The Honest Bovada Sportsbook Review

Why Bovada is my #1 Sportsbook

Bovada Sportsbook has been around for ages, but that alone isn’t why I bet there every day. Although officially launched in 2011, it previously existed as Bodog for years prior to that. So it’s been around for the best part of 20 years, in one form or another.

In terms of user experience, there isn’t another sportsbook I know that’s better than Bovada. I get a lot of mileage out of the search function, which saves manually navigating through the left-hand menu and the hundreds of lines. The bet slip is really intuitive and isn’t absolutely massive, full of white space, like at some other sites.

I also feel like things have improved a lot at Bovada in recent years. The integration of cryptocurrency payments was a game changer for me. As I’m writing this review, I requested a Bitcoin payout and got it in a record 6 minutes. No other sportsbook can beat those payout times.

There are no hidden fees for payouts, and the withdrawal limits, as you’ll see later in this sportsbook review, are very reasonable. Although Bitcoin payouts are advertised as taking up to 48 hours, you’re going to get them in minutes.

There’s a gigantic selection of sports betting opportunities and, although they’re not always the quickest to list their odds, it’s a comprehensive offering. Every match from major sports has 100 or more betting lines. Some get more than 600.

My only gripes are an average rewards program, being slow to post overnight odds, and a tendency to add juice to favorites. These are fairly minor, since Bovada scores highly in all of the most important areas.

Competitive odds on a wide range of lines. A user-friendly interface, both on desktop and mobile, and almost instant payouts. I can’t recommend Bovada highly enough for USA players.

Deposit Bonus

As an all-round gambling site, Bovada offers new users a range of sign-up offers relating to their many different products. I’ll just stick to discussing the sportsbook bonuses.

The standard sports betting welcome bonus is a 50% deposit match, worth up to $250. You’ll earn that simply by funding your account for the first time with a debit or credit card.

However, if you make a cryptocurrency deposit, along with the bonus code BTCSWB750, you can pocket a much bigger reward: 75% up to $750.

Whichever you opt to claim, you’ll find a perfectly reasonable 5x rollover requirement attached. What’s more, you can also use these bonus funds to bet on horses in the racebook, with the same terms and conditions.

Why the bonus is better than other sportsbooks

What I like best about Bovada’s bonuses is that they’re given as cash, not as Free Play. Almost every other sportsbook, such as BetOnline, gives bonuses as Free Play. That means that you don’t get the amount you bet back if you win – just the winnings.

Bovada just adds cash to your account on every bonus. That makes it worth double a Free Play bonus when you get back your bet plus your winnings. Plus, the rollover is the lowest I’ve seen at 5x.

Other Promotions

Most promotions at Bovada are tied to a specific section of the site. For instance, there’s a 100% first deposit bonus, worth up to $500 available at Bovada’s poker room.

Similarly, new casino players can secure up to $3,000 courtesy of three 100% matches on their first deposits. The rollover requirements for the first casino bonus are just 25x, though this rises to a less-favorable 50x for the subsequent two deposits.

However, there are a couple of other promotions to take advantage of here, most notably the friend referral bonus. Recruit a buddy to join Bovada and, depending on the deposit amount and payment method, you could secure up to $275 for your efforts.

In addition, you’ll find regular prize draws and other such promotions. For example, at the time of writing, Bovada was giving away over 250,000 free spins on casino slots every single week.

Loyalty Program

Bovada rewards its loyal customers by issuing loyalty points for every dollar wagered. The good news is that it’s possible to earn these for the sportsbook, casino, or poker room.

However, that flexibility is also its weakness. The available offers are listed in the rewards section of your account. You’ll notice many of them are poker tournament entries, which can be obtained by redeeming your points. But that’s not much use if you’re exclusively betting on sports. Personally, I’d like to see a more sportsbook-targeted rewards program.

What I do is just redeem my points for cash, which is nice, but isn’t exchanged at as high of a rate as it used to be. I reached Bovada’s highest rewards tier a few years ago. I appreciate that you never lose your rewards status, even if you don’t bet for a while.

Bet enough at Bovada and you’ll also become part of their hosted service. It isn’t clear how much you actually need to bet per month, but I’ve kept my status for about a year now. You get a personal agent at Bovada who you can call or email directly. You also get some private bonuses, which I’ve had go as high as $2,000.

Crypto-Exclusive Benefits

Bovada offers an interesting option to upgrade your account to a “Crypto Exclusive” membership. In truth, there aren’t many benefits to doing so, but it does net you up to three guaranteed deposit match bonuses every week. Reload your account to secure an additional 50% up to $200.

I often do claim the extra $200, with the only annoying part being the 30x sportsbook rollover on the deposit plus bonus. That means you’ll need to bet $18,000 to cash it out.

There’s one final offer worth pointing out, which is the enhanced casino bonus for crypto depositors. Instead of the standard 100% up to $3,000 casino bonus, it jumps to 125% up to $3,750 when using crypto in conjunction with the code BTCCWB1250.

The biggest benefit I appreciate from Bovada’s crypto program is the ability to make a crypto withdrawal of up to $9,500 every day with no fees.

Bovada Betting Lines

What sports can you bet on at Bovada? A ton. There are around 30 different sports betting options here, which compares really well against some of the country’s bigger players. No other USA sportsbook offer as many betting lines or sports as Bovada.

Admittedly, I don’t imagine too many of you will be registering to bet on darts, snooker, and chess. Personally, I might bet on the occasional eating contest or political race. That’s no problem at Bovada. It’s nice to see a bookmaker with a diverse variety of odds, especially things like motorsports, tennis, golf, MMA, and boxing.

In terms of the USA’s most popular sports, the coverage is very good indeed. Alongside NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, pretty much all of the major leagues are represented, and in great detail. You’ll also easily find every worldwide soccer league. Besides the basic moneylines, spreads, and totals, Bovada has hundreds of special bets for every match.

Competitiveness of Odds

How do the odds at Bovada compare to other sportsbooks? Not too bad, in fairness. They are pretty much the same as the likes of BetOnline or Wagerweb, especially on US football, baseball, and baseball games. They’re very much in line with the big boys, too, such as Draftkings.

However, my major gripe is the speed at which most lines are published. With the exception of soccer games, where they’re actually pretty quick, Bovada is often the last to put their odds online. That goes especially for daily sports like NBA and MLB, where you might want to catch a good line as soon as it comes out.

That’s not going to be a big deal for the average bettor, but if you’re more of a sharp, you might be better off elsewhere.

Bet Limits

Are there any limitations or restrictions for placing bets on Bovada Sportsbook? Well, there’s a minimum bet requirement of just fifty cents, which is a small plus point for the casual gamblers out there.

The maximum bet size varies depending on the sport and competition. What’s more, individual accounts may find themselves restricted too if they win consistently. Bovada doesn’t publish information regarding their maximum bet limits and how they are derived. I’d recommend speaking to the customer support team if you have any queries on this.

Maybe because of my extensive betting history, I can tell you that Bovada allows the largest bets I’ve seen at any sportsbook. A book like BetOnline looks impressive at a $5,000 max bet, but then Bovada will allow you to bet nearly $20,000 on a single normal lines. That even goes for live bets, which is insanely high.

If you’re a large bettor and get tired of local books limiting you to amounts like $1,000, Bovada is going to be your answer.

The exception to Bovada’s big betting limits comes with things like props, obscure sports, or very small college matchups. I’ve seen limits down to $500-1,000 on those.

Player Props

Bovada is simply one of the most comprehensive sportsbooks in the United States. Pick a random NFL game, for instance, and you’ll find almost 200 different markets, with pretty much every type of prop bet imaginable.

Wager on the outcome of specific halves and quarters, find alternate spreads, totals and moneylines and feast on dozens of individual player props. The latter could keep you busy for a long time, with so many different options.

If you like a player to score two, or even three touchdowns in a game, there are some pretty juicy five-figure odds on offer. In addition, there’s a neat little prop builder that allows you to create your own same game parlay.

I like that Bovada offers props as standard lines in addition to Prop Builder. I never like to use Prop Builder because of the buggy interface, worse odds, and very low maximum bet limits.

In-Game Live Betting

Live betting is another area where the Bovada platform excels. The user interface is simple but effective, with its crisp and uncluttered look and feel.

Games are shown in one long, continuous list, allowing you to easily scroll and build parlays. Alternatively, you can open and close each sport using the plus and minus symbols, to customize your display.

Bovada does allow parlays of live bets, which is something not all sportsbooks do.

If you wish to drill down into a specific game, simply click on it to open the various live betting props and markets. Where available, you’ll find helpful data at the top of the screen, listing key details like the score, lineups and match stats.

There are usually play-by-play descriptions of the action alongside game trackers, but that’s standard at most sites these days. However, there’s a noticeable lack of live, in-game video streaming here, which is a little disappointing.

Mobile Betting

Like all good online sportsbooks these days, there’s a mobile and responsive website available. There’s no app do download and you simply use the mobile Bovada site in your device’s browser as you would on your desktop.

The mobile site is really good and a lot of work has clearly gone into it compared to how it used to look. Navigation is fully-optimized for mobile devices, with all of the key features remaining, just placed in more intuitive positions. For example, you can still search easily enough, but the option has moved from the top to the foot of the page.

Casino games work well on mobile, too, and you won’t even need to switch to landscape mode in order to play every game.

Racebook

Betting on horses is easy at Bovada, but the interface is a little primitive. You won’t find details of the jockey’s silks or the horse’s recent form, for instance. But the odds are competitive enough and you can bet at tracks all around the world, in addition to the USA.

The standard win, show, and place markets are all there, along with exactas, trifectas, and a few other exotic bets. Not to mention futures on the biggest American races, such as the Kentucky Derby. However, there’s a disappointing lack of international futures betting and no greyhound races at all.

Signing up at Bovada

I’ve already made references to the general user-friendliness of this site. But it all starts with the registration process, which is really quick and easy. You can sign up for a new account in, quite literally, a couple of minutes.

A pro-tip though: make sure you use a real phone number. You’ll need to validate this in order to access the account and start placing bets. After registration, if you want to update anything in your profile, you’ll also need to verify the changes with a code sent by SMS. That seems like overkill to me. Changing your name I could understand, but switching from American to decimal odds?

I like that Bovada also sends you an SMS code to verify crypto payouts. It’s an extra layer of security to ensure that a hackers can’t get into your account and try to drain the balance.

The majority of new customers will find the sign up process extremely easy. However, take note that Bovada doesn’t operate in the states of Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, or Washington.

Deposits

Other sportsbooks definitely supply more deposit options, but many of these are just wallpaper anyway. Personally, I’ve never used MuchBetter or a Neosurf voucher in my life. All I care about are debit cards and cryptocurrency, and that’s what you’ll find here, along with credit cards.

The full list of payout options is Mastercard and Visa cards, plus Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV. Transactions are processed instantly.

I honestly can’t believe Bovada does this, but they credit my crypto deposits plus any bonus funds before they’ve even confirmed.

This means you don’t have to wait the 20+ minutes that Bitcoin confirmations take. This might only apply to older accounts, but no other sportsbook is going to trust you to make bets with unconfirmed crypto.

Minimum deposits are more than reasonable at Bovada. For cards, it’s a fairly average $20, with a maximum deposit of $1,000. And for Bitcoin, you’ll need to deposit at least 0.0002 BTC, which is around $12 at the time of writing.

Payouts

Withdrawals are definitely one of the star attractions at Bovada. There are no charges applied when requesting your money via any of the aforementioned payment options. In addition to those, you may also withdraw via check or bank wire.

If you opt for a check, there’s a $100 processing fee, which makes it a pretty unreasonable option for most. Bank wires are a decent, if somewhat slow, alternative. You’re allowed one fee-free transfer every 90 days, before a $100 charge is applied. Finally, it’s also possible to transfer funds to other players.

Bitcoin Withdrawals

It’s quick to use all forms of cryptocurrency, but Bitcoin is especially good. Bovada claims that you’ll receive payouts inside 48 hours, but the reality is that it’s usually the same day. In fact, from my experience, you can usually measure it in minutes, rather than days.

There’s a $2,500 upper limit attached to every cryptocurrency withdrawal, with the same cap on weekly requests too. However, the rules are relaxed greatly for BTC cashouts. The maximum Bitcoin amount is $9,500 for any individual payout, with a massive $180,500 weekly limit.

The Bitcoin withdrawals at Bovada are so good that it remains the top reason I keep betting here. Today, I got my withdrawal with no questions asked in 6 minutes.

Bovada Casino

The casino at Bovada is by no means the biggest in the industry, with a little under 300 slots to choose from. This is backed up by a couple of dozen traditional table games and a small live dealer casino.

Most of the slots are supplied by Realtime Gaming, who aren’t exactly known for their cutting-edge gameplay mechanics or generous RTP rates. They do provide some fun themes, with stakes available to suit all bankrolls. Alongside several penny slots, there are a number of progressive and Hot Drop jackpots too. Other casino software providers include Rival Gaming and BetSoft.

I like that Bovada offers a single wallet for their casino, racebook, poker room, and sportsbook. That means that any funds deposited to bet on sports can also be used to enjoy the casino without making any transfers. I believe the technical jargon for this is an “omni-channel solution”, but I like my explanation better.

Live Dealers

The live casino is supplied by Visionary iGaming. If I’m honest, the quality is nowhere near as good as the likes of Evolution, Playtech, or Pragmatic Play. The streams are adequate and the dealers professional, but you’re restricted to just blackjack, baccarat, American roulette, and European roulette

However, the betting limits are pretty wide, which is definitely a positive. You can spin the roulette wheel from as little as $1 up to a maximum of $3,000. Blackjack bets start from $5 and rise to an impressive $50,000 per hand, with unlimited bets behind.

Bovada Customer Support

An aspect of any gambling website that’s often overlooked is the customer support team. Perhaps it’s because we never think that an issue’s going to happen to us. But when it does, we expect a quick resolution from a friendly, compassionate, and knowledgeable human, rather than a useless chatbot.

Does Bovada have a reliable customer service team? They certainly have a friendly one, as the representative immediately greeted me and asked about my weekend plans. A little cheesy perhaps, but I’m okay with that. Plus, I only had to wait two minutes to receive that message, despite it being the early hours of the morning, local time.

For the purposes of this review, I asked a few questions, including about the withdrawal limits mentioned earlier. The answers were extremely comprehensive, delivered in a polite manner and without much of a wait.

I’ve read several reviews online about poor service from the Bovada team, but it just doesn’t tally with my own experience. Perhaps the frustration lies in the fact that you first have to go through the help center. Only then, after the FAQs fail to help, are you presented with the option to email or use live chat.

Once in a while, I’ve actually asked the support team to create a betting line for me. I had a specific prop in mind to bet on multiple players scoring 20+ points in an NBA game. After describing it to the customer service rep, it showed up as a prop on the game page within an hour.