Bovada Casino Review

S.Ateljevic image
· 08 Apr 2018
PROS:
CONS:
  • Offers poker & sports betting
  • Live betting offered
  • Fast withdrawal options
  • Clean easy to navigate site
  • 24/7 Customer Support
  • Available to US residents only
  • More than 350 game titles
  • Insufficient info about the casino’s license
  • Few payment options
  • No mobile app
PROS:
  • Offers poker & sports betting
  • Live betting offered
  • Fast withdrawal options
  • Clean easy to navigate site
  • 24/7 Customer Support
CONS:
  • Available to US residents only
  • More than 350 game titles
  • Insufficient info about the casino’s license
  • Few payment options
  • No mobile app

Bovada casino has been online for about seven years, and they say they’ve set the standard in online gambling. Bovada casino claims to be fully certified, as well as offering fast cashouts and the biggest welcome bonus for first-time casino visitors making a deposit in Bitcoin. The provider also offers sports betting functionalities. find out more about Bovada casino bonuses and games, read our in-depth Bovada casino review.

bovada review

DISCLAIMER: This casino doesn’t have an operating license.

Signing up at Bovada casino

Upon registering, among the first things you’ll see is whether the territory you reside in falls in the casino’s group of restricted countries. If it doesn’t, you are free to start the signup process. Although we have a special section dedicated to player anonymity as part of our Bovada review, we can tell you straight away that, based on the information players need to provide to create an account, the casino doesn’t offer an anonymous gambling environment. New players need to provide everything from their address and phone number to their mother’s maiden name.

The website has a clean user interface, but the design of the site is not that appealing. Bovada features motley of colors on their website, but the combination of them gives it an outdated look. Nonetheless, the casino’s interface is quite intuitive. New Bovada casino online players will quickly find their way around the site using the sidebar menu, where they can easily switch between casino, sports, poker, and horses. The sidebar menu also has quick links to the casino’s getting started guide and help section.

Bovada casino games

According to the casino’s website, there are more than 350 games on offer, grouped into five categories. At casino Bovada, blackjack games are included both in the blackjack and the card games category. There is also a separate game category for video poker on Bovada. In the card games section, casino players can see the entire selection of card games, or narrow down their search to specific types of card games, namely blackjack, poker, card games, roulette, and an assortment of dice games.

As it is the case with most Bitcoin casinos today, Bovada casino slots offer the largest number of games. Finally, this Bitcoin casino also has a section of specialty games where players will find bingo and scratchcard games. Players can easily find a specific slot game, as in this section, games can be sorted by three and five reel slots, progressives, iSlots, real-series, rival, 3D, and video slots.

Bovada casino review

Bovada casino has their proprietary games, and below is the number of games you’ll find in each category.

  •         Blackjack games (8)
  •         Table games (16)
  •         Video poker (21)
  •         Slots (204)
  •         Specialty games (22)

We counted a total of 271 games at the casino. However, as a game can be found in more than one category, we assume that the total number is somewhat less than 271. If you’re looking for the best Bovada casino games, visit the casino’s game categories and check the titles in the most popular section.

At the time of writing this Bovada review, there were two slot games with equal chances of earning the best Bovada casino game title – 8 Lucky Charms and A Night with Cleo. The casino has a page where they list recent winners including Bovada random jackpot winners along with the games where the casino players won money.

Free play, loading time, and provably fair gaming

Bovada allows its players to try out all the games at the casino for free before they decide on playing for real money. Before loading a game, the casino will prompt you to select the game mode and pick either real play or practice play mode. If you decide to play Bovada games for free, you’ll get enough play money to test a game, and when you’re ready, wager some real money on it.

Speaking of playing with real money, there’s not a single mention about the fairness of the casino games available at Bovada’s website. Upon contacting the casino’s email support, we found out that Bovada holds a license in Curacao, and all the casino games have been tested for fairness by iTech Labs. However, we should also mention there’s no documentation on the site to support that.

As far as the aspect ratio of games is concerned, Bovada supports full-screen display for all the games in the casino. Regardless of your screen size, the game window will always remain centered, and the graphics quality won’t be affected, and the casino shows excellent results when it comes to games’ loading times.

Both the Bovada casino homepage and the Reign of Gnomes game got a relatively good PageSpeed score – 76/100 and 74/100 respectively. The casino employs various optimization techniques, which is one of the reasons most casino games take between 15 and 20 seconds to load fully.

Bovada casino mobile

Casino players can access the mobile version of Bovada’s website using both Android and iOS devices. We set the network on our mobile device to 2G and opened a few Bovada games to test how they perform with low-speed Internet. The majority of games we tested fully loaded within a 30 to 45 seconds time frame, which is a relatively good result. In case you were wondering whether there are any Bovada casino download options, you should know that the casino has removed their downloadable casino software in an effort to enhance the overall gaming experience.

Accepted currencies and payment methods

For making deposits at the casino, Bovada accepts Bitcoin and credit card payments. Players can use Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards to fund their Bovada account. Select Visa Gift cards can be used as a way to make a deposit at the casino too. The minimum deposit amount for credit cards is $20 and $10 for Bitcoin deposits. The maximum deposit amount is $1,500 for supported credit cards and $5,000 for Bitcoin.

For their first deposit, Bovada casino players don’t have to pay any fees, while for every subsequent deposit there is a 5.9% fee for Visa and MasterCard deposits and a 9.9% fee for American Express deposit payments. Currency conversion fees may also be applied, while the casino doesn’t charge any fees for Bitcoin deposits.

When it comes to withdrawing your winnings from Bovada, you have two options to choose from – check by courier or Bitcoin. The minimum and maximum withdrawal amount for Bitcoin withdrawals are $10 and $9,500 respectively. On the other hand, before requesting a withdrawal via check by courier, you need to accumulate at least $100 in your account. The maximum amount you can withdraw in one week is $3,000.

Bovada casino players will not be charged any fees for one non-Bitcoin withdrawal within 90 days. Those who want to request more regular cashouts will have to pay a $100 fee for each withdrawal within those 90 days. Like with Bovada Bitcoin deposits, withdrawing Bitcoins comes without a transaction fee.

How long does it take to get a payout from Bovada? The payout times depend on the payment method you choose. Using the check by courier option can take anywhere between 5 and 15 business days, while Bitcoin withdrawals can take as little as 15 minutes. While there is no list of accepted currencies anywhere on the site, since deposit and withdrawal limits are in USD or BTC, we can only assume those are the currencies that Bovada accepts.

Bovada casino bonuses and promotions

Bovada casino review

At the time of writing this review, not a single Bovada casino no deposit bonus code was available. However, Bovada casino has a generous welcome bonus for new casino players that can be as high as $3,000. To be eligible for this promotion, casino players should use the Bovada casino bonus code ‘NEWWELCOME’ when making their first deposit. This is 100% match deposit bonus, and the minimum deposit amount is capped at $10.

The bonus comes with 25x wagering requirement that players have to meet to redeem the bonus code again as it can be used up to three times. Slots and all specialty games at the casino contribute 100% towards the bonus rollover requirement, while craps don’t contribute at all. The contribution percentage of table games is 20%, video poker and blackjack games’ contribution is 10%, and single and double deck blackjack, baccarat, and roulette games’ contribution percentage is 5%.

Bitcoin welcome bonus

The Bitcoin welcome bonus consists of two bonuses – 150% Bitcoin match deposit for casino players and 50% Bitcoin match deposit for sports betting. Since this is a Bovada casino review, we will only cover the first one. The maximum amount of the Bitcoin deposit bonus is $4,500 and, as the name suggests, it is valid for Bitcoin deposits only.

To get the most out of the 150% match Bitcoin deposit, Bovada casino players should make a Bitcoin deposit of $1,000 using the code ‘BVCBitcoin150’. So for each deposit of $1,000, players will get $1,500 in bonuses. Finally, this bonus can be used up to three times, and the wagering requirement for this promotion is 25x.

Bovada leaderboards

With the Bovada casino leaderboards, players can compete against each other while playing slots and table games. Participating in the Bovada Leaderboards comes with bonus prizes, and to qualify for them, players should meet specific requirements. This includes the minimum spin/hand requirement, and a minimum wagering amount.

The goal of competing at the casino’s leaderboards is to score the highest number of points by playing slot and blackjack games. Players with most points are eligible for one of the three prizes. The first prize is $15, the second is $10, the third prize is $5, and they usually have a 5x wagering requirement.

Refer a friend promotion

Bovada casino review

Bovada casino has a promotion that enables existing customers to earn money by referring their friends. With this promotion, referrers can earn up to $100 when their referees make the first deposit. To qualify for this promotion, existing Bovada players should have at least one deposit on their account and use their referral link when inviting their friends to join Bovada.

As soon as their referees create an account on the site using the referral link, and make their first deposit, referrers are entitled to 200% of their referees’ deposit amount up to $100. The bonus cash has a 30x playthrough requirement, and wagers on single and double deck blackjack, sic bo, craps, baccarat, and roulette don’t count towards the playthrough requirement.

Bovada rewards and player levels

With Bovada’s rewards program, players can earn points by playing games at the casino. To earn rewards points, you should place real money bets on Bovada casino games. For every $1 you wager on single and double deck blackjack, table games, video poker, and blackjack, you’ll earn one point, while for every $1 placed on slot games, you’ll earn five points. For placing bets on any of the casino’s specialty games, you’ll earn the maximum points, i.e., 15, if we exclude sports bets.

There are 14 rewards levels in total. To advance in player levels, you need to collect tier points, which can be done by playing at the casino. By placing bets on eligible casino games, you’ll get both rewards points and tier points. The difference between the two types of points is that tier points can only be used to track your rewards level progress, and cannot be redeemed for cash.

Restricted territories and player anonymity

Bovada’s website is offered in three languages – English, Portuguese, and Spanish. As far as the casino’s restricted territories go, Bovada is available to US casino players only. However, players from New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada, and Maryland are not allowed to place real money wagers at the casino.

Even though Bovada is a Bitcoin casino, they do not support anonymous play. Identity verification might be required not only for requesting a withdrawal but for depositing funds into your account too. Let’s just say that Bovada focuses more on their players’ security than their anonymity. This can be good or bad news depending on what you’re looking for in a Bitcoin casino.

License and safety

Formerly licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, at the time of writing this Bovada casino review, there is no information about the casino’s licensing details on the website. However, Bovada employs the latest SSL encryption technology to keep their clients’ data safe. According to the website, the players’ safety is Bovada’s number one priority. Additionally, the website offers advice on additional measures their clients can take to increase the level of safety.

Customer support

Bovada customers can reach the casino’s support team via live chat, phone, and email, or use the contact form on the website. In case of any Bovada casino complaints, customers can contact the casino using any of the above communication channels. The casino’s support offers instant replies through their live chat service while their email support usually replies within 20 minutes.

Conclusion

At the end of our Bovada casino review, we’ll summarize the casino’s major pros and cons, so you can decide whether you’d like to try this Bitcoin casino or look further. While it does have a decent variety of games on offer along with some of the best bonuses on the market; Bovada has its fair share of downsides. The most prominent ones include missing information about licensing and provably fair gaming, as well as the fees that players are subject to when making deposits or withdrawing winnings.