Bovada.lv is a new online bookmakers that is closely related to Bodog. When Bodog left the US market in late 2011, it created Bovada as a sister company to continue offering wagering to residents of the United States. Thus at this site, all members get the same trusted experience that Bodog has been offering for years.
The site’s biggest advantage is its trusted name in the sports gambling world. The people that run the site’s in-play section are recognized for treating customers well and offering timely payouts on all wagers. There are plenty of low class operations out there, but this one bucks the trend by offering customers a trustworthy place to wager.
The next thing that I like about their live platform is its selection of wagers for each event. Any time there is an event open for wagers, the gambling site provides a wide variety of bets. Players can wager on who will score the next point, what the point total will be at the next break and much more. Compared to average US online bookmakers, this site has an enormous selection of live wagers.
Additionally, they offer in-play wagering for events around the clock. You can visit their sportsbooks almost any time of the day and find multiple sports events open. This requires a lot of resources which many operators lack of in the U.S. market – these guys, however, are able to get it done.
Only a fraction of available in-play bets for Fulham vs. Hull City
The variety of in-running events is another plus for Bovada.lv. Although they target the US gambling market, they provide options for placing bets on sports around the world. Just tonight I logged into their and found wagers on a hockey game, a tennis match, a basketball game and a soccer game. This variety makes them a strong choice for in-play sports bettors of all types.
I have just one major complaint about Bovada’s in-game wagering: the book does not yet offer live streaming for sports events. They do provide live updates on points and certain stats, but it would be nice if they could stream events to your PC. Some of the biggest sites in the world such as Bet365 Betting are able to bring live sporting events right to your computer free of charge.
Other than that, they do a pretty darn good job. There’s a big selection of events and each event has plenty of options that change as each match progresses. The betting lines are about average, but nothing spectacular. We see better lines at some sportsbooks (like 5Dimes) and worse lines at others.
For most people, the lines at this site are good enough to get the job done.
Bovada covers all the major sports of the world extensively, but it does lack on some of the more obscure sports (such as handball and water polo). If you mainly bet on mainstream sports such as football, soccer, basketball or hockey, this siet has some great options. 5Dimes may offer an even better selection on less popular sports.
For the sports that they do cover, the options are plentiful. Each live event at Bovada Sports comes with a long list of constantly-changing bets. For example, I looked at the options for a Dallas-Utah basketball game and saw all the following wagers:
Football is one of this site’s strongest points. As a US-friendly betting site, in-depth football coverage is a must. They cover every preseason game, regular season game and post season game in great deal. The live betting options for each football game are extensive. They offer wagers on games in the NFL, NCAA, CFL, UFL and Arena Football League.
All the biggest NBA games are covered in the in-running area and each game comes with a long list of in-play wagers. The live basketball lineup includes both professional and college basketball.
Who will win the championship?
In addition to normal bets, they currently offer seven future bets (for winners of each division and conference plus NBA championship) and a specials bet (who will be the MVP of the season?).
Considering the sheer number of baseball games played in the US every year, the site impresses me with its ability to keep track of them all. Not every baseball game is covered in the in-game area, but you won’t suffer from a lack of options. College baseball games are also covered, but not to the same extent as the MLB.
Pretty much the same story here. They keep up to date on hockey and offers a variety of betting options. In addition to the NHL, they offer betting lines for the main hockey leagues in eight countries, as well as any World Championships events and such.
You have many ways to bet on NHL games – for example, you have several different ways to bet on the upcoming Rangers vs. Maple Leafs game, such as over/under bets and props. Each hockey league has its own future bets (seven of them for the NHL, which include division, conference and league winners).
Bovada’s in-play wagering also extends to other sports like soccer, cricket, UFC/MMA, rugby, horse racing, snooker and darts. Soccer is popular here despite them being a US-facing sportsbook. During my last visit to the site, I saw eight live soccer games scheduled for the next day.
You can deposit to the site via either Visa or Mastercard credit card, Visa gift card or Bitcoin. They used to allow you to deposit using money transfer services (MoneyGram and Western Union) but they no longer mention that option on the website:
A screenshot from the Deposit Options page at www.bovada.lv.
The good news is that Bitcoin deposits are free; the bad news is that Visa deposits cost 4.9% of the deposit amount and Mastercard deposits cost 6.9%. You’ll have to get quite a return for your money if you want to turn profit. I doubt they’re charging that much for nothing, though – the likely reason is that U.S. gambling deposits require a lot of work to process.
Card deposits have a limit of $20-$1,000 and Bitcoin deposits have a limit of $20-$5,000. Both deposit methods (credit/debit card and Bitcoin) are processed instantly.
Sports bettors get a 50% deposit bonus up to $250 with a 5x rollover requirement (applies to both sports betting and horse racing). This bonus is only for your first deposit. You can also use the bonus offer on casino games (the difference being a 30x rollover requirement at the casino vs. 5x at the sportsbook).
As mentioned, Bovada no longer offers money transfer (Western Union and MoneyGram) deposits, and neither do they offer money transfer payouts.
Your only payouts options are Bitcoin (with a limit of $20-$9,500, processed instantly) and check by courier (with a limit of $50-$3,000, takes 2-3 weeks to arrive). Every customer gets one free withdrawal per calendar month. Any subsequent withdrawals cost $50 a piece.
Bovada currently accepts players from the United States and Mexico (they expanded to Mexico in February of 2017). They provide phone support for both countries: 1-888-263-0000 for USA and 1-800-953-0584 for Mexico. You can also contact them via e-mail and usually get an answer within 30 minutes.
