Poker Returns to Bovada

Just one week after announcing some significant changes to the Bovada sportsbook, Betting Partners, the spokes agency for the Bovada and Bodog brands, has just unveiled another surprising switch to the Bovada service by announcing the return of its Poker Room.

Last week’s sportsbook announcement was unexpected although sports bettors had been quick to share their frustration with low betting limits for the past five years. So, those wagering constraints have now been raised with NFL spreads going up from $2,000 to $5,000 as well as some other substantial increases to most of the other sports and markets like $500 soccer futures to win wagers going all the way up to the $5,000 to $20,000 range.

The other area of player contention was in the late posting of lines that is also now rectified. The most notable change is in the release NFL odds being pushed up from as late as noon on Fridays to the newly posted schedule of Sundays at 9 pm.

This week, though, there’s yet another big change happening with this popular US facing site as we see the return of the famous poker room that, just under a year ago, was transferred over to the newly launched Ignition Casino (ignitioncasino.eu). The reason for the move was never apparent and, for now anyway, the return is just as ambiguous.

In the summer of 2016, Bovada made a shocking announcement to its dedicated poker players, that had been on board for several years, that its entire poker service was being moved over to the relatively new and widely unknown Ignition Casino.

Ignition is also a site that accepts Americans and was built on the same platform as Bovada and Bodog, so the transition was an easy one, but no one from Bovada ever really brought to light the exact reasoning for the switch. Many speculated that it had to be a costly transition for Ignition, so it didn’t make sense for such a newcomer to acquire an already proven and successfully established service.

Poker cash and poker tickets were transferred over, and players that made the switch before the September 30th deadline received special bonuses, but poker points were not part of the swap. Ignition was going to offer a very similar experience, so the entire transition was relatively smooth.

So, here we are less than a year later, and now Bovada has just relaunched its poker service and already has cards on the table.

The big announcement states that players who never claimed their original Poker Welcome Bonus can now get in on the action with a 100% welcome bonus good for up to $500 for US players in US Dollars. In Mexico, it’s up to MXN 9,000, and Brazil players can claim up to BRL 1,500.

To unlock the bonus, customers need to open a Bovada player’s account and then download the poker software and start placing their bets to earn poker points. 15 points unlock the first level of $5, 85 provides for $20, all the way up to 5,000 points for the total $500 but it must be within 30 days for eligibility.

It’s not entirely clear as to why the room is reopened, but we navigated on over to Ignition Casino, and its Poker Room appears to be still fully operational, so it doesn’t seem to be a situation where there’s a swap back. Instead, it looks like a brand new poker operation is launching on Bovada. We would imagine that more details would emerge shortly.

In the meantime, the room is open for business and is available for both the full website version and for mobile play.

Bovada is featuring anonymous tables that keep player’s identities hidden, and their playing strategy will remain a mystery.

The poker bonus comes with no rollover requirement, just the 30-day stipulation in which to earn as many points as possible to unlock the biggest reward.

Bovada initially operated under the Bodog designation until 2011 when the Bodog brand secured a UK gambling license and opted to focus on expansion into other locations. It sold its Bovada operation to Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG), formerly authorized by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. MMGG then transferred ownership to Salmon River Technologies in 2015.

Unfortunately, Bovada and all other US facing sites lost their Kahnawake licensing and regulation in September of 2016 when the authority opted to change its policies thereby exempting any sites that allowed for Americans to continue to be under their umbrella. We haven’t seen any new licensing information posted as yet but, fortunately, Bovada is iTech Labs compliant for fair gaming.

Bovada does continue to service customers from the US except for residents of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Nevada.

With the newest change to its service, Bovada.lv now offers the big four: sportsbook, casino, racebook, and poker room.