- Joined
- Jun 29, 2006
- Location
- Ontario/Canada
I am shocked to know this. I've been guessing who is the owner of 9group. spearmaster, is it true?
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Is Calvin Ayres, the Canadian online gambling tycoon, founder of a six billion dollar a year online casino business hiding out? In today's world there aren't very many places where a person like Calvin Ayres can do that. A Forbes magazine story about Ayre in 2006 entitled "Catch Me If You Can." listed Mr. Ayres in the billionaires of the world category.
It is rumoured about in insider circles that Calvin Ayres is now living in Phuket, Thailand where he has bought a house apparently for $8 million USD. With another $5 million USD, he was going to blow on a jet, he is said to be venture funding a sports betting operation based in Malaysia and The Philippines.
Mr. Ayre's other online gambling operations are now based in the Antigua and Barbuda jurisdiction safer now after the U.S. ban on online wagering destroyed his earning power in the U.S.A.
The new company is called 9 Group and is run by Alan Randall, formerly of 888 and Victor Chandler. Targeting the huge Chinese market has been the main focus of 9 Group so far. The software is powered by Australia's BetOptions and the live dealer casino by Entertasia of Macau.
Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan sold his sports betting company Ascot Sports to 9 Group so that 9 Group could utilize its sports betting license in The Philippines under the name First Cagayan. The plan looks set to promote games for fun websites in China in order to build a customer database which will then be converted into sports wagering online casino players.
A task fit for any tycoon, breaking into the rich Chinese market hasn't been easy so far. The Chinese Government has already closed down the website once and on top of that hackers trashed the site when it first launched.