Bovada Review

Bovada is a gambling site that does not only offer casino games. It also features sports betting, poker games, and wagering on horse races. Established in 2011, it is relatively new site in the online gambling business but it actually already has a solid foundation in the online gambling business being a sister operation of the well-known Bodog, which had been in existence since 2000. The name Bovada, by the way, comes from the fusion of Bodog and Nevada. Bodog is one of the gambling sites that had been affected by the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the United States. It needed a fresh start in the US gambling scene thus Bovada.lv was created.

Bovada.lv offers more than 300 games that apparently still makes use of the software Bodog uses. It offers a wide variety of casino games including table games, video slots, 3D slots, and a number of specialty games. There’s a good number of distinctive proprietary slot games available. Moreover, there’s a poker section that features as a number of exciting tournaments. The sports betting section is also comparable to what most other sites are offering.

If you are an online gambling enthusiast in the United States, Bovada.lv is arguably one of the good choices you can have. It does not serve all states across the US but it does a good job where it is available. Learn more about this gambling site through our Bovada review.

Signing Up for an Account: The Battle Against the Meticulous Online Form

The not so good thing about Bovada Casino is that it has country restrictions. Not everyone is welcome to sign up for an account. If it’s any consolation, though, you will immediately know if you are eligible for signing up or not. The site automatically detects the IP address of the computer used to access the site and either completely blocks access or prevents the site visitor from signing up for an account. Most Asian countries are completely blocked from the Bovada.lv website.

The Bovada.lv Casino online registration form is somewhat long as it asks for two sets of information: the personal information and login information. It requires a detailed address with separated fields for the street and ZIP code, birthdate, and phone number. For the login information, it unusually asks for a player’s mother’s maiden name and city of birth.

This online form is smart and meticulous. It does not accept spaces in the phone number you enter. It knows when the ZIP code you are entering does not match the state. The password is case-sensitive and the form requires you to include at least one capital letter. Perhaps if it had things its way, it may have also complained if the title (Mr/Ms) used did not match the name entered. Well, we are not complaining, though. After all, incorrect account information can get us in trouble and could lead to the cancellation of the account and the winnings in it. We recommend some patience in completing this online form. It shouldn’t take longer than a couple of minutes to get through it.

When it comes to logging in, be reminded that you were required to include at least one capital letter.

Account Dashboard

The Bovada account dashboard is simple and intuitive. We like that it allows us to do some profile edits although the email address can no longer be modified. Also, this dashboard includes a messaging system. It would have been better if it also includes the ability to set wager and loss limits or to implement self-exclusion but we are fine with how it currently is. There’s a gift icon on the upper right corner of the account dashboard. It shows the bonuses, rewards, and other promotions available to a player. We really like this feature as it lets players avail of bonuses they would have otherwise missed because information about such bonuses are buried in deep links or sent through emails, which are seldom checked.

The Games

The games on Bovada Casino are grouped in four categories: Sports, Casino, Poker, and Horses.

Sports racing on Bovada covers a comprehensive range of sports including baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, golf, football, e-sports, cricket, darts, snooker, cycling, handball, curling, futsal, wrestling, and winters sports. It also features betting on political events in the United States. Additionally, it offers live betting although there were no live games on the site at the time we were doing this Bovada review.

The Casino games section had a total of 263 games at the time we did this Bovada.lv review. It includes 167 slot games, 52 3D slots, and 6 varieties of Blackjack games including Perfect Pairs and Double Deck Blackjack. It also has 11 table games, which include Craps, European Roulette, Let ‘Em Ride, Pai Gow Poker, Tri Card Poker, Vegas Three Card Rummy, Baccarat, and Caribbean Stud Poker. Additionally, it has 17 video poker games and 16 specialty games that include Keno, Sudoku, scratchcard games, varieties of bingo, and Virtual Racebook 3D.

Bovada’s Poker section offers several poker tournaments including sit-and-gos, fast-paced tournaments referred to as Turbo Tournaments, Nightly Majors (nightly major tournaments), and special tournaments with high guaranteed prize pools. The poker games require a software download.

Lastly, Bovada has a horse racebook which, at the time we did this review, was touted for offering an enhanced bet slip, improved tracklist, and upgraded race schedule. It’s probably not the best horse racebook around but it should be good enough to satisfy the interest of poker fans who visit Bovada.

Bovada Casino Software

Bovada offers games that were also offered on Bodog. Bodog is the casino that can considered the predecessor of Bovada in the US or the US-facing branding. We could not find information on the Bovada website regarding the software used and customer support is not keen on sharing information about it. However, there are online sources that say that Bovada still uses the same proprietary software supplied by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group. Some games have also been derived from Realtime Gaming Software.

Bovada Casino Is Mobile-Friendly

It’s good that Bovada has a mobile-friendly website because it does not have have mobile apps for iOS or Android devices. Except for poker, the games on Bovada can be played using the web browsers smartphones or tablets without having to download anything.

Currencies and Payment Methods

At the time this Bovada review was written, Bovada was still new in accepting bitcoins. However, it already has an organized system for accepting fiat currency (mainly USD) and bitcoins. It has a quite detailed guide on how to use this cryptocurrency on the site. Be sure to check this guide out.

There are three deposit methods supported: Visa/MasterCard, Rapid Transfer, and bitcoin. For Visa/MasterCard and bitcoin transactions, the minimum deposit required is $20. They have different maximum deposit limits at $1,000 and $5,000 respectively. The minimum and maximum deposit amounts for Rapid Transfer are $100 and $750 respectively.

First deposits are free of any charge but subsequent deposits are charged 4.9% (for Visa) and 6.9% (for MasterCard) of the amount being deposited.

Withdrawals, on the other hand, can be done through check and Rapid Transfer. The minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts are as follows: $50-$3,000 and $100-$300.

Bovada.lv Casino Promotions

The following is a summary of the many promotions and bonuses offered by Bovada to its players.

• 50% Sports Welcome Bonus (First Deposit Bonus) of up to $250. Wagering requirement: 5x within 30 minutes.
• 100% Casino Welcome Bonus of up to $3,000. Codes: SLOTS500 (for slots, redeemable for up to 4x) and GAMES250 (for other casino games, redeemable for up to 4x). The $3,000 figure is the combined bonuses obtained by using the two codes at their maximum redemption times.
• 100% Poker Welcome Bonus of up to $1,000. This one’s a little complicated. You need to earn Poker Points to reach a certain level and to have a bonus issued. The $1,000 figure is the total amount of bonuses that can be possibly earned within a 60-day period. Refer to the Bovada Promotions page for more details on this bonus.
• 200% Refer-a-Friend Bonus of up to $100. This is essentially an affiliate marketing program. You can get double the amount of the first deposit made by the player you referred to the site. There is no limit to the number of referrals that can be made. Wagering requirement: 5x for Sports, 5x for Horse Racing, 30x for Casino games, and 6x for Poker Points per dollar.
• Royal Flush Bonus of up to $200 given to a player who plays a Texas Hold’em game (not a tournament) with both pocket cards used, 3 or more players dealt into the hand, and has the winning hand but does not proceed to showdown.
• $10 Casino Bonus for Table Mania Tuesdays. This is a bonus granted to players who wager $250 on any of the Bovada table games on a Tuesday. Wagering requirement: 20x.
• Poker Points that can be converted into hundreds of dollars in bonuses. The table below comprehensively presents the important details of Bovada’s Poker Points scheme.
• IMAGE POKER POINTS
• $10 Mobile Casino Bonus given to those who wager $250 on Bovadas’s next-level Casino games between Monday and Sunday. A code is required for this bonus. It is usually sent to qualified players within 48 hours after the end of a Promotional Week.
• Up to $100 Casino Bonuses for Blackjack Weekends.
• Bovada Casino Benefits program which grants $1 for every 100 points earned on the Casino games. The points are earned in different ways. For slots, for example, 3 point are earned after every $10 worth of bets. Be sure to visit the Casino Benefits page for more detailed information on this.

To claim a bonus, you just have to go the the Bonus section of the account dashboard and claim the available bonuses listed.

A withdrawal can be made even before the bonus wagering requirement is met but this would invalidate the bonus and the earnings associated with it. Generally, bonuses get forfeited after six months when the wagering requirement is still unmet.

Bovada Casino Support

Player support on Bovada Casino is provided 24/7 through telephone and email. The telephone number to dial is 1-888-263-0000. For the email support, you will have to fill out an online form that can be accessed by clicking on the speech cloud icon near the upper right corner of any page of the Bovada website. You may also directly sound your email inquiries or concerns using this email address: [email protected].

What Countries Does Bovada Serve?

As mentioned, Bovada does not serve players from all parts of the world. It is not available to Asia and parts of Europe. We could not produce a comprehensive listing of all the countries accepted or not accepted on Bovada. However, thankfully, Bovada’s website automatically scans the IP addresses of those visiting the site. Players from countries that are not accepted are automatically not allowed access to the Bovada website or are prevented from signing up (proceeding with the filling out of the online form).

All players on Bovada are required to be at least 18 years old or of legal age. Also, it is the responsibility of players to make that there are no laws in their respective countries that ban online gambling.

Bovada serves players in the United States but not in all 50 states. It is not available in the following states: Delaware, Nevada, Hawaii, Washington, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Utah.

Bovada Casino License, Regulation, and Security

Bovada is a licensed online gambling operation.  It has been granted a license and is being regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. This commission is based in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake in Canada.

To ensure the security of player account and transactions, Bovada employs 128-bit SSL encryption. It is the same encryption technology used by financial institutions.

More Information about Bovada

Avoid losing your account or forfeiting your winnings by unintentionally violating Bovada’s rules and policies. Be sure to read the site’s Terms of Service. Also, read the site’s Privacy Policy and go over the Forms and Agreements page. You can also refer to the Help page to find answers to frequently asked questions about Bovada’s games and policies. Also, you can go over a variety of online gambling related articles on the Aticles section.

Bovada has social media accounts. You can get regular updates about Bovada through these accounts or you can send messages using these channels in case the player support telephone line and email don’t work.

• Facebook
• Twitter

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Wide array of online gambling options, from sports betting to online casino games, poker, and horse racebook.
• Numerous bonuses offered
• Mobile-friendly

Cons

• Multiple countries are banned from the site
• Slightly complicated bonus/promotions terms, conditions, and requirements
• Not a good option for those who seek to do online gambling anonymously
• The poker software is only available for Windows