Bovada burst onto the US scene in 2004 back when it was named Bodog and the founder was a famous billionaire named Calvin Ayre. Yet, back in 2016, the online casino split to form two separate sites, Bovada and Ignition. Originally, the plan was to make Ignition the poker site and Bovada the casino and the sportsbook, but then they added a poker room to Bovada and casino games to Ignition just a year later.

Today, Bovada contains a very extensive casino, sportsbook, and poker room all in one fun-filled operation. But is this renowned online gambling site all it is made out to be? With years to perfect their site, I hope so, but let’s find out.

Players Accepted: United States Only

Players Not Accepted: New Jersey, Nevada, Maryland, New York, Delaware

First Impressions

When it comes to an online casino, first impressions are everything. You want a site that looks professional, trustworthy, and that instantly greets you with exciting games and promotions so you know there is a lot of excitement in store. Bovada does not disappoint, and first impressions of the site are amazing.

For one, the site is easy to navigate around and has a well-designed user interface, meaning even first-time users won’t have any problems with finding what they’re searching for. There is a collapsable menu that directs you to most areas of the site, and the color scheme looks clean and inviting. I’m impressed!

With that being said, it is slightly worrisome that there are no seals at the bottom of Bovada’s webpage to indicate that they are currently licensed or audited by anyone. Their license with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was revoked in late 2016 because Kahnawake refuses to continue to issue gambling licenses to US-facing sites. Since that point, they have decided to fly solo and operate based on their stellar reputation alone.

Reputation of Bovada

There is a reason why Bovada has been offering its services to gamblers since 2004 and currently owns the most popular poker room in the USA. They have always maintained a great reputation when it comes to taking care of their players. This includes paying out quickly, giving quality customer support, and always keeping players informed during times of chaos.

When it comes to running fair games, Bovada has always kept their hands clean and proven time and again that they care about upholding their stellar reputation in the gambling industry. They work with three of the top providers in the industry: Betsoft, Real Time Gaming, and Rival Gaming. With these three companies, you know you’re getting great games with fair odds.

Online Poker

As mentioned, Bovada offers online poker, as well as acting as an online casino and an online sportsbook. Therefore, I decided to review each portion of the site in turn, kicking it off with online poker. Bovada has always been one of the softest sites to play on ever since it was founded in 2004, with a huge selection of games and poker formats, lots of traffic, and low competition. Here is exactly what you can expect to find.

Available Poker Formats

When it comes to the various classic formats of poker, you will find all of them in Bovada’s poker room. It is tough to specify which classic format Bovada is the most well-known, since the cash games, sit and go tournaments, and multi-table tournaments all enjoy a high level of volume on a daily basis. The field sizes for their multi-table tournaments are very large for a US poker site and most of the tournaments with a guaranteed prize pool draw between 100 and 1000 players.

There are also some unorthodox poker formats on Bovada, such as Zone Poker and Jackpot Tournaments, which are only found on a few poker sites around the world. As a player from the US, you will only encounter these types of tournaments on Bovada and America’s Cardroom. You will be able to quickly find a seat at a running table in each of these two formats at all times of day, especially in the lower buy-in levels.

Zone Poker is a thrilling poker format where you are instantly brought to a new table every time you fold your hand. This allows you to play more hands per hour and eliminates the boring downtime where you are waiting around for other people to finish hands that you are no longer a part of.

Jackpot Tournaments are sit-and-go tournaments with a random jackpot multiplier attached to each prize pool, and the buy-ins range anywhere from $2 to $30. The random jackpot multipliers will range anywhere from 2 buy-ins to 1,000 buy-ins in a winner-take-all format. The only time that 2nd and 3rd place will receive a prize is in the tournaments where the multiplier is 120x or higher, in which case they will each win 1/12 of the jackpot.

These fancy recent additions to Bovada’s game selection offer one of the only ways to possibly win up to $30,000 in under 10 minutes of poker for a small investment of $30 or less.

Available Poker Games

After being overly impressed with the different poker formats, I took to looking at the available game variations, and once more, Bovada hits the nail on the head. The site offers nearly every poker game possible that involves the words Hold’Em or Omaha. The limit games do not see very much traffic, nor do the Pot Limit Hold’Em tables. However, the other games are always full of tables in every format possible.

The most prevalent game on Bovada is No Limit Hold’Em, much like in nearly every other online poker room in the world. You will not find a single format of poker that doesn’t offer No Limit Hold’Em, nor will you find a single format of poker where No-Limit Hold’em is not the most popular game running.

Bovada has a multi-tabling option so that you can play multiple games at once and maximize your bankroll. At Bovada Poker, the maximum number of tables you can play a whopping 15 tables at once!

In the upper right-hand corner of each table, you will find three buttons to help organize your tables while multi-tabling. The first button on the left will reset your table organization settings back to the default setting, the second button will tile your tables into a square formation with no overlap, and the third button will cascade your tables all in a diagonal row with a small amount of overlap.

Table Limits

It used to be extremely tough to find any multi-table tournaments that cost more than $55 to get into outside of the Sunday 100k Guaranteed. Over the years, Bovada has made the site more appealing to Americans who like to play higher stakes since you can now find multiple tournaments that cost over $55 every single day. There is also still a very wide selection of tournaments to play for small stakes players as well.

The sit and go tournaments on Bovada are very popular in the low stakes community. You will not have to wait for long before a sit and go fills with players if you are paying an entry fee of $25 or under. There also seem to be quite a few sit and go tournaments with a $214 entry fee, even if it is in the middle of the day.

The cash games always see a lot of action no matter what stakes you play, and there is an average of 1,100 players on these tables at any given time. The $10/$20 games that exist on Bovada are legendary because they are easily the softest $10/$20 games on the internet. It is tough to get an accurate read on where the cash game traffic is concentrated these days due to the security measures implemented by Bovada which will not allow you to see the cash game tables that are running.

Poker Software

The most shocking difference between the software that is used by Bovada Poker and the software used by the rest of the industry is that it does not display the usernames of each player. Instead, each player receives a number that stays with them until they play a new table or tournament which effectively makes each player an anonymous number at all times.

Everything appears to run smoothly in-game on Bovada Poker and the graphics are extremely crisp and clear. If you would like to toggle the many table settings and gameplay settings that are available you simply need to click on the “Settings” button on the left-hand side of the main lobby. There are 17 different table skins and six different deck colors to choose from which is a generous amount of options. One of the cool features that you don’t see very often is the “Rabbit Card” which always allows you to see what cards would have come on the board if the hand continued.

Poker Bonuses & Promotions

Bovada is notoriously low on promotions for their poker players, which is a shame because they used to have a bunch of great ones. However, this is still a small welcome bonus for new customers, plus a loyalty reward points program for existing players. Let’s take a better look.

Poker Welcome Bonus

Bovada Poker offers all new players a 100% deposit match bonus up to $500. While some online gambling sites offer a much higher deposit match and maximum bonus amount, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Bovada’s welcome offer is not limited to your first deposit made on the site. Instead, Bovada counts all the deposits made within 24 hours.

For example, if you deposited $100 at 9am, $150 at 12pm, and a further $250 at 5pm, you would be able to claim the full $500 bonus. This is a great perk as it allows you to test the site before depositing a huge amount upfront while still giving you access to the full bonus funds.

The only clause that I could see in the bonus terms and requirements which is undesirable is that there is a 30 day limit on clearing any wagering requirements. This means that if you want to take full advantage of the $500 welcome bonus you will need to play a little less than $17,000 worth of poker tournaments in a month. While this is not impossible, it is a little bit harsh and they should make it a six-month limit instead.

Promotions for Existing Players

After the sign-up bonus, the only extra bonuses that Bovada Poker rewards to their players are known as Poker Points. These points accumulate whenever you play in real money ring games or tournaments. The rate at which you accumulate these Poker Points all depends on the format of poker you are playing

• Tournaments: Three Poker Points for every $1 paid to enter
• Cash Games: Poker Points relative to the rake taken in each specific pot

Once you have collected Poker Points, you can either trade them in for tournament entry tickets or play in the points freerolls that reward real money. For every $1 in tournament entry tickets, you want to buy, you will need to pay 200 Poker Points. The highest-priced entry ticket possible is a $270 buy-in which will cost 54,000 Poker Points.

Online Casino

Having looked at all that was on offer at Bovada’s poker room, I turned my attention to the online casino portion of the site.

Available Casino Games

Thankfully, the casino games were equally as varied and exciting as the poker on offer, with over 260 casino games in their library. This is slightly above average in terms of the number of games for an online casino, but the level of variety in each gaming category was well above par.

One of my favorite features of Bovada’s casino is that they allow you to try out most of their games for free in preview mode with play money. This is a great way to get to know how to play a certain game before you start risking your hard-earned money on it. However, this feature is not available for some games, such as live dealer games.

The Bovada software platform known as RealTime Gaming is one of the few remaining platforms that is willing to serve U.S. players and they have been around since the late 1990s. Based out of Curacao, this software company is known for creating beautiful and functional games.

Online Slots

The slots portion of Bovada’s casino is by far the biggest part of their game library. This is completely normal for an online casino these days and Bovada has an average number of slots games with a total of 202. This collection includes three-reel, five-reel, progressive, and bonus-packed slots. A whopping 52 of these slot games come with a progressive jackpot, which is way more than most online casinos can say.

Table Games

Table games are the second most popular betting category in Bovada’s casino since there are 22 different table games at your disposal. Four of these table games include a progressive jackpot, and the jackpot amounts regularly reach up into the six-figures. The minimum bet for every table game is $1, while the maximum bet will range anywhere from $250 to $1,000, depending on which game you are playing.

The table game with the most variations available on Bovada is Blackjack with nine different variations to choose from. There are also four different variations of roulette, while every other game just has one or two variations listed.

Video Poker

Bovada offers a pretty decent video poker selection with a total of 17 video poker games to choose from and they seem to have most of the basic games covered. Each video poker game will allow you to bet up to five coins per hand and up to $5 per coin. A couple variations of these games, known as Joker Poker and Jacks or Better, allow you to play up to 52 hands at once. All of the other video poker games on Bovada will only allow you to play one hand at a time.

Specialty Games

In addition to these classic casino games, Bovada also offers 10 different bingo games in their Specialty Games section which is more than most online casinos. These bingo games allow you to bet up to $1 per card and some will allow you to play up to 150 bingo cards at the same time. There are also a total of eight different scratch cards to choose from and two other miscellaneous games named Pirates Pillage and Sudoku Box Game.

Live Dealer Games

Bovada also has a quality live dealer section, and if you have never played a live dealer game, I would thoroughly recommend it. It gives the impression of being in a real-life casino, plus the maximum bets are raised for live dealer games.

Bovada has five live dealer games in total covering all the basics. While this is not overly extensive, there are a huge variety of great dealers to choose from. One downside is that the video quality on live feeds is pretty fuzzy, except for the Blackjack games which specify the feed is in HD. Nevertheless, along with all the other casino games, plus Bovada’s poker room and online sportsbook, I found the live dealer section a nice addition and comprehensive enough to appease most gamblers.

Casino Bonuses & Promotions

Next, I looked at the bonuses and promotions on offer at Bovada Casino. Despite the below-average bonus for poker players, the casino bonus was pleasantly surprising. The site offers new players a choice between two welcome bonuses, plus existing players have access to ongoing promotions too.

Here is a breakdown of all the various offers available at the time of writing.

Casino Welcome Bonus

The welcome bonus at Bovada Casino is awesome, as you have a choice of two promotions and both can be claimed three times!

• 100% bonus up to $1,000: Use code NEWWELCOME for 1st deposit, then BV2NDCWB for 2nd and 3rd
• 125% bonus up to $1,250: Use code BTCCWB1250 for 1st deposit, then BT2NDCWB for 2nd and 3rd

The 100% deposit match bonus is valid on deposits made using a debit or credit card, whereas you are only eligible for the 125% bonus if depositing funds using Bitcoin. As both bonuses can be claimed three times, the maximum sign-up bonus is between $3,000 and $3,750, depending on which one you use. This is a fantastic offer, with the option to use the promotional codes three times being a real perk.

You can sign up for Bovada and make the most of these incredible offers by clicking below.

Promotions for Existing Players

Online casinos that offer existing players ongoing promotions always get a thumbs up from me, and I was pleased to see that Bovada has two bonuses on offer.

The first is a Refer a Friend Bonus which gives you a 200% bonus on your referred friends deposit, up to $100. This is a great offer if you have lots of friends who are looking to play online, but once everyone you know is already on the site, this promotional offer is somewhat limited.

Bovada also offers a rewards program whereby you earn points every time you play at their online casino. The number of points you rack up determines what loyalty tier you sit in, and the higher the tier, the more and better prizes there are available to you. The highest tier, known as the Hall of Fame tier, will reward the player with 15% cashback on their losses as well as $1 for every 1000 reward points they earn.

Playing different casino games earns different points, so here is a breakdown:

• Video Poker & Table Games: 1 point for every $1 wagered
• Slot Games: 5 points for every $1 wagered
• Specialty Games: 15 points for every $1 wagered
• Live Dealer Games: Do not contribute to points

Bovada Sportsbook

Finally, I will move onto the Bovada Sportsbook. Will it live up to the casino and poker room?

At first glance, yes! The sportsbook on Bovada contains over 20 different betting markets at any given time and offers nearly every bet type that you can think of. This exceptional sportsbook also has two sign-up bonuses to choose from in addition to an extensive live betting feature. Let’s take a closer look.

Sports and Leagues Offered

My first point of call when checking out the Bovada Sportsbook was what sports the site covered. I was pleased to see it offers bets on all major sports and some niche events too, including:

• Baseball: MLB
• Basketball: NBA, NCAA, Euroleague, NBB, Rest of World, International, Europe & US
• Football: NFL, NCAA football & CFL
• Hockey: NHL, Russia, Canada, International, US, Austria, Czech Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden & Switzerland
• Tennis: ATP Tour, WTA Tour, Challenger Tour & ITF
• Soccer: 15 different leagues worldwide including Spain La Liga, England Premier League, FIFA World Cup & Germany Bundesliga

In addition to these major six sports, Bovada also provides coverage of 17 niche sports, including golf, MMA, eSports, and entertainment bets.

For a sportsbook that only serves the US, Bovada offers bets on an extremely large number of international betting markets. I did not expect to see so many of these, and their presence can even be seen in the sports that are not primary sports.

The six primary sports are well-represented here as you will find hundreds of bets available per day during each of their respective seasons. Even when it is the offseason you will find that there are usually futures bets available that pertain to the following season.

Betting Options

Alongside a vast US and international sports coverage, Bovada Sportsbooks also provides us with a great range of betting options. In fact, it’s extremely tough to think of a wagering type that Bovada has not incorporated into their sportsbook. All the betting options offered are as follows:

As soon as you click on multiple games, all of the betting options available to you for that event will appear on the bet slip as well. If a parlay or any other bet type is not available in a certain instance due to special restrictions then the option will not appear on the bet slip at all.

No matter which bet type you utilize, the minimum bet is $1. If you are using the phone to make your bets then the minimum bet is $50. The maximum bet that you can make ranges anywhere from $500 to $5,000 depending on which sport you are betting on and what type of bet you made. Typically the maximum bets will be higher for spread bets than they are for money line bets, totals bets, or parlays.

It was also much to my delight, and to the delight of US sports bettors, that Bovada offers Live Betting on many sporting events inclusive of the major leagues and obscure sports. You will be able to tell exactly which games have Live Betting available by whether or not they have the yellow “Live” tag in the top left corner of the game box. For anyone new to live betting, this is where you cast your wagers as the game is in play, resulting in an extremely exciting betting experience. This is a huge bonus to the Bovada site.

Horse Racing

Although technically a separate portion of the site, there is also the option to place bets on horse racing at Bovada. The racebook is the fourth and smallest quadrant of Bovada since the casino, sportsbook, and poker room are all rather large, so I will include it here.

There are three main sections of Bovada’s racebook which include Next 5 Races, Today’s Tracks, and Futures. From these self-explanatory options, you can choose the track that you wish to bet on and you will be brought to the race schedule for that specific track. Once you have chosen the track and race, the types of bets that you can make on these horse races include win, place, or show bets, exacta bets, trifecta bets, superfecta bets, and daily doubles. In futures bets, you will only be able to bet on the outright winner in each event.

The maximum bet on a win/place/show bet is $200 while every other bet type is limited to a $100 maximum.

Sportsbook Bonuses & Promotions

Of course, Bovada has also got bonuses on offer for its avid sports bettors. There is a welcome bonus for new players, plus ongoing promotions comparable to what is on offer over on the casino portion of the site. At the time of writing, here is exactly what you can expect to see.

Sportsbook Welcome Bonus

Similar to Bovada Casino, as a sports bettor on Bovada, there are two different sign-up bonuses that you can choose from.

• 50% bonus up to $250: No promotional code required
• 75% bonus up to $750: Use code BTCSWB750

The first 50% deposit match bonus up to $250 is applied automatically to your account, and unlike the casino bonus, it is applicable only to your first deposit made on the site. Therefore, to claim the full $250, you would need to deposit $500 as your first deposit. There is no code, so to claim this bonus you must visit the “My Rewards” page on your account, then click on “Available Bonuses”. Click on the below link to get you started.

The 75% bonus is also only for use on your first deposit, and you are only eligible to claim the funds if your first deposit is using Bitcoin. As this is a large percenTeaserstage match and a greater maximum, I would recommend utilizing this bonus. Therefore, be sure you make your first deposit on the site with Bitcoin and use the promotion code above so you don’t miss out!

What is fantastic about both of these bonuses is that there are only 5x wagering requirements, and no timeframe limiting you to how long you have to clear the funds. This is nearly unheard of, with many online gambling sites having a 1-4 week rollover time which makes near impossible to clear the bonus. Therefore, despite the bonus being smaller than many, it is much more likely that you’ll see your winnings.

Promotions for Existing Players

The Refer a Friend and Rewards Points given in the casino are also available on the sportsbook portion of Bovada’s site so existing players can also continue to benefit from choosing to play at their casino.

The Rewards Points are actually better for sports bettors, as the points appear to come in at a much faster rate. The number of points you get per bet depends on the type of bet you place:

• Teaser: 15 Points for every $1 wagered
• Round Robin: 25 Points for every $1 wagered
• Parlay: 25 Points for every $1
• Other Bets: At least 3 Points for every $1 wagered

Rewards points can be redeemed for cash bonuses at any time, as well as determining what your VIP rank is. The higher your VIP rank is, the higher the cashback percentage you will receive on your losses and you will also get a better redemption rate when trading in your rewards points. The highest tier, known as the Hall of Fame tier, will reward the player with 15% cashback on their losses as well as $1 for every 1,000 rewards points they earn.

The Refer a Friend bonus also applies to the sportsbook, and you will receive a 200% bonus up to $100 based on the value of your referred friend’s first deposit. There is no limit to the number of friends that you can refer and you will receive a bonus for each one that joins and makes a deposit.

Banking Methods

With all sections of the site covered, I now looked at banking which works identically whether you are playing in Bovada’s online poker room, at its online casino, or on its sportsbook. My findings are quite a mixed bag, with some hugely positive aspects and others, well, not so good.

Here is a quick summary of what banking methods are available:

Type	Deposit Limits	Deposit Time	Withdrawal Limits	Withdrawal Time
Visa	$20 – $1,500	Instant	N/A	N/A
Mastercard	$20 – $1,500	Instant	N/A	N/A
Bitcoin	$20 – $5,000	Instant	$10 – $9,500	1 Business Day
Bitcoin Cash	$20 – $5,000	Instant	$10 – $9,500	1 Business Day
Check	N/A	N/A	$100 – $3,000	10-15 Business Days
Bank Wire	N/A	N/A	$1,500 – Unlimited	10-15 Business Days

As you can see from the table, there is a low deposit minimum of $20 and all monies hit your account instantly, so you can start playing, betting, and making money right away. This is great for a gambling site to offer.

However, if you are depositing using Visa or MasterCard, you will be charged 5.9%. This is one of the major flaws of the banking options on Bovada. That being said, you can get around this by using a cryptocurrency method to fund your account. I would recommend doing this anyway to capitalize on the maximum bonus offers, yet it can be frustrating and deter some players if they don’t already have a Bitcoin account or understand cryptocurrency.

Withdrawal methods see a similar story. The low $10 withdrawal minimum and rapid withdrawal time of 1 business day when using cryptocurrency are fantastic, and you’ll rarely find any online casinos or sportsbooks that top this. However, if not wishing to use Bitcoin or Bitcoin cash, your withdrawal options are much less favorable. Withdrawals take up to 2 weeks to process and the high minimum limits are far from ideal. Plus, only one check withdrawal is permitted per month.

No matter which withdrawal method you use, there are also fees of $50 attached. That being said, Bovada does give you one free withdrawal each month, so if you played it smart you could avoid having to pay withdrawal fees altogether.

Device Compatibility

Next, with an upward trend in mobile betting emerging, I wanted to see how compatible all portions of the site were on mobile devices. Thankfully this is something which Bovada has done well. There is no mobile app for the casino, sportsbook, or poker room, but all three portions of the site are easily accessible on iOS and Android devices by heading to the mobile version of the site.

As expected with a mobile version, some portions of the full site are missing. For example, in Bovada Casino, you can play the majority of slots, table games, and video poker, but live dealer games are not available on mobile. Similarly, you cannot partake in multi-table tournaments when playing poker on your hand-held device. However, all tournaments, cash games, and jackpot sit-and-go poker formats are available, which I was very impressed by.

The mobile sportsbook is the real shining star, with everything including live betting accessible from your smartphone. All in all, Bovada does a very good job of making it easy for players to place wagers and have fun on the go.

Customer Support

Finally, I looked at the customer support options available to Bovada players, as if you ever experience any problems or have any issues it is essential you can easily contact someone from their customer service team. Thankfully, Bovada has the following comprehensive customer support options:

• Live Chat: Talk to an agent online through an online messenger system
• Email: Email customer support at [email protected]
• Telephone: If you would rather speak to a member of customer support directly, call them on +1 888 263 0000

I trialed all three methods of contact and got a great response from the live chat ending up speaking to an agent within 15 minutes. Their email support was also relatively good and I received a response in 7 hours when usually I wouldn’t expect to hear back from an online casino for a few days. However, when calling their phone I was left on hold for 30 minutes before giving up.

Additionally, if you do not feel like talking to a member of customer support directly, there is also a “Help Homepage” which lists a whole host of FAQs that may just have the answer you’re looking for.

Overall Verdict

After this whopper of a review, there is a lot to take in, but my overall opinion of Bovada is that it is a fantastic site. Firstly, it is definitely one of the best sites to play at if you like playing poker, casino games, and betting on sport as Bovada has done a phenomenal job in all areas. The compatibility with both iPhone and Android devices is also a huge perk for me! Plus, if you use cryptocurrency, the deposit and withdrawal methods available are fantastic.

However, I do think Bovada needs to improve its banking methods for non-cryptocurrency transactions, plus it could provide some more lavish bonuses to existing players. However, all in all, Bovada is an incredible reputable casino to play at for US players.

Bovada FAQ