Vancouver Forum: Any worked or working at Riptown? - Vancouver Forum

I know people who worked there who got detained in customs for 4-6 hours every time they flew in and out of the country. They refused to pay for work visas for their employees to travel because well... even though they are a 7 billion dollar a year company who can certainly afford work visa's for their employees they aren't legally allowed to have people traveling through the United States for work. If you feel like traveling James Bond style in fear of being questioned and detained the by all means go for it. This company nor the re invention of itself as Fiver Media does not deserve your talent.

Friend of Former Employee, on Jun 16 2008, 12:29 PM, said:

Thanks for the comments. So many bad signs that it's unfathomable that someone would even bring up working for this co.

Is anyone still working at Bodog/Riptown/Fiver in Bby or Vancouver anymore? Has everyone moved to Quebec yet?

It's one of the best environment I ever worked. Call center moved to MTL and everyone was offered a position there if they wanted to move. Calvin is a criminal because US passed the UIGEA law last year. Anyone in the world operating a gambling website is consider a 'criminal' in the US but not in Asia, EU and any other places on earth.

Get a life people, on Jul 6 2008, 08:04 PM, said:

Agree, not to mention that there are places on earth where child prostitution, racketeering and euthanasia are not considered crimes. If you want to do any of these things, follow the "Calvin way". Cheers.

Friend of Former Employee hits the nail on the head. Jump ship or be the captain of a sinking one.

did the call center move to MTL or to Kahnawake where they were 'protected' by the native law?

eff off. bodog's a turd place to work. calvin ayre is a cokehead who has a weird obsession with midgets and bangkok ladyboys. if you want to work at a company where underqualified people are your boss and a coke enraged Calvin Ayre is barking nonsense then visit http://www.fivermedia.com/

meanwhile, when your thinking of applying or are applying - remember that the US DoJ just confiscated $25 million of Bodog's money. This was cash placed in US banks under false companies and company names. but that is normal right? i mean when bodog had their servers in vancouver (legal too right?) before moving them to kahnawake then costa rica and now panama or wherever, all that shows signs of a legit operation?

a company that can set up a bunch of 'legit' companies and store $25 million to pay out their gamblers can feasibly also set up a 'media company' (fiver/riptown) and also a CSR company (crown customer service) then it's pretty easy to follow the slimy snail trails around.

the people on here who claim that working at bodog is 'cool' etc are full of shit. i would love to get all the peeps that were fired or released from bodog to write their story on here. the liklihood that this forum is full of shils and shillers is probably > 90%. i laugh in the face of obviousness.

pls note all this is possibly untrue and will likely be disputed. i wont be back to back anything up.

ZZZ, on Aug 7 2008, 03:45 PM, said:

AHAHAHAAHHHHH Please do go on more about "calvin ayre is a cokehead who has a weird obsession with midgets and bangkok ladyboys. "

RFLMAO

They just fired 200+ people in Van & TO......gave "working notice" if you can believe that

Fiver, on Aug 21 2008, 12:19 PM, said:

Not surprised. Fiver Media Vancouver (the new name) is in deep trouble. Just early August the US seized many bank accounts of Bodog ($24 Million seized) and this has a ripple effect on Fiver in Vancouver. That company would be smart to lay low because if the Federal filings in the US are any indication, there may be further seizures extending reach into Canada. Employees shoudl start looking for jobs elsewhere.

I( was a t a xmas part where Calvin Ayre was announcing Bodog at a yaletown restaurant that he just bought. While I was in the bathroom one of the servers of the private party told myself and an employee that she was given notice that since he bought the place that the private party was her last job.

...2 weeks before Xmas with no warning.

she had to serve everyone appluading him and his video launch about what the company was going to be. His whole speech was that he was already rich and his goal was to brand his own self and it really had nothing to do about anyone else.


..then he hit on some girl he recently hired who was at least 30 years younger than him.

A very crazy company for sure.

I left months ago and it's definitely one of the best decision i've ever made. To sum this company up, it's the ultimate gong show. Not surprised the house of cards has finally come down

The place is run by a bunch of idiots that don't know their a*s from their elbow! I've never worked with such a disorganised, inexperienced and uneducated management team. The VP of doing nothing Aaron Gould, and the Senior Director of cr*p communication skills Saxon Shadforth have run the place into the ground. They should be embarrassed in how bad they are at their jobs, and realise that everyone at Fiver considers them the biggest jokes in Vancouver.

The times I've heard people mention how close they've come to smacking these two idiots about kind of sums up the environement at Fiver...lol!

Seriously, the place is a joke, the owner is a self made playboy idiot and the management team should be shot and never given jobs in this part of the world again.

Oh and did I mention how much of a sad cu*t Aaron Gould is....one day I hope someone from Riptown/Fiver teaches that balding idiot a lesson!

Some people are bitter...go work for f'n McDonalds... Suck it up and move on

Wow... I can't believe how bitter some people are... Should probably spend that energy looking for a new job. It's an easy thing to attack the VP's of a company, and I love that you named them as if anyone outside of the company would have any idea who the are. I'm sure they LOVED having to let go of 200 people. Get over it and get a life. There is a reason they still have a job and you don't.

I have to admit I do agree with the above comment naming the VP.....if you worked there you'd appreciate why this person feels so strongly!

The VP has no experience, and looks nervous everytime he's in a meeting....nothing intelligent comes out of his mouth, it'll not be long before he's dealt the blow that he deserves!

Bitter....try working for a company that looks for every opportunity to f*ck you over.....those that didn't like it did get new jobs, the ones who just lost their jobs are probably relieved inside.

guest, on Aug 28 2008, 03:08 PM, said:

I too know this individual and agree with the last two comments.

Aaron Gould IS an assclown. Poor Olivia - she is such a nice girl and has no idea how many other girls he's got on the side. I love that he acts so ultra cool but is from Prince FREAKIN George and has trailer park trash oozing out of every orifice.

I joined Bodog very early on and quickly learned what a boys club it is. If you shamelessly spend your money on blow, if you hit on girls half your age, if you can convince your subordinates to do all your work while you eagerly fellate Peter Caroll and other useless arses you are a prime candidate for Bodog management.

Its an absolute gong show over there and I am so happy I got out long ago.

Well said!

I agree about Olivia....I have first hand experience of his dirty exploits with others. He's a sleaze, and like you say considers himself 'cool' but is the biggest loser I've ever been around. He couldn't fight his way out of wet paper bag, he's got no class, and very little in the way social skills...he's an arrogant d*ck who just needs his a*s kicking!

And did anyone mention how useless he is at his job....come on Aaron, do you really believe people at the company ever had any respect for you! He would talk and people would laugh and call him a wank*r....its sad but true!

People wonder why the company folded...yes he'll probably do alright (for now), but he's a dirty, coke snorting, trailer park trash nerd that needs to recognse how people look at him...LOL

You people really need to get a life... you can easily post your seedy comments in the darkness of your smelly basement suites... while stuffing your face with twinkies. It will not help you get a new job... nor will it make people feel sorry for you. All this name calling business is childish and so very preschool!

If you want to be in control of your employement future why dont you become self employed or start your own company. It will be a definate eye opener for you... help you wake up to reality!

Now I have to get back to my life... Ahem... because I have one!

Your life is to monitor threads like this and call good people losers.

I personally have moved on VERY quickly from Bodog. I will say that my resume looks quite nice and I do owe the fact that I nearly doubled my salary at my new job and am now actually getting paid what I am worth. I do owe that to my experience working for Bodog but then again I was hired by them because of my experience. I honestly hesitate to tell people at my new job who I actually worked for. I'm proud of the work I did but not proud of the fact that as hard as some of us worked management and Calvin Ayre gave the brand such a bad name.

Peter Karroll, Jim Phillips, Arron Gould, lawyer Bryce and even Peter's daughter Riley are seedy characters....crooks.... I'll save the expletives since everyone else has done a good enough job with that. Plus, these people make themselves look bad on a daily basis just fine. Anyone doing business with these people should know they do not honor contracts and if they do pay up it is like pulling teeth. I have personally seen them hire developers to create their entire back end software to run one of their sites and then turn around and screw them out of tens of thousands of dollars in pay.

Working for Bodog was probably one of the coolest Jobs I have had but at the same time the management made vanity decisions based on ego.... decisions that bit them in the ass that were swept under the rug time and time again. As far as I am concerned as talented as we were as a staff, management blew the true potential that was given to them.... I shouldn't say blew... I should say embezzled, drank, snorted or all three.

Please shut this thread down. It's embarrassing.

Close This, on Aug 29 2008, 08:54 AM, said:

You must work at Fiver.

You forgot about that little nazi vagina Anna Junge.

Aaron Gould and Jim Philip - your time is up you pieces of shit. You better get out of the country before the IRS, CCRA, FBI, DOJ, and CIA get get you.

I agree, you either work at Fiver and snort coke with the rest of the losers who call themselves 'management'....or you're just a sad son of a bitch that scans posts that have nothing to do with you....people are obviously expressing their frustrations, and I have to agree with all the negativity and the way I look it, it acts as a good warning to those even contemplating a move to anything Bodog or Fiver related!

And yes Gould is a first class idiot!

Close This, on Aug 29 2008, 08:54 AM, said:

Embarrassing because you still work there?
Read further into this guy and his past. Might be an interesting enough read to keep the thread alive...

http://www.coldeye.o...x.php?itemid=37

Guest, on Aug 29 2008, 05:04 PM, said:

From what I can tell who ever wrote this cold eye garbage is a freaky slap headed, pot smoking Irish idiot!!

nothing can really justify some of the horsesh*t written on here but let's face facts. when a company goes so far south so quickly, there are going to be hard feelings.

the fundamental problem for riptown? the company got in over its head. as bodog tried to become a major player in the US entertainment/tv/music industries, several well-meaning but underqualified riptown employees were totally out of their elements. at one point, the office at 333 seymour housed a music label, a tv production team, software development and marketing departments. the only thing missing was the riptown bakery and nuclear arms division.

calvin ayre wanted to be known as more than the online gambling billionaire. he wanted the richard branson and hugh heffner comparisons. the problem, of course, is that those guys (in their own bizarre ways) were business savvy. ayre got into online gambling in the right place at the right time and made a mint. it wasn't for his entreprenuial acumen or shrewd deal making. of course, billions of dollars and a massive ego can convince you to do many strange things. one of those things was to transform ayre from the face of online gambling (dubbed as such by Forbes magazine) to a new-age entertainment guru (even though he nor his shell companies had any experience in anything outside of online gambling).

for most of 2006 and 2007, this transformation riptown's primary objective.

Of course, few riptowners were adequately trained to work in music and television, arguably the two most cutthroat industries in american entertainment. but ego reigned supreme once again - "we dominated the online gambling market so hey, television should be a piece of cake." determined to create everything internally, riptowners were constantly being promoted to unfathomable heights, despite lacking the qualifications and/or basic intelligence. for example - a former phone jockey from riptown customer service ran bodogfight. peter karroll's daughter ran the music label. the head of pr used to be a quality assurance spellchecker. no joke. throw in all the fake jobs and titles created in the tv and music departments (thanks to karroll, who must shoulder a lion's share of blame for riptown's demise) and you've got a lot of underqualified people getting paid a lot of money to make really lousy products, if anything at all. throw in a marketing department that had no clue - "sure, i can handle band promotions! sounds easy!" - and the writing was on the wall.

everybody just assumed it would work because they believed it would.

in closing. keep throwing gould, phillips et al under the bus if it makes you feel better but they're not to blame. the entire company was cloaked in greed and naievete - people saw a cash cow and they jumped on it. what's happening now has been in the works for two years, so the shock and awe routine is pathetic. anybody who says they didn't see this coming is either blind, stupid or lying.

"throw in all the fake jobs and titles created in the tv and music departments (thanks to karroll, who must shoulder a lion's share of blame for riptown's demise) and you've got a lot of underqualified people getting paid a lot of money to make really lousy products, if anything at all. throw in a marketing department that had no clue - "sure, i can handle band promotions! sounds easy!""

This is right on the money - as far as the Canadian arm of the music label who were the ones getting paid a lot more than they should have with bogus titles. As for their American counterparts, those people were knee deep in music promotion earning a fraction of what the Canadians were making and working much longer hours at their own expense as private contractors. Unfortunately it was the Canadians and their inexperienced egos with no clue about the US market forcing their hand in foolish incest driven decisions. The marketing team did the best they could and accomplished great things but let's face it look what they had to work with. Britt Black? Neurosonic? Naszanin? 3 artists with NO talent who's only interest in being on the label was because a) She was Peter Karroll's daughter and Riley's sister b) he was sleeping with Peter's daughter Riley (who cluelessly ran the label) c) she is Peter's wife's sister. As you can see this whole company is incestous in it's decision making and management choices. You had to be sleeping with someone or a relative of someone to be considered a manager, decision maker or someone of importance. The people with the real talent who should have been making decisions had their ideas stolen from them and edited into a giant branding campaign for Calvin Ayre and Bodog and then secondly to serve the incestous motives of Peter and Riley Karroll. So you see the talent (or lack of) that they had to work with?

Ranters are loosers, on Aug 29 2008, 07:31 PM, said:

It may sound like a rant, but its all actually all true. I think this Coldeye guy is a fat #@$*&^% idiot but that aside...the Globe & Mail, Gambling911 etc etc. should actually do an investigative report on the validity of this story. Its pretty common knowledge in Salmon Arm the *real* story about Calvin Ayre, and its closer to Coldeye's version than the BS fabricated on the Bodog press releases. Those of of us that still living in Salmon Arm know the *exact* history ....I suggest the press send some reporters there and set up shop and get an unbiased perspective. Its not just a few "ranters" who will back this story up. There's 100s of people that grew up with Calvin and have been terrified to talk about it for fear of retaliation. Now that Bodog's lost its power, that fears not there anymore.

Seriously....the story of the century is out there. Someone should break it....

Ranters are loosers, on Aug 29 2008, 07:31 PM, said:

It may sound like a rant, but its all actually all true. I think this Coldeye guy is a fat #@$*&^% idiot but that aside...the Globe & Mail, Gambling911 etc etc. should actually do an investigative report on the validity of this story. Its pretty common knowledge in Salmon Arm the *real* story about Calvin Ayre, and its closer to Coldeye's version than the BS fabricated on the Bodog press releases. Those of of us that still living in Salmon Arm know the *exact* history ....I suggest the press send some reporters there and set up shop and get an unbiased perspective. Its not just a few "ranters" who will back this story up. There's 100s of people that grew up with Calvin and have been terrified to talk about it for fear of retaliation. Now that Bodog's lost its power, that fears not there anymore.

Seriously....the story of the century is out there. Someone should break it....

I used to work for Riplife one of the umbrella companies in Malaga (yes they are operating in Spain) and if you think that the VP is retarded. You should see the Site Director in there. No comments. This Company is a joke. I am back to my contracting work and I will be a Happy person again.

They want to create a new brand in Europe to be licensed by Alderney, but they are working with a bunch of retarded Spanish developers that don't have a clue about developing and/or gambling. Stay tuned to see what crap they will have to offer for the European Market (If they even actually stay opened for business, what I doubt).

Malaga Joke, on Sep 1 2008, 09:20 AM, said:

It's unfair to shit on the developers there.