BODOG UK LAYS OFF 70 EMPLOYEES


4/17/2012 :  BODOG UK LAYS OFF 70 EMPLOYEES
 
Is the Ayre empire contracting?
 
Reports on iGaming Suppliers and other information sites Tuesday indicate that the Bodog franchising operation in the UK is the latest in founder Calvin Ayre's business group to be restructured, reportedly with the loss of 70 UK jobs.
 
The report in iGaming Suppliers quotes sources as saying that the lay-offs are associated with the company's failure to secure a British development licence, although the Ayre website comments that the cause is restructuring:
 
“In the UK we have undertaken a long period of market analysis and we are now starting to adapt our product to fall in line with those findings," the company says.
 
"We feel we now have a better understanding of what the UK customer wants and the focus now is on re-structuring our business to be better placed to put that information into practice.”
 
The UK restructuring follows the expedited closure of the Bodog office in Costa Rica last month following the US indictments of Ayre and three other Canadian citizens and the seizure of the dormant Bodog.com domain, when a company spokesman said:
 
“A Costa Rican based business process outsourcing company providing services to the Bodog Brand has expedited its closure after fears it will be wrongly associated with the Bodog.com indictments.
 
“After the brand licensing agreement with the Bodog Casino Brand and Morris Mohawk Gaming was terminated in December 2011, along with ever increasingly restrictive economic conditions in Costa Rica, the BPO had already started to make plans to wind down its operations."