. Had he the foresight, he could have led consumers down the InternetCasino garden path that ultimately led to all things Bodog. Bodog Poker, Bodog Slots, Bodog Sportsbook, Bodog Fights, Bodog Music, Bodog Babes... Bodog Fantasy. OK, OK stop already! I'm convinced. Bodog IS the Internet Casino.

He also could have picked up our 1800Casinos.com. On its own, 1800Casinos.com is an adequate property. However, when coupled with the corresponding North American 1-800 toll free telephone number 1-800Casinos (1-800-227-4667), the pairing becomes a formidable, and potentially very profitable combination. Think 1-800-Flowers. Flowers is a billion dollar business. Do people spend more on flowers or on gambling? Nuff said.

Now when Mr. and Mrs./Ms. J.Q. Public want to gamble online --> 1800Casinos.com. Looking for a casino junket --> 1-800-Casinos. Book your flights, hotels, cars etc. right here. When they want to review and compare casinos --> 1800Casinos.com. Want to know who has the best deals? 1-800-Casinos. When they want to buy tickets to the hottest shows in town --> 1-800-Casinos.

Moral of the story: Pick the category killer domain with the monster keyword, master the basics and the world will beat a $$$ path to your door.

Calvin, and any other land-based or Internet casinos that actually "get it", the number is 1-800-227-4667.

[D]

Wow this 1800casino guy is one desperate sucker...almost as desperate as the "wearedomains" sucker's-king...

[John]

How was patent law suit plaintiff 1st Technology able to get BoDog.com domain taken away in a patent law suit ? ........ as claim is on patent.... not trademark or trade name.

As Vonage (the VOIP Company) has lost patent lawsuits with Verizon and Sprint - Nextel but was able to KEEP it's domain name.

What is the difference between the 2 scenarios that made BoDog have to get a new domain ?

***FS*** He didn't answer the suit.. thedy got a default judgement and seized a US based asset.