What are the odds?

Calvin Ayre, founder of Bodog, one of the big players in the world of gambling, can think of the most obscure of circumstances and place odds on it.

Heck, this guy would even lay odds on your shit, will it go down when you flush it or will it clog up the toilet?

The lad from Lloydminster, Sask., is Canada’s newest billionaire and cover boy at Forbes, the U.S.-based magazine that keeps the world’s scorecard on the rich.

The 44-year-old Ayre moved into one of the globe’s most exclusive clubs as founder of Bodog, the online gambling behemoth he operates out of Costa Rica because what he’s doing has never been licensed by a government in Canada.

A University of Waterloo grad who financed his education by selling Okanagan Valley apples, cherries and peaches on the Prairies, Ayre now makes a cool billion based on wagers on sports events such as the upcoming NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, NFL games and his online casino. – The Star

”Instead of doing things for money, I do things for love,” Calvin Ayre said in an interview from San Jose, Costa Rica.

Yeah sure, he does it for love, for love of money that is. Hah!

”If you do it out of love, you’ll do it a lot better than if you do it for money,” he adds. ”I never thought I’d make this kind of money, oh, maybe a couple of million, but I’ve carved out an excellent lifestyle because of this business.”

Ayre, who calls himself ”heavily single,” grew up on a Saskatchewan, in a pig farm. It’s the most humbling place you can be in when you get to Canada. Trust me on that one.

”I have the strongest brand in the world in this industry,” he says. ”There’s no secret to it. It’s just mainstream marketing, being creative and linking the right values to our brand. Everything else is overblown.”

[For more on Calvin Ayre and his obscure tastes for gambling, log on and visit his brainchild, Bodog, now.]