High school reunion: Billionaire bachelor disappointed he won’t be able to swap stories with his former classmates.

He won’t be attending his 30-year high school reunion in Salmon Arm, but he wanted to send his regards nonetheless.

He is Calvin Ayre, the man who was featured in the cover story in Forbes Magazine’s 2006 annual ‘Billionaires’ edition. A few months later, he was featured on People magazine’s ‘Hottest Bachelor’ list.

Ayre’s public relations firm contacted the Observer to ask if the newspaper would like to interview him, given that he is a Salmon Arm Secondary graduate and the 30th reunion is coming up. Ayre subsequently telephoned from his ‘Bodog compound’ in Costa Rica.

Ayre’s financial gains stemmed from his creation of Bodog, the name of an online gambling website that has evolved into a global brand-naming enterprise that spans a number of non-gaming sectors, including clothing and mixed martial arts.

The gambling business was sold to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group in Quebec, but Ayre retained the rights to the technology and created the brand-licensing organization. Among his recent interests, he bought the rights to Illy, an Italian coffee brand, and may develop a Bodog coffee concept. He’s also creating an Internet media presence – a tablog –  where people can track what’s going on in the online gaming industry.

Ayre attended school in Salmon Arm from Grade 6 to graduation. He excelled in science and was awarded several scholarships.

“My interest in technology, and then being able to take advantage of the burgeoning Internet, definitely came from Salmon Arm,” Ayre says.

He explains he was one of the first people to introduce an online gaming site to the world. It took the form of sports gambling.

“I was looking for a business model and I really love sports and I knew I could get a licence to do what I do in St. Kits (in the Caribbean)... It combined two of the things I really like – communications technology and sports – plus I got to live in the tropics; that didn’t hurt either.”

After graduating from SAS, he attained a Bachelor of Sciences at the University of Waterloo and later was awarded an MBA from City University in Seattle.

He remembers Bob MacAulay, his physics teacher in Salmon Arm, as well as Roger Marriott, his Algebra teacher.

“They set me on my course in life by focusing me on some hard-core science subjects.”

Marriott remembers Ayre as one of his most memorable students.

“He was a very, very bright student. He didn’t do his homework very well, but he still got straight As... He would come into class and say, ‘Mr. Marriott, I didn’t do my homework last night.’ He was a very pleasant person.”

When Ayre is asked what he thinks about criticism of online gaming and its social implications, he says alcohol and credit cards fall into the same category.

“A lot of things can be abused but I don’t think anyone would argue we should ban credit cards because some people have problems with them... Most people I know do it for entertainment. Like watching a hockey game, but when you put $20 on a hockey game, it makes it much more exciting. If gambling was all that bad, pretty much every government in the world wouldn’t be involved in it.”

He said he and his Calvin Ayre Foundation have done a lot of charity work, with a focus on education, particularly sponsoring students in poorer countries.

Asked about a typical day, he says he wakeboards for an hour each morning and then spends four to five hours dealing with e-mails. He currently lives on Antiqua, an island in the Caribbean, and says the ‘Bodog compound’ in Costa Rica is a play on Hugh Hefner’s ‘Playboy compound.’

“It was designed for TV shoots and photo production; it’s never been purely a home, it’s a business property.”

He’s thinking of acquiring a home in London, England, because so much of his business is centred there.

Asked if he feels like he’s living a dream with all his wealth, he said he’s no longer materially driven.

“From a lifestyle perspective, I hit that pinnacle a long time ago.”

He said he now finds fulfillment through the challenge of work – coming up with a concept and making it a reality, through the work of his foundation, and through personal entertainment.

“I like extreme sports, I like extreme parties, I just like excitement, I like travelling to different places.”

Asked if he’s bothered by what could be seen as the shallowness that makes him a celebrity because of his wealth, he says no.

“If it wasn’t for the fact there’s an element of shallowness in the way popular culture runs right now, I probably wouldn’t be able to do what I do. I don’t think it makes people bad, it’s just the way the world has evolved. At least I really ran a company; some people are famous for being drunk.”

Single at 48, he has no plans to change that.

“I’ve had a family, it’s called Bodog, it’s a very big and demanding family.”

That family is why he won’t be attending his high school reunion. He says he is “umbilically tethered” to his business enterprises.

His mother, his father, a sister and a brother all have homes in the Lower Mainland, and one sister works with him in Costa Rica.

He says he travels to Canada regularly, but hasn’t been to Salmon Arm for years. However, he does keep in touch with a couple of friends from Canoe.

He’d like to say hello to everyone he went to school with.

“If we all live long enough to see a 40th anniversary, I promise to get back to that one.”