In this post, we focused on Bovada. We will review Bovada and tell you if is legit and also legal to play in. We also evaluate the complaints and feedbck of the pokers players.

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Bovada is a gaming house that has documented affairs with other gaming houses. There’s the always mentioned relationship with Bodog, and there’s the brief romance with Ignition Casino.

It can make you wonder what the position of Bovada is. Is this a legit gaming platform; and if it is, do they provide the services that an ideal house should? Is Bovada worth my time and money?

This review will examine the Bovada (albeit the poker room) in other to provide the information that’ll help you answer those questions.

Bovada review at a glance

• Bovada was created in 2011 as the US version of Bodog, so they accept only US players
• The poker room is one of its many offerings, with the others being a casino, live dealer games, sports betting, and horse racing
• Offers cash games (such as Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Omaha Hi/Lo) and a host of poker tournaments
• Have the largest player pool of pokers rooms that accept US players
• Features anonymous tables and offers a fast fold poker variant
• They attract a lot of recreational players
• Deposit methods are bitcoin and credit cards; withdrawal methods are bitcoin, wire transfer, and check by courier
• Customer support is available 24/7 via email, live chat and telephone

Is Bovada Poker room legit?

Bovada is legit. You’ll need real money to play real money games in a betting house, so you’ll have to send money in to fund your account with the poker house. It shouldn’t surprise you that scam artist can use a betting house as a front to scam people. So sending money to an online platform is what you shouldn’t do until you have determined that the platform is legit; else you might have to wave goodbye to the money.

The best test to determining that an online gambling operator is legit is to look out for an operating license and whether it’s from a reputable licensing jurisdiction. Just like a drivers license means a legal jurisdiction has tested and passed you fit to drive; a gaming license means a legal jurisdiction had looked into the gaming operator and permits it to operate. The licensing jurisdiction also serves to regulate the gaming operator and ensure that it continues to operate fairly.

In this regard, Bovada used to have a gaming license from the Kahnawake Gambling Commission (KGC); and the KGC is one of the best regulators of online gaming houses in the business. If you caught that; Bovada used to have a KGC license, which has been rescinded. Then why does it still matter? The KGC has some of the most stringent rules; thus, Bovada played to very high standards to have the KGC license. Also, the license was rescinded not for any wrongdoing on Bovada’s part, but because the KGC responded to some “funny” gambling US regulations by deciding to withdraw their license from gambling operators accepting members from the US.

Thus, Bovada still operates to the high standards set when under the oversight of KGC. However, not having an operating license means that they are not regulated, and many bettors still see this as a minus on their part.

If, for you, the absence of an operating license punches a hole in their legit claim, then you should consider that Bovada passes the test of time. They have existed for a number of years, and they have never missed a payout. Suffice it to say that no scam house can stay in operation for years ripping people off; also, scam houses do the opposite of “never missing a payout”. That said; there’s no doubt that Bovada poker room is legit.

Also read- Is Yukon Gold Casino Legit?

Is Bovada Poker safe?

Bovada is safe. You share personal and sensitive information when you create an account to use a poker room. You’ll need the poker room to be safe; that is, ensuring that the information you share with it is secured and will not be captured by third parties (read as: cyber criminals). You definitely don’t want information like your credit card details to fall into the hands of such third parties. Thus a legit poker room that won’t rip you off is not enough; a legit and safe poker room is what you want.

Bovada uses a variety of methods to ensure the security of customers, data. First, they use SSL technology with AES 128 bit encryption. SSL (Secure Socket Layer) creates a secure link between your device and their servers; thus, when your device communicates with their servers every data that is shared is passed through a secure link, away from the eyes and eyes of third parties. The data is also encrypted with a currently unbreakable encryption protocol to ensure that even if intercepted, it cannot be read.

Bovada use payment processors that are also highly safe; and the software is virus free, so there’s no worries for the security of your device. There’s no doubt that Bovada is safe.

Who can play in Bovada?

Bovada is a US facing poker room; and so they accept bettors from only the US. If you’re from outside the US, you’ll have to use Bovada’s parent site (Bodog) or try out another poker room. However, because individual US states have different gambling regulations, there are some US states that Bovada does not accept bettors from. These include: Washington, Nevada, New Hersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

The “US bettors only” requirement limits the audience that can use Bovada, and put the poker room at a disadvantage when compared to poker rooms with a worldwide focus.

That said; you still have to be of legal age to join and use Bovada poker room. Legal age is mostly 18 years and above; but there are jurisdictions that require that their residents be up to 21 to be able to wager money online.

Features

Software

Online poker rooms simply use software to create the experience of the card games in brick and mortar poker rooms. Thus, it’s a no brainer that the software has to be top notch.

In this regard, Bovada poker room uses the same tested and trusted software as Bodog. The black and red colour theme of Bodog is adopted, giving it a serious and clean feel. Apart from the aesthetic, you’ll also find that the software is functional.

There are some special features in the Bovada poker software that are rarely seen in other online Poker rooms. One of such is the rabbit card; it permits the dealer to deal a turn even though the actual hand has ended in other to see how the hand would have turned (whether the fold was a good or a bad one).

Anonymous Tables

The distinctive feature of Bovada Poker room from other online poker rooms is the anonymous tables of Bovada. This means that Bovada does not show players’ screen names on their poker tables. Everyone on the table is listed using the seat they are sitting in. Thus, what you’ll see on the tables is “Player 1”, “Player 2” and so on.

When Bovada made the decision to anonymize their poker tables, the move was highly controversial, but it’s a feature that has remained. Anonymous tables mean that nobody on a Bovada table can track the other players on the table.

Usually professional poker players use HUD (Heads up display) to track and prey on recreational players. HUD is a computer app that collects and displays statistics about your opponents. With HUD in your system, the information will be displayed on the poker table next to each player. It basically reveals the strategies of your opponents because it shows how they played in similar situations in the past. Thus, you’ll be guided when you’re deciding whether to fold, check or bet. Thus, seasoned players use HUD to easily identify recreational players, and jump on these ones. In such a situation, the recreational player will almost always lose, because HUD-aided vets has identified him/ her as “a losing player” and will queue up to be on the table.

However, HUD works only by looking up hand histories using screen names; thus, with anonymized tables, HUD is defeated. As you would have guessed, rendering HUD powerless will be frowned upon by seasoned players, but will be welcome news for recreational players.

In our opinion, anonymizing poker tables is an exemplary move because it levels the playing field by ensuring that no one on the table is aided or disadvantaged by tracking technology. It makes poker what it should be – purely a game of strategy. The anonymized tables of Bovada poker is one reason they attract a lot of recreational and losing players, because these players won’t want to go to poker rooms where they’ll be easy preys.

Zone Poker

Bovada launched Zone Poker in the third quarter of 2013. It’s Bovada’s version of PokerStar’s Zoom Poker and Full Tilt Poker’s Rush Poker. It’s a fast-fold poker offering; as soon as you fold a hand, you open a new hand, and are instantly brought to a new table. You do not have to wait for hands that you’re not part of to complete; as a result, you can see more hands in less time than you will in cash games.

You can join as many as 4 Zone pools, with two seats in the same Zone pool. Since zone poker considerably increases the number of hands you can play, it is what you need if you want to clear your bonus quickly, or if you only have a few minutes to spare gaming and you want to maximize your winning.

Quick Seats

Quick Seat is a feature that was added to Bovada poker room (and all poker rooms in the Pai Wang Luo Network) in 2017. It makes table selection at cash games impossible. You can only choose the game type, limits, and table size; and Bovada will seat you at a random table that meet your specifications.

The quick seat feature is a welcome development as it takes protection of recreational players to greater heights. Basic stats of cash games (such as percentage of players seeing flop) can be used by poker vets to identify tables with recreational and losing players; and with table selection, you’ll find these vets queuing to seat at such tables in other to bleed the recreational players. Quick seat eliminate the scenario, as players no longer get to choose the table they sit on.

However, if your specs are not popular, you may find yourself matched to a table that will take long to fill up. Generally, low stakes table fill up pretty quickly, while high stake tables may take some waiting.

Player Traffic

The ideal poker room should have decent traffic, as poker is a multi player game. Without traffic, you’ll find many tables in the poker room empty or half filled, and you’ll have some waiting to do to get in on the poker action.

Being a “US players only” poker room, you’ll be forgiven to think that Bovada poker room will fall far behind poker rooms with a worldwide focus. However, not one poker room that accepts US players comes close to Bovada in terms of traffic. Bovada poker room has twice as many members as the closest challenger. In terms of worldwide traffic, Bovada consistently features in the top 10. This is hugely impressive because their one country focus should naturally limit the market.

Another important consideration when analyzing player traffic is players’ toughness. If you know that a poker room is dominated by the heavy weights, you’ll already know what chance you’ll have in the house if you consider yourself a feather weight. Thus, the ideal poker room should not only have decent traffic, but should also have a good pool of feather weights.

Bovada poker room comes out strong in this regard. They have one of the loosest clientele of poker players. Two things guarantee this: Bovada’s protection of recreational and losing players, and Bovada’s secondary offerings of casino and sports betting and co. In the first; recreational players know that they’ll be easily identified and preyed upon in other casinos where vets are equipped with HUD. So they’ll rather choose Bovada where features like anonymous tables and Quick seat even the playing field and give them a fighting chance.

Secondly, Bovada’s secondary offerings mean that players will often cross over from the casino, sportsbook, and racebook to try their hand in the poker room. The result is that you’ll have inexperienced poker players in the house, as opposed to a dedicated poker house that’ll always have only poker-focused and more aggressive players.

Rake

The rake is the commission fee that the house collects. It is usually taken from the pot; thus, you’ll want the rake to be as low as possible, so that when you’re the lucky winner that drags the pot, you’ll take home as much as possible. In this regard, Bovada poker room shines.

For so long their rake was as follows: At $0.10 – $0.25 stake levels the rake is 1 cent for each 20 cents in the pot up to a maximum of 50 cents; and with higher stake, the rake is 5 cents for each $1.00 in the pot up to a maximum of $3.00. This was the lowest rake in the poker world. They have now increased their rake, with the maximum table rake now $4 (a $1.00 addition to the previous $3.00). However, that’s still one of the lowest rakes in the industry.

Games

There are two main formats of playing poker which are cash games and tournament plays. Thus, an ideal poker room should hold a good number of cash games and tournaments.

Cash Games

Cash games, which are also called ring games, have been associated with freedom, because you have the option to quit a game at any time, and if you lose all your chips/ money you may decide to buy-in again and continue playing. Bovada poker room gives you this freedom by providing a good number of cash games.

You’ll find games like games like No Limit Texas Hold’em, Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, and Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. More importantly, you’ll find that these games are available for players at every level; there are high stakes, middle stakes, low stakes, and the micros stakes games. Cash games are offered in Heads-up, 6-max and full ring 9-handed formats.

Playing Cash games in Bovada gives one of the best poker experience in the world because there is a large player pool to feed almost every game format, and most importantly, games are loose than you’ll find them in most other online poker rooms.

Tournament

The ideal poker room will not only have poker tournaments, but will have a busy tournament schedule. Bovada ticks the box. If you’re a big fan of poker tourneys, there’s no reason not to be in Bovada poker room. You’ll find that during the peaks (evenings and weekends) there’ll be about 5 – 8 tournaments per hour available. Also, there is a good range of buy-ins; you’ll find tournament with a buy-in as low as $1.00, up to those with a buy-in of $100.

There are many things to like about tournaments in Bovada poker room. The first is pretty obvious; you cannot have action packed tournaments without the players. Because Bovada boasts one of the largest players’ pool of online poker rooms, most of their tournaments draw between 200 and 800 players, and you’ll find a good mix of recreationals (recs) and professionals (pros).

Secondly, we particularly loved the “Knockouts” (bounty tournaments), where you’re rewarded for knocking out (eliminating) a player from the tournament. The reward is usually a percentage (usually about 25%) of the eliminated player’s buy-in. We love this because if you find yourself eliminating players and collecting the bounties on their head, even if you do not end in the winning positions in the tournament, you’ll probably have recouped (or gotten more than) your buy-in.

We also love that Bovada poker tournaments were full of guarantees. The biggest guarantees are saved for the weekend; there’s the eye-catching Sunday major which is $100,000 guaranteed with $150 + 12 buy-in. Granted, you’ll find that some poker site with tournament’s prize which dwarfs the $100,000 major of Bovada. However, Bovada has dozens of other guaranteed tournaments with combined prize pool in the millions. This include $25,000 guaranteed short stack with $55 buy-in, $10,000 guarantee Turbo short stack with $109 buy-in, $8,000 guarantee deep stack with $11 buy-in, and more.

Sit & Go

Bovada poker room offers numerous Sit & Gos which includes (but not limited to) Double Ups, Triple Ups and Turbo. The latest addition to the drawer is Jackpot Sit & Go.

If you’ll want to combine jackpot thrills with poker action, Bovada Poker room has now added Jackpot Sit & Go to their offerings. These are 3 players tournament that takes just about three minutes, and the winner takes the whole prize pool. There are four Jackpot Sit & Gos: $2 buy-in with jackpot up to $2,400; $7 buy-in with jackpot up to $8,400; $15 buy-in with jackpot up to $18,000; and $30 buy-in with jackpot up to $36,000.

That means that the highest prize pool is 1,200 times the buy-in. However, the prize pool taken by the winner is determined randomly (jackpot-style). Therefore, winners get the highest prize (1,200 times buy-in) on the rare occasions. Over 70% of the time, it’s only 2 times the buy-in; and about 25% of the time, it’s 5 times the buy-in.

That said; the fast action of these tournaments and the chance at winning big makes Jackpot Sit & Gos a welcome offering. It’s especially so as it’s the only poker tournament that is available on the Bovada mobile poker room.

Promotions

Everybody likes the idea of free money; and that is what promotions means to players. Thus, the ideal poker room should offer a great deal of enticing promotions. In this regard, Bovada runs the usuals which include a welcome bonus, a loyalty program, and a referral program.

Welcome Bonus

Gaming houses usually welcome new players with a bonus. It’s their way of thanking you for choosing them over the competition. Thus, the welcome bonus need be attractive enough. Bovada’s surely is.

When you join Bovada poker room, you’ll get 100% match bonus up to $500. This is one of the biggest welcome bonuses in the poker world. To maximize the value of the offer, you’ll have to deposit $500 to receive the cash bonus of $500. However, $1,000 does not get credited to your cash account; the deposit ($500) will be credited to your cash account, while the bonus ($500) is credited to your bonus account.

The catch is you cannot withdraw the bonus; you’ll have to clear it to move it to your cash account before you can withdraw it. Thankfully, Bovada gives 30 days to clear your bonus. This is pretty much the industry standard. However, if you look, you’ll find poker rooms that allow more time (60 – 90 days) for clearing of bonuses.

To clear the bonus, you’ll have to earn Poker Points. The more points you earn, the more bonus money is released. The bonus is released as follows:

• $5 is released after earning 15 Poker Points
• $20 more is released after earning 85 Poker Points
• $25 more is released after earning 185 Poker Points
• $50 more is released after earning 500 Poker Points
• $150 more is released after earning 1,500 Poker Points
• The final $250 is released after earning 1,500 Poker Points

You earn poker points simply by how much rake you contribute to the pot as you play cash games or how much tournament fees you pay. As you play cash games and contribute to the pot, or as you pay tournament fees, you’ll earn Poker Points. Earning poker points is straightforward in tournaments; you’ll earn 3 poker points for every $1.00 paid in tournament fees. Earning poker points in cash games is not as straight forward; what poker points you earn depends on the rake you contribute to each hand as follows:

• Earn 1 point for a rake of $1.00 – $3.00
• Earn 0.50 points for a rake of $0.50 – $0.99
• Earn 0.25 points for a rake of $0.25 – $0.49
• Earn $0.10 points for a rake of $0.05 – $0.24
• Earn 0.05 points for a rake of $0.01 – $0.04

What it means is that high rollers get out more money. However, the value of the bonus is front-loaded; thus, it takes a few points to release the first $50 in bonus money. Thus, low rollers who will have a low bonus amount credited, in the first place, won’t have to sweat it out to clear their bonus.

Banking Options

Deposits

You’ll have to deposit money into your account with the poker room to be able to play games to have any chance of boosting your bankroll. Thus, you need a banking method for making the deposits. In this regard, many players will want poker rooms that spoil with a long list of deposit options so that they can easily find one to use.

However, Bovada poker room does not give many options. They currently support only bitcoin and credit cards (all the major credit cards). Despite the limited deposit options Bovada is almost always rated high in the deposit department because they offer fast, easy and efficient deposits.

The bitcoin deposit; the minimum deposit is $25 while the maximum is $5,000, and there are no charges whatsoever. However, for credit card deposits; the minimum is $25, the maximum deposit is $1,500, while there is a 5.9% processing fee attached.

I’m not a big fan of paying someone to collect my money in the first place; if you’re like me in this regard, you’ll gladly want to jump on the bitcoin ship. It might take a few minutes learning the hoops of setting up and using a bitcoin wallet; but trust me, it’s worth it as it saves you the 5.9% processing fee on most of your deposit.

If you caught that; you might not have to pay the 5.9% processing fee on all credit cards deposits because it is sometimes waived by Bovada. If it’s your first deposit, you might find it waived; also, if you’ve not made any deposit for a very long time, they might waive it to encourage you to do the needful.

Whatever the case, I’ll have bitcoin all the way. It’s even better when it comes to the transaction processing speed; while credit cards transactions may have you waiting a few minutes, with bitcoin deposits, you’ll have your account credited instantly.

Withdrawals

Watching your account with the poker room grow is exciting, but what’s even more exciting is requesting payment and getting paid. In fact, withdrawals/ payouts the ultimate test of a legit poker room; thus, you’ll find that the scam label is thrown at any poker room with payment issues.

That said; the ideal poker room should have efficient systems for paying bettors. It usually starts from the number of payment methods. In this regard, just as with their deposit options, Bovada does not support a wide range of payment options. They issue payout through only three methods, namely: bitcoin, wire transfer, and check by courier. The limited options also do not seem to affect reviews because they are super-efficient.

Is Bovada Legit

For Bitcoin payouts; the minimum you can request is $20, while the maximum is $5,000. There are no fees associated; and interestingly, you’ll receive the payment is under a day (sometimes within an hour). For check payments; the minimum that you can request is $100, but there is no maximum amount. However, there is a $75 processing fee charged, it’ll take about 7 – 10 business days to receive the check, and you can request only one payment in a week. For bank wire transfer, the minimum that can be withdrawn is $1,500 while the maximum is $1,000,000. The processing fee is $50, but you’ll still wait 7 – 10 business days to receive it, and you can only request one transfer in a week.

That said; Bitcoin stands out as the best payment method. It offers the lowest minimum withdrawable, zero processing fees; it is free and the fastest means. Where dodging the processing fees is the best selling point of bitcoin, it should be said that you can get free withdrawal once a month with the other two withdrawal methods.

How does Bovada really fare when it comes to payouts? To answer that, we’ll say that no online poker room comes close to Bovada when it comes to payouts. They literally boast that they have not missed a withdrawal request. That tells you that you’ll definitely get paid in this poker room.

Is Bovada Legit 2020

Also, if you think how fast it takes you to receive your payment after requesting is very important; you’ll fall in love with Bovada. This is because they are the pacesetters in fast payouts. Bovada was paying members within a week, even when other poker rooms thought of it as impracticable. Today, other online poker rooms have been forced to see fast payouts as something that must be delivered, and many have been able to offer that, but none can still compare to the payout speed of Bovada.

Customer Support

You simply cannot use a betting house without needing to have some questions answered or some issues resolved. Thus, the ideal poker room should have channels for providing the needed assistance – answering questions and addressing issues.

Like most modern platforms, Bovada provides an FAQ page that customers can look up to find answers without having to contact the company. The FAQ is robust enough, and holds answers to most questions such as those relating to making deposits and withdrawals, using bitcoin, bonuses offered, and more.

Is Bovada Legitimate

However, if you’ll rather get direct contact with Bovada, there are different options that you may use which includes email, live chat, and telephone service. If you use the email service, one of their support reps will respond in a few hours. This is relatively fast if you consider that some betting houses can keep you waiting for up to two day. However, if you want no waiting at all, there’s the live chat for you, as well as the telephone service. In the live chat, you won’t be kept waiting in queues until an agent is online, so prompt responses are guaranteed. The telephone line (1-888-263-0000) is toll free, so you won’t have to worry about charges when picking up the phone to get assistance. The best part of the customer support service is that it is active 24 hours a day.

Summary

There’s no doubt that Bovada poker room is legit. Operating without a formal license is not desirable, but the poker room continues to show the hallmark of a legit platform which is never missing a payout.

That said the poker room checks many attributes in the list of the ideal poker room. They have the highest player pool of any poker room that accepts US players, and ranks in the top ten in the world. This is a great feat being that they only accept US players. Their player pool is also easily the loosest you’ll find in the poker world because they attract a lot of recreational players (recs).

They attract recs because they are the best poker room when it comes to the protection of recs. Their anonymous tables render HUD powerless, and their Quick seat feature makes table selection impossible so recs cannot be preyed on.

You’ll also find that Bovada: has a very clean, professional and easy to use software with some rare and exciting features such as rabbit hunting; offers a range of popular poker cash games available from micro stake to high stake levels; and offers dozens of action packed tournament. You’re guaranteed exciting poker action in Bovada poker room. Lastly, if your test of legitimacy is payout, then you’ll rather be in Bovada poker room. They never miss a payout; and they blow others away by how fast they deliver payment.

Pros

• Poker action available on mobile
• Software have some features such as rabbit hunting
• Have a very good welcome bonus of 100% matched up to $500
• Protects recreational and losing players by anonymizing their poker tables and making table selection impossible
• The only US facing poker room that offers fast-fold poker action (the Zone Poker)
• Has one of the largest player pools in the world, and the largest among poker rooms that accept US players
• Features one of the loosest clientele of poker players
• Offer simple, fast, and efficient deposit and withdrawal methods
• Multiple means to contact customer support; and the service is available 24/ 7

Cons

• Accept only US players
• Operating without a license
• Renders HUD useless (for those who’ll want the advantage that HUD provide)
• Mobile version does not have poker tournaments