Review of Bovada for 2024

Author: Isaac Payne | Last Updated: July 2024

Bovada is a world-renowned gambling site with options for sports-bettors, casino gamblers, poker players, and horse-race bettors. They’ve been in business for a long time, and are one of the best sites to gamble online.

In this Bovada review, I’ll walk you through all the bonuses, banking options, and ways to wager at Bovada. Make sure to read to the end to get the full scoop on this gambling site!

Overall Star Rating: 5/5 stars

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In this review | About BovadaMy ExperienceBonusesVIP / LoyaltyBanking MethodsCasinoSportsbookPoker RoomMobile ExperienceSafety and SecurityCustomer ServiceHow to Sign UpFinal Verdict

Website:	Bovada.lv
Online Since:	2011
Bonus:	125% Up to $3,750 Claim Bonus

License:	Curacao
Software:	Rival, BetSoft, RealTime Gaming
Location:	Albania

Pros

Easy to use interface

Downloadable desktop app for the poker room

Expansive VIP program with good rewards

Cons

15.9% fee for credit card deposits

About Bovada

Bovada is the number one sportsbook and casino for US players ever since its launch at 2011. They offer a fairly robust sportsbook, casino and a poker room specifically designed for US citizens. Bovada holds a valid gambling license from Curaçao eGaming Commission. They have a good range of bonuses, including great welcome bonus consisting of 125% up to $3,750.

My Experience at Bovada

After spending a considerable amount of time at Bovada, I can confidently say I left satisfied with my experience. I think there are a lot of things Bovada does just right.

Even though I’m not much of a sports betting fan, I think the majority of sports bettors would be happy with Bovada. I just wish to see Bovada change their high credit card fees.

• Money Spent: $250
• Time Played: 4 hours
• Earnings: $183
• Browser/Device Used: Firefox/Android
• Experience: Positive

What Our Reviewers Are Saying:

“Bovada is the perfect combination of a sportsbook and casino for US citizens. Their crypto welcome bonus is awesome.” – Isaac P.

“I like that Bovada has separate bonuses for its sportsbook, casino, and poker rooms because it makes it easy to keep my bankrolls organized.” – Shaun S.

Bovada’s Bonuses

Bovada offers a small yet generous set of bonuses. They don’t overcrowd their site in hopes of catching the attention of new players with tons of bonuses, which I appreciate. Personally, I think the smaller amount of bonus options made it easier for me to choose one.

$3,000 Casino Welcome Bonus

New players can claim a 100% match bonus on their first three deposits. The maximum bonus amount is $1,000 per deposit and this bonus has a 25x wagering requirement. Players can use the code CAWELCOME100 on their first deposit to claim this bonus.

$3,750 Bitcoin Casino Welcome Bonus

New players can opt to use Bitcoin on their first three deposits to claim a welcome bonus of up to $3,750. The maximum bonus amount per deposit is $1,250 and the wagering requirement is 25x. New players can use the code BTCCWB1250 to claim this bonus.

50% Sports Welcome Bonus

Bovada offers a 50% up to $750 sports welcome bonus to new players. This bonus has a 5x wagering requirement for sports and racing bets and 30x wagering requirement for casino games. To get the maximum value out of this bonus, players need to deposit at least $500.

Bitcoin Sports Welcome Bonus

New players depositing with Bitcoin can get a bigger welcome bonus that consists of 75% up to $750. Use the code BTCSWB750 on your first Bitcoin deposit to claim this bonus. The wagering requirements for sports and racing bets are 5x and 30x for casino games.

100% Poker Welcome Bonus

Poker players joining Bovada can claim a bonus of 100% up p $500 on their first deposit by using the code PWB500. Your Poker Welcome Bonus will be unlocked in $5 increments for every 150 Rewards Points earned in Poker. Rewards Points are credited upon exiting a cash game table or finishing a Poker Tournament.

Other Bonuses and Promotions

In addition to the bonus I listed above, Bovada also offers the following bonuses:

• Refer a Friend: For each friend that you recommend to Bovada, you can earn up to $200 on their deposit, plus an extra $75 if they use Bitcoin.
• Free Spins Bonanza: Deposit and bet $10 on any casino game to join the weekly 500,000 free spins prize draw.

How Bovada’s Bonuses Compare to Other Operators

Bovada doesn’t boast many bonuses compared to other casinos I have reviewed. Some casinos are known to go overboard with bonuses to entice new players to join.

Where Bovada rises above the competition in my opinion is their lower wagering requirements. Most crypto bonuses will come with a 35x-40x wagering requirements, DuckyLuck’s crypto bonus is a good example for this.

DuckyLuck’s 600% crypto match bonus comes with a 40x wagering requirement while Bovada’s Bitcoin bonus comes with a 25x wagering requirements. Clearing a 25x wagering requirement is going to be easier for the average players.

Bovada’s VIP / Loyalty Rewards

Bovada has an interesting rewards program. All you have to do to participate is to play like you normally would. With every game played, you can earn different amounts of reward points per dollar spent. Here is what the rewards per dollar looks like:

I like that I could redeem the rewards points I collected as cash bonus. Also climbing the ladders of Bovada’s rewards system comes with a sweet perk. By climbing the ladder, players can unlock exclusive payment options, which I found vey useful. I also like that unlike other VIP programs that reset your rank in the rewards ladder after a period of time, Bovada keeps track of your lifetime points so you never lose your status. Here is how many points it takes to climb up each tier at Bovada:

Banking Methods at Bovada

Bovada offers a decent selection of banking methods. I liked the amount of crypto options they offer. I think Bovada is on the right tract for convenience however, there are still kinks they have to work out, such as high fees for Visa and Mastercard.

Deposits

On first glance, the deposit options offered by Bovada are great. You can find a great number of cryptocurrencies, credit/debit cards, and even MatchPay. The problem for me here is the 15.9% fee on credit cards.

While the first deposit the users make with a credit card is fee free, a fee of 15.9% the second time around is abysmal. Since they are fee free and lightning fast, I would recommend sticking to using crypto here.

Withdrawals

While Bovada offers a decent selection of withdrawal options, I am not a big fan of the limits in frequency. I found that I could request a MatchPay withdrawal twice per calendar day while I could request a bank wire transfer once per 30 days, and check by courier once per 7 days. I wish there was no limit to begin with. Once again, I would recommend using cryptocurrencies to avoid these limitations.

Bovada’s Casino

Bovada has a great casino despite mainly promoting the sportsbook portion of their site. I was surprised to find a rich selection casino games offered here. Bovada features games from some of the best software providers including Rival, CGS, and RealTime Gaming. In total Bovada offers:

• 400+ slots
• 43 live dealer games
• 37 specialty games
• 29 table games
• 10 video poker games

Slots Games

Bovada features an impressive amount of slot games for a hybrid site. I like the cleanliness of this section. In my experience, it was very easy to find what I was looking for. I also like the drop-down menu that lets you filter games by most popular, bonus buy, Hot Drop Jackpots, and progressive jackpots. I would have liked to see an option to filter games by reels as well.

I like the information presented on the side when I click on a game. It lets me decide if I want to play a particular slot or not before spending any real money. Here are my favorite slots offered by Bovada:

Hot Drop Jackpots

Bovada features a special kind of jackpot slots called Hot Drop Jackpots. What separates Hot Drop Jackpots from regular jackpots is that with Hot Drops, there is a timer that determines when a jackpot is about to drop.

In regular jackpot slots, it is impossible to know when a jackpot will drop since it is all RNG. Hot Drops feature special symbols that trigger a prize wheel. When a player spins the wheel, they can win the hourly, daily, or super jackpot. Here is a list of all the Hot Drop Jackpot games you can find at Bovada:

• Santa’s Ways
• American Jet Set
• Lady’s Magic Charms
• Reels of Fortune
• A Night With Cleo
• Golden Buffalo
• 777 Deluxe
• Golden Savannah
• Oasis Dreams
• Temple of Athena
• Year of the Rabbit

Table Games

Bovada has a decent amount of table games in their library. It was interesting to see dedicated sections for roulette and blackjack while the games within that section are also present in the table games section. I think the variety offered here is good enough. I have seen both better and worse table games section than Bovada offers. Here is what you can find in the table games section:

• 10 blackjack games
• 8 roulette games
• 7 poker games
• 2 baccarat games
• 3 dice games including craps
• Teen Patti
• Andar Bahar

Video Poker

Bovada has a decent video poker section. There is not much variety but I think an average video poker player would be satisfied with this section. I believe Bovada gave more importance to their poker room than to their video poker section. In the video poker section of Bovada you can find:

• Aces & Faces Multi Hand
• Bonus Deuces Wild 1 hand
• Double Double Bonus Poker 1 hand
• Jacks or Better 1 hand
• Jacks or Better 10 hands
• Jacks or Better 3 hands
• Joker Poker 1 hand
• Joker Poker 10 hands
• Joker Poker 3 hands
• Tens or Better Multi Hand

Specialty Games

The specialty games section of Bovada is fairly rich compared to other casinos I have reviewed. I was surprised and happy to see some of my favorite scratch cards here. I found this section to be quite satisfactory. Here are some of the specialty games you can play at Bovada:

• 7 bingo games
• 14 scratch cards
• Keno draw
• Minesweeper
• Thundercrash
• Plinko

Live Dealer Games

Bovada has a rich live dealer lobby powered by Visionary iGaming. I liked the quality of the streams, which have not dropped throughout my visit. The table limits are also great in my opinion. The most common table limit is $10 – $1,000, but you can also choose $5 – $100, $25 – $1,000, or $100 – $2,500.

This section laid out very nicely with every game having their own section. Personally, I think the live dealer lobby of Bovada is one of the bests out there but seeing a couple game shows included wouldn’t have hurt either. In the live dealer lobby of Bovada, you can find:

• 34 blackjack tables
• 5 roulette tables
• 2 baccarat tables
• 2 super 6 tables

Bovada’s Sportsbook

Bovada has a decently sized sportsbook. It is not the best or the worst one I have ever seen, I think it is right in the middle. There are a lot of sporting events you can bet on at Bovada both the popular and niche titles. Here are some of the sporting events you can bet on Bovada:

• American football
• Basketball
• Soccer
• Tennis
• Hockey
• Golf
• Baseball
• Boxing
• Cricket
• Cycling
• Darts
• Motor sports

Esports

I was surprised to see esports betting as an option at Bovada. As a huge fan of esports, it was nice to see coverage on some of the most important leagues in the entirety of esports scene. Bovada offers competitive odds and a sleek interface to make for an enjoyable betting experience. Here are all the esports you can bet on at Bovada:

• Counter-Strike
• Call of Duty
• Dota 2
• Valorant
• League of Legends
• Rainbow 6
• Starcraft

Virtual Sports

Seeing Bovada offer betting options on virtual sports was nice. Virtual sports are essentially simulations of real sporting events powered by artificial intelligence and RNG. Virtual sports betting is usually preferred by bettors who want faster outcomes unaffected by unforeseen events. At Bovada you can bet on the following virtual sports:

• Soccer
• Horse racing
• Greyhound racing
• Supercar racing
• Camel racing

Horse Racing

Bovada has a separate section for horse racing betting. In this section, Bovada offers competitive betting odds for national and international horse races. I’m not big on betting on horse racing, but Bovada made it easy even for a newbie like me to understand how the betting works. I like that you can filter races by tracks. What’s more, if you don’t fancy betting on the current races, you can bet on virtual horse racing at Bovada.

Bovada’s Poker Room

Poker is one of the most popular games to play at Bovada. Hence why their poker room is one of the best out there for US players. Bovada also features a separate poker app which means you don’t even have to navigate through the sportsbook/casino pages to play poker.

Bovada also has helpful articles featured in their poker room to help new player get started with their poker journey. They also promote special features of their poker room, which are impressive to say the least. Here are the best features in my opinion:

• Quick seat software
• Social chat features
• Zone poker
• Anonymous tables
• Card design and table customization
• All-in percentage data
• Replay features
• Tournament re-entry

Cash Games

Bovada has a decent selection of poker games. You can find all the classics, Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Omaha Hi/Lo and you can play these games in the pot limit, no limit, or fixed limit formats. The stakes range from $0.02/$0.05 to $10/$20. Bovada usually has good traffic for every type of poker game available.

Tournaments

Bovada has a handful of tournaments going on every week. I’m not much of a poker player but I think the tournaments Bovada holds every week would be satisfactory for most poker players. Here is more information about the poker tournaments at Bovada:

• Knockout Tournaments: Any time you eliminate somebody from the tournament, no matter when it happens, you win their cash bounty which is then credited to your account.
• Jackpot Sit N Go: Jackpot Sit N Go is a three-player Texas Hold’em poker tournament format.
• $200K Guaranteed Tournament: Every Sunday afternoon at 4 PM ET Bovada offers up a guaranteed prize pool of at least $200,000 with a first-place payout of at least $20K.
• $100K Guaranteed High Roller Tournament: Every Sunday at 6PM ET Bovada holds a high roller tournament with $100,000 in guaranteed prize money. You can either buy-in directly to the event for $300 + $25 or win your way into the High Roller for as little as $5 + $0.50 by qualifying.

Bovada’s Mobile Experience

Despite not having a dedicated mobile app, Bovada’s site works flawlessly on both iOS and Android devices. I used my Samsung Galaxy S21FE running Android 13 via Chrome to access Bovada. By using a fast internet connection, I encountered no issues with the games I tried. Especially the live dealer part of Bovada worked flawlessly. In my experience, the quality of the streams did not drop at all. Overall, I think Bovada did a great job optimizing their site for mobile users.

Safety and Security

As with every reputable casino and sportsbook, Bovada takes the safety and security of their players with utmost importance. Bovada has been the topic of many speculations due the failed renewal of their license in 2018.

However, Bovada holds a valid gambling license from Curaçao eGaming Commission since 2021. Regardless of their unfortunate slip up, Bovada has always maintained an unmatched safety and security standards. Here are all the important details I gathered:

• Bovada adheres to the anti-money laundering regulations and KYC policies
• All random number generators (RNG) are tested for fairness
• Logins and personal data are secured with reCAPTCHA

Customer Service

Bovada has a very detailed FAQ section. They call this section the Help Center and all my time reviewing casino sites, I have never seen a help section as detailed as Bovada’s. If you are having problems at Bovada, chances are you can solve your problem in two clicks by visiting this section.

Despite being armed with this very helpful FAQ section, I still wanted to test out the customer service of Bovada. In my experience, the customer service agent was a little confused. Once we cleared the confusion however, they were quite helpful.

Customer Support Options:

• Email: Form submission on site
• Phone: N/A
• Live Chat: Available 24/7

How to Sign Up, Deposit, and Withdraw

Signing up at Bovada is very easy. Just follow our easy steps to register your own account with Bovada:

• Step 1: Click the join button at the top left.
• Step 2: Enter your first and last name, your date of birth and phone number.
• Step 3: Fill in your email, password, zip code, and agree to the terms and conditions.
• Step 4: Click the register button and start betting on Bovada

How to Deposit

• Step 1: Click on your profile icon on the top right corner
• Step 2: Click the red deposit button
• Step 3: Select the deposit method you want to use
• Step 4: Quick select or enter the amount you wish to deposit and choose your bonus

How to Withdraw

• Step 1: Click on your profile icon on the top right corner and select withdraw.
• Step 2: Making sure you have cleared any wagering requirements, choose the withdrawal method you wish to use
• Step 3: Enter the amount you would like to withdraw and click request withdrawal
• Step 4: You will receive a verification code via text message, complete your withdrawal by using this code

Final Verdict

Bovada has all the basics done right and still stands as one of the best casinos welcoming US players. However, even the best of the best has things they can do better and Bovada is no exception.

I really like the variety of games, sports betting options, and races Bovada has. I think Bovada has lot of good qualities going for it. The most important complaint I have is the credit/debit card fees they have. I think 15.9% is way too high a fee to justify a credit/debit card deposit. I would like to see Bovada reducing this fee to a reasonable number. It is definitely doable, as many online casinos have a 5% credit/debit card fee, or don’t even charge a fee at all.

Overall, I think Bovada is a great place for gambling, especially if you are a new player.