Bovada

Bovada is one of the most popular and well-known online betting sites, boasting tens of thousands of followers across their social media pages. The company lists itself as the ‘world’s best online sportsbook, casino, and poker room’ and has the history to back it. Bovada offers some of the best-received sports betting services, online casinos, live dealing, poker games, and horse racing. There’s quite a lot for the nearly ten-year-old company, which boasts a total customer count in the hundreds of thousands.

Even with a significant online and social presence, it’s utterly understandable to either not know Bovada as a provider or understand its services in general. That’s why this Bovada review exists, after all. As such, let’s look over the several extensive services Bovada offers, alongside information on just what these services do. Then, let’s get into it.

What is Bovada?

This question has quite a complicated answer. First, Bovada itself is a United States-exclusive service. Athough it’s a subsidiary of a large group, the Mohawk Morris Gaming Group (MMGG). Second, outside the United States, Bovada operated under the name Bodog. As the company’s previous owner has been under investigation for illegal gambling in Canada and the United States.

Luckily though, that’s no longer an issue for the company, and Bovada operates quality services as themselves. With some of the best-reviewed online betting sites currently available, Bovada has nothing but a clean slate now. That includes betting on the 30 sports currently available on their website and the five unique categories you can access.

As a result, the company has moved itself to become the top-rated US betting site with a mixture of high-quality offerings and being one of the first companies to make moves.

Bovada also happens to be an incredibly competitive company, offering some of the industry’s best deals, terms, and payout speeds. The company has a fantastic loyalty and VIP program. It helps to reward loyalty and use for players, in addition to letting you even pay with Bitcoin.

The United States has an incredibly strict gambling and betting law set. Only the biggest and best can not only operate but thrive, which Bovada has managed to do.

What services does Bovada offer?

As mentioned a few times already, Bovada offers five unique categories for you to bet and play on. There’s a decent bit of variety between the company’s services. These would include sports betting, Bovada casino, live dealing, poker, and horses. Each of these five has been constantly updated and filtered by Bovada to ensure that they have only the best offerings with guaranteed payouts.

For most of these, when you either bet or play, you get an incredible amount of transparency and options. In addition, Bovada makes sure to mention that you’re playing for cash prizes with any of these services, usually with just a $1 minimum. Otherwise, though, you’ll have the specific service requirements mentioned, which is incredibly helpful for building trust. Yet again, though, you can trust Bovada’s services as a whole, with their 10-year history.

Sportsbook

Bovada’s first service is their sportsbook, likely their most popular service. Through this selection, you’re able to view 30 sports games and odds, all for free. You don’t even need an account to view their collection, which is incredibly impressive. Of course, that’s ignoring Bovada’s integration with American sports, offering specific league games for the NFL, NCAA (Football), NBA, NCAA (Basketball), MLB, NHL, and most other significant tournaments or leagues.

There are some real opportunities for betting through Bovada’s sportsbook, and it’s understandable considering how many people trust the company. These include live betting events, which let you bet on current events, including scenarios and odds (which change in front of your eyes). From what I understand, Bovada’s one of the few licensed companies to offer live betting to American audiences. So that’s a big bonus.

Many other reviewers and I have a big issue with Bovada’s sportsbook is their inclusion of a betting line. Through this line, the company will offer more opportunities to casual/recreational bettors. In documents, they even mention that professional bettors, i.e., those who win a lot, will lose access to many significant bonuses alongside losing attractive betting opportunities. If there were a little more space for the company to give to winning bettors, that would be great. Although they have to make money somehow.

Bovada Casino

Sportsbook may be Bovada’s most popular service, although their casino may end up being their specialty. Through this section, you’re able to access over 220 video slots on top of virtual blackjack games, table games, casino bonuses, leaderboards, video poker, specialty games, and even live dealers. As a result, there’s a massive variety of things to do through Bovada’s casino, which usually ends up being a downside.

Luckily, that’s not the case! But, unfortunately, Bovada seems to keep their casino under unnecessary regulations. As most people (alongside myself) can’t seem to find any scamming/poorly-designed games through the service. I chalk that up to Bovada’s focus on quality over quantity, and I assume they have professionals within the company go through the new games often.

Even still, there’s an impressive amount of quantity as well. As mentioned, the company boasts over 220 video slots alone, alongside countless other poker games, live dealers, table games, and the like. Of course, that’s in addition to bonuses and leaderboards built directly into the casino design, which lets you claim deals and view your position among the thousands that use Bovada casino in general.

Live Dealer

The third offering from Bovada is live dealer, which you can access through Bovada casino as well. This service lets you choose from dozens of live games with live dealers. These tables deal with real money across blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and super 6. Through the company’s live dealer interface alone, you can see the number of players, the current pot, pricing, and the dealer leading the games.

It’s imposing considering the number of dealers and games going on at one point. While many other established services may be looking at 3-10 dealers, at the time of writing this review, there are over 30. Again, impressive, especially considering just how much the company offers in terms of other quality services.

Poker

It’s poker. Even still, Bovada has quite an excellent design and advantage, letting you choose between playing poker, learning how to play poker, view bonuses, get started, join tournaments, and use special features exclusive to Bovada. I like the openness of Bovada’s web interface for poker. It has games and tournaments at the top and a guide on how to play poker at the bottom.

As for the actual special features of Bovada, there are quite a lot. The company gives you the option to view them in the corner. Overall, you can get quite a bit of customization, including quick seating, zone poker, chat, anonymous tables, visibility adjustments, card designs, table customizations, setup changes, and quite a few more. Poker is a pretty standard appearance for companies like Bovada. They bring enough to the table to make it unique.

Horses

Horse racing is a staple of Bovada and one that they do well. Just off the homepage of horses, you’re able to view the next five races across dozens of tracks. On top of that, you gain immediate access to placed horses with their odds. I especially like how Bovada instantly lets you place bets on whether a horse will win/place/show, with the option to swap between that, exacta, and trifecta.

On top of quite a lot of upfront transparency about horse racing, you’re also left with the option to choose from nearly 30 different tracks, running multiple races with multiple horses. There’s a lot of variety and specifics to choose from, meaning that you’ll be able to do quite a lot through the company’s services.

What payments and bonuses does Bovada offer?

Deposit/Payment Methods

Bovada lets you bet using a wide variety of deposits. That includes MatchPay (uses Square, Venmo, PayPal, etc.), Bitcoin, Litecoin, vouchers, Bitcoin Cash, Zelle, and virtually any credit/debit card. While most of these aren’t entirely impressive, the cryptocurrency selection is. A company operating in the United States, Bovada has cryptocurrency as a deposit method is fantastic. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many companies that are allowed to or let you pay with Bitcoin or other cryptos.

Payouts and Withdrawals

One of Bovada’s top recommendations is built off of the company’s quick withdrawals. The minimum withdrawal is $20, which is entirely understandable. The max you can get by check is $3,000 and $9,500 for Bitcoin. Bitcoin payments can be processed within minutes and transferred by then, while reviews still take ten days. You also have the option to withdraw up to these amounts every 1-7 days by check and 1-3 days by Bitcoin.

Bovada has built itself on being transparent and having quality services, which carries over to its withdrawal and payout methods. In addition, they’re speedy to confirm virtually any request, moving to get you your money within just a few minutes to a few days. That’s much faster than many competing services and just bolstered by how efficiently the company’s designed to handle large transactions with a large customer base.

There’s also the whole ‘you can withdraw in four different ways(!).’ which is incredible. For reference, these would include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Check by Courier, and Vouchers. That’s a lot more than most competing services, and it’s great to both send and receive money anonymously through Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash. You can reinvest your money with vouchers too. It’s great.

Bovada Bonus

As such, Bovada realizes that. Bovada Bitcoin payments are a great way to keep anonymity, and it lets Bovada potentially earn a return on your purchase. That’s why there is a Bovada bonus section, which enables you to know all the company’s current bonuses and promotions. There’s quite a selection, which is excellent for newcomers (and veterans alike), including:

• a $750 Bitcoin sports bonus;
• a $3,750 Bitcoin casino bonus;
• referral programs;
• rewards points;
• a $250 sports bonus;
• a $3,000 casino welcome bonus;
• and a 100% poker welcome bonus.

There is quite a lot in potential earnings for you if you join Bovada or use Bitcoin as an already existing member. My favorite aspect, though, is the company’s rewards and referral program.

What is Bovada Rewards?

For Bovada USA players, there’s a rewards program quite a bit, unlike what other similarly sized companies offer. Called Bovada Rewards, it’s a great way to earn a few more rewards and a bit of cashback if you use the company’s services often. Plus, it’s automatically enabled, meaning that you’ll start earning cashback and unlocking unique things immediately.

According to the company’s website, you earn cash at around 2,500 points, becoming a Pro level at 25,000. As for making points, it’s between 1 and 60 points per dollar spent on different services. There are also bonuses for playing in cash games, tournaments, or jackpots, with levels letting you redeem more as you go on. I like the idea of this rewards system, although the rewards could be a bit greater.

At a total of 2,500 (upwards of $2,500 spent) points, you’ll be able to cash in for $1. That’s a 0.04% cashback bonus, although it moves up to 0.1% as you level up. Luckily though, rewards also let you access payment methods such as Bitcoin, alongside redeeming points for play. I wasn’t too fond of the program when I heard cashback was between just 0.04 and 0.1%, although the ability to earn unique benefits and payment methods alongside betting with points makes it not too bad.

Bovada – is it safe and legit?

Without a doubt, yes. The United States has some stringent laws, guidelines, and regulations for gambling and betting, so the fact that Bovada even exists to operate with US citizens is impressive. On top of the company’s 10-year history and its previous history alongside Bodog, there’s not too much questionable about Bovada.

The hundreds of thousands of loyal customers and the thousands following the company’s social pages also seem to agree, with hundreds of glowing reviews and testaments. Even fellow reviews seem to put Bovada near the top of their lists, just thanks to how well they do things. They push quality over quantity and still manage to offer hundreds of individual events is incredible.

Ownership

As for the company’s owners, Morris Mohawk Gaming Group is headquartered in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. That’s a great sign towards their reputability, as many parent companies with several subsidiaries headquarter themselves in less trustworthy countries. Alongside the US, Canada does an excellent job of regulating and controlling its gambling scene. MMGG is also licensed under the Kahnawake Gaming Commission to operate globally, holding just about any license required. That’s on top of the current CEO’s, Alwyn Morris, reputability.

Bovada Verification

All you need to access Bovada is a name, email, date of birth, mobile number, password, currency, zip code, and optionally a referral email. Yes, that’s it. No KYC. Having low requirements like this can prove troublesome sometimes when done incorrectly, but I think Bovada does it well. It helps to show how trusting Bovada is, in addition to the company’s general transparency.

You also don’t have to worry about filling in an SSN or other sensitive personal information (i.e., a credit or debit card), which is yet another significant aspect of Bovada.

Website Security

Bovada is also a secured website hosting a valid and up-to-date SSL certificate. In addition, at the bottom of Bovada’s website, you can view the company’s help center, affiliate program, about section, terms of service, forms & agreements, privacy policy, social sites, and responsible gaming explanation. That’s just about everything you’d like to see from a company like Bovada, and it’s great to see.

Bitcoin as a payment option also helps bolster Bovada’s security, using the power of anonymous blockchain technology to make your purchases anonymous and transparent. Overall, I’d say Bovada is just about where any company would like to be in terms of privacy, security, and transparency, in addition to giving some quality services to the masses.

Conclusion

I’d say Bovada is a great betting and casino site, and I heavily recommend it. The pure quality of the company’s five offerings and the reputability behind them are astonishing. While they’ve had some issues in the form of their connection to the troubled Bodog, the fact that their parent company ditched them in 2011 is excellent.

There’s also the fact that the company is completely transparent and secure, with no real significant issues in the past. Bovada fitting so well into the Americas’ regulations and laws is another big win. It just goes to show just how determined the company is to modify itself for the customer. I much prefer having a company willing to go the distance to make it easier for you, rather than the other way.

Plus, Bovada’s free. So there’s nothing in the form of issues with the company. While sure, some services are likely missing or underdeveloped compared to some competing software, and you can do so much worse than Bovada. That’s why I recommend you check out their services.