Bovada Sportsbook Review

Bovavda is owned by the Mohawk Morris Gaming Group (MMGG) who had previously been licensing Bodog software. When the Bodog brand left the United States after Black Friday in 2011, Bovada.lv was launched to serve the brand’s US-based customers.

Although Bovada operates from a sovereign Indian Reservation where no financial reporting is required, the brand and MMGG are both considered highly reputable.

With such a long and storied history in US sports betting, Bovada has unsurprisingly become one of the go-to sports betting websites for US-based gamblers. However, it’s important to note that Bovada doesn’t serve customers from every US state. New customers located in Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey cannot register at the sportsbook, but players who live in those states and already have accounts can still use them.

Bovada also runs an online casino that is powered by Real Time Gaming (RTG).

Now, that you know a little about what Bovada is, let’s take a closer look at its sportsbook offerings.

Welcome Bonuses

New customers at Bovada can take advantage of two different types of welcome bonus — 1 cash bonus and 1 crytpo bonus.

50% Welcome Bonus

All new customers are offered an instant 50% match bonus for any first deposit up to $250. Simply make a first deposit and you’ll receive your bonus credit within 30 minutes.

75% Bitcoin Welcome Bonus

Bovada is pushing the crypto envelope by encouraging customers to use Bitcoin through a great first deposit 75% match bonus up to the value of $750.

Use code BTCSWB750 when making a Bitcoin or Bitcoin cash deposit.

The rollover on these bonuses is set at just 5X making it one of the lower rollover rates available from any online sportsbook. What this means is that you need to wager an amount that is equal to 5X your original deposit and bonus amount before you can make a cash withdrawal. For sports fans that place bets regularly, meeting that threshold should be no trouble at all.

Promotions

Aside from the sportsbook welcome bonuses, Bovada also runs some casino deposit bonuses, a refer a friend bonus, and a loyalty rewards program.

Bovada Casino deposit bonuses

Use code CAWELCOME100 to receive a 100% Match Welcome Bonus up to $1,000

Use code BV2NDCWB to receive a 100% Second Casino Bonus up to $1000 (this can be used twice)

Bovada Casino crypto bonus

Use code BTCCWB1250 for a First Time Bitcoin Deposit 125% Match Bonus up to $1,250

Use code BTC2NDCWB for a Second Bitcoin Deposit 125% Match Bonus up to $1,250 (this can be used twice)

Refer a friend bonus

Bovada encourages its customers to refer a friend by offering a $100 bonus for each friend that signs up, makes a deposit, and places a wager. This is increased by a further $25 if your friend uses Bitcoin or Bitcoin cash.

This bonus can be redeemed for as many friends as you convince to join the sportsbook or casino.

Loyalty Reward Program

Bovada runs a pretty good rewards program with rewards points awarded for every dollar spent at the sportsbook, in the casino, or at the poker tables. These points can be exchanged for cash bonuses at any time.

The loyalty rewards program consists of 6 levels:

Level Lifetime Points Required Points Redemption Rate
Starter 0 2,500/$1
Rookie 2,500 – 24,999 2,500/$1
Pro 25,000 – 149,999 1,666/$1
All-Star 150,000 – 999,999 1,250/$1
Legend 1,000,000 – 4,999,999 1,000/$1
Hall of Fame 5,000,000 1,000/$1

Points can be earned at the following rates:

Wager Dollar Spent Rewards Points Earned
Sports singles $1 3
Sports teasers $1 15
Sports round robin $1 25
Sports parlays $1 25
Racebook straight wager $1 40
Racebook exotics/multiples $1 60

The thing that impressed us the most about Bovada’s loyalty program is that once you’ve made it to a certain level, you can never drop down again. With other rewards programs you need to maintain a certain level of activity, but here your reward level status is based on your lifetime betting activity. This shows that the company isn’t pushing you to keep spending all the time which is always a good thing.

What can I bet on at Bovada?

Bovada offers odds on an impressive range of sports including:

Of course, there are a lot more sports covered but those are the most popular.

Types of bets available of BetUS

There’s no real surprise here as Bovada offers you the chance to place all the usual types of wagers you’d expect to find at most online sportsbooks.

These options include but are not limited to:

Live betting at Bovada

While live betting should be standard fare on most mobile sportsbooks, not every operator handles it well. Thankfully, Bovada has perfected their live betting feature offering odds on some incredibly specific outcomes such as the success of the next pass in a football game or whether or not a player will get a hit or walk in a baseball game.

Live bets are limited to anywhere from $1 to $100 and the odds are dynamic and change constantly. While live betting isn’t available on every event listed on the sportsbook, you’ll find quite a lot of the major sports have this feature for most games.

Banking at Bovada

Deposits

Bovada offers quite an extensive range of deposit methods with a real emphasis on trying to get customers to make use of the crypto methods.

Cash or bank transfer 

Customers need to call Bovada customer support to make arrangements for a cash or bank transfer.

MatchPay

This allows customers to deposit using their chosen payment processor including:

and more

Card

Cryptocurrency

Deposit limits

Method Minimum Deposit Maximum Deposit
Visa/MasterCard/AMEX $20 $1,500
BTC, BCH, BSV, LTC $10 $5,000
ETH $50 $5,000
Player Transfer $10 $15,000
Direct Bank Transfer $50 $450
MatchPay $20 $1,000

Withdrawals

Withdrawals can be made in several ways:

As per the Bovada terms and conditions, some players may be allowed to request additional withdrawal options based on the status of their account and the amount they wish to withdraw.

There are no fees for voucher or cryptocurrency withdrawals. Any fees associated with withdrawals made by check are covered by Bovada at a rate of one withdrawal per 90 days. Any further withdrawals within that period will incur a fee.

Bovada software and platform

Bovada has developed an incredibly easy to use website with everything you could possible need found on the homepage or in the drop down menu. The betting slip appears at the bottom of the screen with a tab for any open bets you may have.

One thing of note is that Bovada has made the decision to stick with a browser for mobile sports betting so there are no iOS or Android apps available. Interestingly though, this really doesn’t matter at all as the mobile version of the site works just as well as the desktop. During out tests on both the mobile and desktop websites we were able to find odds for an upcoming event and place a wager with relative ease. And best of all, odds were current and there were no glitches or bugs that we could find.

All in all, a stellar experience.

Customer Support

This is the section of every review that we sometimes struggle with as customer support isn’t always a major priority at online sportsbooks. Thankfully, that is not the case at Bovada as the company has gone out of its way to provide support and customer resources covering all aspects of the website and its services.

Alongside an extensive library of help articles, there are three points of contact for customer support. These are:

Live Chat

If you can’t find your answer in the help topics, hit the ‘no’ button and you’ll be given an option to enter Live Chat. This is a pretty good service that runs 24 hours a day. In our test, our query was answered in about five minutes.

Email

Hit that ‘no’ button on a help topic and you’ll also be given an option to email Bovada. This should only really be used for non-urgent queries as replies can take as long as 48 hours to come through. No ideal, but still good to have it as an option.

Telephone

There is a toll-free telephone number in numerous locations online as Bovada customer support. However, the company doesn’t offer these details on the website suggesting that it may be in the process of being phased out.

In all honesty, there’s so much information in both the help topic section and the Bovada community section that you probably won’t need to use any of the options mentioned above. Like we said earlier, the company goes out of its way to ensure that the support resources are there so you can find your answer by yourself.

That said, our experience with the live chat feature was perfect so we’re giving Bovada top marks for customer support.

The verdict

After spending a few days making wagers and getting to know the sportsbook’s various features, we’ve decided to make Bovada our top sportsbook pick for US-based sports fans.

The live betting feature works very well with dynamic odds that are regularly updated while the user interface is extremely well-laid out and easy to navigate.

Although the welcome bonuses may not be the best in the industry, Bovada’s loyalty rewards program is excellent with reward levels based on your lifetime usage and not your monthly sports betting activity. Add to that the stellar customer resources and an excellent user community, and you have a top notch website that deserves its place as our #1 sportsbook for US sports fans.