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Copyright © 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing
Co.
HEADLINE: Bodog to hit Europe with online poker,martial
arts
Body:
Costa Rica's Bodog.com,
one of the world's biggest online gaming firms, is to start targeting
Europe with its mix of gambling, brutal martial arts, rap music
and TV content, its billionaire founder said on Thursday.
“We are going to have our full Bodog
offering – our gaming, our TV shows, our music and MMA (mixed
martial arts) events,” Calvin Ayre told Reuters by phone.
“The poker part is pretty much good to go as it is ...
We should have everything rolled out in Europe by the end of this
year.”
Bodog
has continued taking bets from U.S. gamblers despite a clampdown
there last October and has been rapidly diversifying into television,
music and extreme martial arts fights, which they stage and broadcast
across the Web and on TV.
BodogFight features international competitors clashing in the
no-holds-barred mixed martial arts arena, while its BodogMusic
record label promotes rappers including the Wu-Tang Clan.
Ayre said Europe was still a growing market for online gaming
and would help Bodog
further diversify its business and protect its revenue streams.
“We are going to start with English language and then plan
to have the Nordic countries, the German speaking countries, the
Spanish speaking countries and the Benelux countries.”
“To get critical mass in Europe we figure it's going to
cost us about $30 million... We want to feel like we are local
in every country we go into,” he added.
Bodog was founded in 1995, focusing on Internet sports betting,
casino and poker
and currently takes more than $6 billion of wagers a year.
It already has offices in England in London and Manchester and
in Berlin in Germany and has a data centre in the Channel Islands.
Billionaire Ayre, whose first job was selling apples across Canada
from the back of a five-ton truck, said Bodog
was also looking to push into the fast-growing Asian market.
“We've got our eyes on Asia as well. We are at least a
year away but that's still on the radar for us ... We would initially
target the Chinese language customers.”
Ayre said that Bodog
would use its own technology for its English and Spanish language
Web sites but would look to license other language games from
software specialists to save on expensive development costs.
“We are in negotiations with some companies that have platforms
that may appeal more to the local market in Europe... especially
on the casino side.”
Online rivals such as 888.com have said they are looking to emulate
Bodog's mix of gambling and online TV and music content but Bodog's
entry into Europe will add another big fish into an already well
stocked pond.
“It's quite likely we will get our initial traction from
the younger, predominately male audience,” said Ayre.
“We see ourselves as change agents, we come in to a market
and force people out of their comfort zones and they have to react
and follow us,” he added.
Bodog
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