BetOnline Poker:Review of Games, Bonus, Rakeback & more

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BetOnline is part of the up-and-coming Chico Poker Network or CPN. Chico has grown from relative obscurity before Black Friday into the third-largest US-friendly online poker network. Because of crossover sports and casino players, the quality of play here is very soft compared to most competing poker sites.

BetOnline and its sister skin, SportsBetting.ag, are the only two members of the Chico Poker Network that accept USA online poker players. If you are not a USA-based poker player but are interested in the Chico Poker Network, please see our review of TigerGaming, a Chico skin that does not service USA-based poker players and that has certain extra payout methods that tend to appeal more to an international customer base.

Though the U.S. federal government might not want you to know this, it's perfectly legal for you as an individual player to access the card games at BetOnline or any other USA-friendly online gaming site. The Wire Act, UIGEA, and other applicable statutes target only those running the sites, not individual players, so you're totally in the clear on that front.

Of course, you still need to safeguard yourself against dishonest and shady operators who could put your funds at risk. You may have heard some bad things about BetOnline in the past, and suffice it to say that we heard the same things too. In fact, Professional Rakeback refused to work with BetOnline or the Chico Poker Network for many years because of their bad reputation for slow payouts.

However, new ownership and management took over in 2011. Although it took them a couple of years to really get their act in gear, the new owners infused additional capital into the business and began paying past debts to players, settling player disputes, and cleaning up the mess that the prior owners had left behind. By the end of 2013, almost all pending payouts issues had been solved.

Still, we sat on the sidelines for over a year patiently watching. In the spring of 2014, after over a year of improving reports, we signed a deal with BetOnline to privately test them with a few select clients. After six months of private testing, we were happy to report that all of our players were paid in a timely manner, and any and all minor disputes were handled in a satisfactory way.

Furthermore, we have had no issues at all since then. We were happy to see such a positive turn of events, and we're proud to continue recommending the Chico Poker Network and its flagship brand BetOnline to our faithful clients.

The BetOnline Poker room has really made a name for itself in the somewhat challenging USA internet poker market. Rising from a position as a niche cardroom attached to a much more sizable sportsbook, it has impressed the community and grown significantly over the past five or six years.

Here you'll encounter all the traditional game formats you'd expect (NLHE and PLO cash games, sit-n-gos, and tournaments) plus a few newer variants, like 6+ Hold'em, Windfall lottery SNGs, and fast-paced Boost Poker. They're available at a range of stake levels and buyins, ideal for both casual and experienced players.

While you enjoy the games on offer, you'll also be able to supplement your profits at the tables through the wide array of promotional deals available. They include a 100% up to $1,000 initial deposit bonus, time-sensitive missions and contests, occasional reload bonuses, and a bad beat jackpot at select NLHE tables.

Then when you need a break from the card game action, you can sample the broad palette of gambling options waiting for you across the BoL product portfolio. You can put some money down on the big game, entertain yourself with slot machines, roulette, and other casino fun, and even enter multi-player betting contests.

Poker Welcome Bonus

The first deposit bonus is a 100% poker bonus - up to a maximum of $1,000 USD. In order to activate the bonus after you've signed up by clicking our signup button and made a deposit of at least $50, you will need to email poker[at]betonline.ag – from the email address registered on your new account. Players have 30 days to clear their poker deposit bonuses.

The BetOnline poker deposit bonus was once a complex nightmare. We had to construct elaborate charts in order to show how quickly the bonus cleared over the five different stages it took to finally recover the full value of said bonus. That is no more!

The poker deposit bonuses for BetOnline and sister site SportsBettingAG are very simple now.

Players clearing a bonus will release $5 of bonus money for every 5,000 comp points they earn. Players earn 1 comp point per penny of rake or fees paid in cash games, tournaments, or sit-and-go games, so you need $50 to unlock each portion of the bonus. As such, the deposit bonus clears at a 10% effective rakeback rate, which is worse than the industry average.

BetOnline Poker Games

The various styles of poker that you can sample at BetOnline are listed at the top of the lobby. They are: Cash Games, Tourneys, Sit & Go, and Windfall.

Cash Games

BoL used to have support for all kinds of niche games, like Stud and Americana, but the problem was that these variants seldom saw any action. Today, the ring game selection has been reduced to just NL Hold'em, Pot Limit Omaha (both hi-only and hi-lo), Limit Omaha/8, and Texas 6+ (Six Plus Hold'em).

Even within this restricted menu, almost all of the action is in the big-bet games. The stakes go as high as $5/$10 in NL Texas Hold'em and the Omaha variants.

At the lower end of the scale, the smallest games spread are $0.05/$0.10. This may be disappointing to beginners who wish to participate in nano-stakes games, such as the $0.01/$0.02 tables that are found at some competing poker rooms, and it is a small drawback of this room.

Cash Games at BetOnline

As far as player traffic goes, almost all stake levels in NLHE and PLO see at least one table going throughout the day, and the micro-stakes tend to have more than a dozen active simultaneously. However, Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo is a bit less popular, and you may encounter just a handful of games running across all stakes. Texas 6+ is the least busy of the big-bet formats with sometimes zero tables running.

The level of cash game liquidity at the Chico Poker Network is enough to earn it a spot as the third highest among all U.S.-facing operators.

NL Hold'em is the only game that has nine-handed tables along with six-max. All other types of ring game poker at BoL are six-handed only. There's no heads-up play of any kind to be had in the cash game section.

At the beginning of 2018, the Chico Network unveiled its take on fast-fold poker, called Boost. In Boost, you can fold your hand at any time and then move right away to another table with a new set of hole cards. Because you don't have to wait for hands you're not a part of to complete, you can really speed through the hands at a rate of several hundred per hour. Boost used to only be offered in six-max, NLHE format, but PLO has since been added to the mix.

The cash game multi-tabling limit on BoL is 8. If you attempt to sit at more than this number of tables at the same time, you'll receive a message to this effect:

Below, you can examine the blind levels that exist for these various kinds of poker:

Tourneys

BetOnline runs dozens of tournaments every day, many of which have guaranteed prize pools. Besides the standard-issue freezeouts, there are also rebuy events, progressive knockouts, Boost tournaments, turbos, and more. The overwhelming bulk of these contests are NL Texas Hold'em affairs, but there are a few every day for PLO and PLO-8.

Some of the Prominent Tournaments at BoL

The highlight of the week comes on Sundays when there is a Main Event that costs $100 + $9 to enter and boasts prizes of no less than $150,000. A High Roller contest on the same day beckons those with the deep pockets to afford the $530 cost to join, and it awards at least $50,000 in prizes.  Both these events kick off at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Most guarantees throughout the week are quite a bit smaller than these prestige events, but on the other hand, field sizes tend to be a bit more reasonable than at larger sites, numbering no more than a few hundred in most cases.

One weakness of the BoL tournament lobby is that there haven't really been many special series to look forward too. Still, this might be changing as evidenced by the June 2019 and 2020 MICRO tournament series, which featured 100 events in its initial run and 67 a year later.

Here's a selection of what you have to look forward to if you're an MTT grinder who wishes to check out the lineup at BetOnline:

Sit & Go

The sit-n-go area of BoL lists contests beginning at $1.50 on the low end, climbing up as high as $60 buyins. Almost all of the games are NLHE although there are a few PLO, PLO/8, and 6+ Hold'em competitions listed too.

All three popular speeds (regular, turbo, and hyper) are represented here as are four tables sizes: 2, 6, 8, and 9. The 8-max tables are found exclusively in Double or Nothing games. There are only a few multi-table SNGs mostly progressive knockouts. In addition to the standard sit n' gos that accept cash buyins and pay out in real money, there are, from time to time, SNG qualifiers for special events.

In February 2020, BetOnline shook up its sit-n-go department with the addition of Progressive KO games and 6+ Hold'em contests. Here's a list of the formats supported and the stakes at which you can dabble in them:

Windfall

In late 2017, the Chico Poker Network debuted a takeoff on the tried-and-true sit-n-go formula that allowed it to catch up to the offerings at other competing sites. Windfall Poker is a lottery-style sit n' go format that sees three players (sometimes just two in the higher-buyin games) contend for a randomly chosen prize pool that can reach as high as 2,000 times the amount paid to enter. Windfalls are winner-takes-all, except if the top 2,000 multiplier is selected, in which case second and third places receive some cash too.

In March 2019, the network expanded its offerings with two new wrinkles to the Windfall format: Jackpots and Flips. Jackpots are similar to normal Windfalls but with a rearranged schedule of multipliers and the possibility to be randomly chosen to play for a jackpot prize. Flips are basically all-in fests where all players put their chips in the middle automatically every hand until a winner emerges.

Here are the buyins available for regular Windfalls, Jackpots, and Flips:

Poker Software

BetOnline uses the poker software developed by Connective Games. This is a marked upgrade over the old software solution created by Playsafe Holding, which is currently used only by obscure and little-trafficked poker sites. The Connective Games poker client, on the other hand, is found not only across the Chico Poker Network but also several popular international online poker operations, like Pokerdom and Aconcagua.

There's download software for both Macs and PCs. You can also, since April 2017, log into the impressive BoL mobile poker client. It works with both Android and iOS systems, and it has virtually the complete lineup of poker games that you can access from the desktop application.

The download poker suite contains many user-friendly features, like a buddy list, hand history viewer, player search functionality, auto buy-in, and auto-rebuy. As far as graphical customization goes, the options are a bit limited, but you can change the color of the table and background along with an avatar to show next to your nameplate.

$0.05/$0.10 fast-fold Boost Poker

Serious grinders will undoubtedly appreciate the wealth of settings that make it convenient to put in long sessions at multiple tables. A plethora of hotkeys exist to enable you to perform your actions with a single keystroke. The bet slider buttons are customizable to specified numbers of big blinds, fractions of the pot, or percentages of the pot, and you can make these numbers different for both preflop and postflop.

HUD Compatibility

While putting in long sessions of poker, you may find it useful to take advantage of a HUD package to overlay stats about your opponents atop your tables. These tools are also indispensable when evaluating your own game away from the tables.

Some of the tracking applications you can deploy at BetOnline and Sportsbetting.ag are:

PokerTracker 4 (external hand converter required): The well-rounded PokerTracker 4 program is beloved by fans who appreciate its wealth of reports and robust HUD-customization features. Although it's not natively compatible with BetOnline, there are third-party hand converters available that can read hand histories from BOL and change them into a format that PT4 can use. Check out our review of PokerTracker 4 for further details, including instructions on how to purchase it.

Holdem Manager 2 (external hand converter required): Holdem Manager 2 has a very intuitive layout and permits you to filter and sort your results by any number of criteria. Needless to say, it also packs in a powerful HUD interface with plenty of user-changeable options. One downside is that it doesn't work on BetOnline out of the box; you need to acquire an additional hand converter to capture your hands in a form that HEM2 understands. We've prepared a Holdem Manager 2 review to answer all your questions and show you how to buy this enviable tracking software.

Holdem Indicator (PC) and iHoldem Indicator (Mac): BetOnline provides a free odds calculator that's based upon the Holdem Indicator line of tracking software, but it's feature set is limited and, worst of all, only works on BetOnline/Sportsbetting.ag. If you wish to unlock the full potential functionality of this program, you ought to buy a full license. We've negotiated special pricing for both Holdem Indicator (Windows version) and iHoldem Indicator (Mac). Find out how to receive your discount in our poker software page.

Poker Promotions

The team at BetOnline has designed a number of promos to reward loyal players beyond the value to be found in the initial deposit poker bonus. Some of these deals do require that you put in a fair bit of volume while others are available to even the casual player. Fatten your bankroll with these rewarding perks:

Bad Beat Jackpot

In March 2023, BetOnline revamped its Bad Beat Jackpot. Previously active only at $0.50/$1 and above, it's now available at all NLHE tables, including Boost pools.

In order to ensure fairness across stakes, each blind level has its own Bad Beat Jackpot, funded by an additional contribution taken from pots at that level.

The BBJ is triggered by four of a kind deuces or better going to showdown and losing to a higher hand. At least four players must have been dealt into a hand in order for it to qualify. Furthermore, the hand must go to showdown, and both the winning and losing hands must use both hole cards to compose their final five-card hands.

Should all these conditions be fulfilled, the jackpot funds will be distributed as follows:

• 20% to the losing hand
• 10% to the winning hand
• 10% to other players at the table
• 20% to players at other BBJ tables at the same blind level
• 35% to reseed the new Jackpot
• 5% house fee

The extra rake taken for the BBJ varies across stake levels as follows:

• NL10: $0.01 per $1 in the pot up to a max of $0.05
• NL25: $0.03 per $1 in the pot up to a max of $0.15
• NL50: $0.04 per $2 in the pot up to a max of $0.20
• NL100: $0.20 per $10 in the pot up to a max of $1
• NL200: $0.30 per $20 in the pot up to a max of $1.50
• NL500: $0.40 per $50 in the pot up to a max of $2
• NL1000: $0.50 per $100 in the pot up to a max of $2.50

Cash Game Leaderboards

Every month, there's five figures (sometimes six) up for grabs among cash game players. The winners are determined by daily leaderboards, and they are divided up by stake level to give even the micro-grinders a chance to win. There are separate leaderboards for NLHE and PLO.

In order to participate, you must opt in via the cashier, in the Contests section. Points are awarded based upon rake generated.

SNG Leaderboards

Each day, the top SNG players receive a share of tournament money rewards. Heads-up games are excluded. For every $1 in sit n' go fees paid, 1 point is credited to you. To take part in these SNG leaderboards, you must opt in through the cashier.

Time-Sensitive Promos

Beyond the more-or-less permanent specials described above, BoL also caters to its clients with various seasonal promotions that are only good for a limited time. These include reload bonuses, challenges and missions, free tournament tickets, and more. Check the promotions page on the BetOnline website regularly to stay apprised of these offers.

BetOnline Rakeback

We are sad to announce that the Chico Poker Network does not allow its operators to offer direct cash rakeback, but Professional Rakeback can buy you a new laptop!

Even if you decline our free laptop offer, you will see at least 10% rakeback returns via the welcome bonus. Even when you've finished clearing your bonus, you may have the chance to pick up additional reload bonuses to preserve this BoL rakeback percentage.

Mobile Poker

You can play poker at BetOnline from your phone or tablet. There's a browser-based solution for iOS devices and a downloadable app for Android. Your system must be an iPad 3 or higher, iPhone 5 or later, or Android OS 6+ platform in order to access the poker room in this way.

Almost the entire selection of games from the normal desktop client is also present in the mobile poker interface. This includes even the more niche products, like Texas 6+, Windfall, and Boost. This is a welcome change from most mobile poker applications, which often restrict the games that users can play.

The Mobile Lobby Contains Almost All the Games Present for Desktop

The table layout is a bit simplified for mobile, but everything you really need to see is visible. There are three ways to choose your betsize: by dragging a curved betslider, by using preset buttons for 1/2 pot, 3/4 pot, and other betting options, or by pressing plus and minus buttons to increment/decrement the bet by one bb. It's even possible to multitable although this is a bit awkward on smaller screens.

$0.05/$0.10 Cash Game on Mobile

Even if you lack a compatible mobile device, you can still log into the BetOnline website and play in your browser. This is true also if you're on your laptop, a friend's computer, or any other system that you don't want to install the poker client on.

BetOnline Bots

Over the years, concern has grown about poker bots: automated pieces of software that can play reasonably well, never get tired, and are able to run multiple simultaneous instances of themselves to either collect more profit or collude with each other. In the past, BetOnline was one of the rooms that suffered from an infestation of these bots.

In February 2018, the Chico Poker Network launched a new initiative against bots along with multi-accounting, colluding, and other forms of cheating. Since then, the prevalence of these automated pieces of software at the tables has decreased substantially.

Here are two quotes from frequent players on the Chico Poker Network about this situation:

As many people here know I used to actively track the bots on this network and provide other players with information about them. I can confidently say that there's been massive improvements in that area over the last year. The most common cash game botring profile has been pretty much eradicated from their cash game tables. I used to be able to identify multiple bots at most NLHE cash game tables at almost anytime throughout a day. That hasn't been the case for about a year now. That's not to say a suspicious account might not pop up from time to time, as it's a possibility at any poker site, but their current security team does a much better job with improving game integrity issues on the network than what was taking place at their tables prior to this past year. There has also been some compensation given to affected players over the past year when accounts who were violating the rules were identified and had their funds seized. -- MCAChiTown (2+2 Forums Source Link)

I play a lot of 500 & 1k am pretty confident that the games are bot and RTA free -- NINzent

Deposits

Making a deposit at BetOnline is easy. You need to click on the “Cashier” button within the poker software and then press “Deposit.” A window will open up in your browser showing you the deposit options that are available. Choose one and then fill out the deposit form as shown below:

Depositing to Your BetOnline Account Is Straightforward and Simple

After filling out the required fields, click on “Deposit Now” to complete your transaction.

You can fund your account via a number of convenient methods. Players from the United States can make deposits through the following channels:

• Bitcoin: $20 - $500,000
• Ethereum: $20 - $100,000
• Litecoin: $20 - $100,000
• Bitcoin Cash: $20 - $100,000
• Ripple: $20 - $100,000
• Stellar: $20 - $100,000
• Visa: $50 - $5,000
• Mastercard: $50 -$5,000
• American Express: $50 - $5,000
• Discover: $50 - $5,000
• Person to Person: $100 - $600
• Money Order: $300 - $9,000
• Bank Wire: $1,000+
• Cashiers Check: $1,500 - $25,000

Some of these deposit processors come with fees, but crypto-currency transactions are always free at BetOnline apart from the small miners fees levied by the crypto network itself. This is why we always advise our clients to use cryptos whenever possible.

The most widely supported digital coin these days is Bitcoin, so it's probably the one to begin with if you're new to crypto-currency. You can read our detailed guide on using BTC for online poker if you're a crypto newbie. We've also prepared similar pages covering Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash.

Players from countries other than the United States have several other methods for depositing. Look at the cashier window while logged into your account to see which particular deposit processors are supported for you.

Withdrawals

Most of the same payment processors that are present for deposits can also be used to cash out. Again, we heartily recommend crypto-currencies because they're fast, and you don't have to pay any withdrawal fees when using them.

Here's the list of payout channels for Americans:

• Bitcoin: $20 - $100,000, NO FEES
• Ethereum: $20 - $100,000, NO FEES
• Bitcoin Cash: $20 - $100,000, NO FEES
• Litecoin: $20 - $100,000, NO FEES
• Ripple: $20 - $100,000, NO FEES
• Stellar: $20 - $100,000, NO FEES
• Person to Person: $50 - $400, $26 - $51 fee depending on amount
• Check by Courier: $500 - $2,500, $50 - $75 fee depending on amount
• Wire Transfer: $500 - $25,000, 3% fee with a $45 minimum

Rest-of-the-world customers may have additional withdrawal options beyond those available to users in the United States, most notably ewallets. Options for RoW customers are heavily influenced by what country one resides in. Check your personal cashier in the BoL software to verify which methods you can use to retrieve your winnings from the site.

BetOnline is consistently ranked among the top online gaming operators for payouts. You can count on receiving your money honestly and without any needless delays. If you would like to learn more, Professional Rakeback has years' worth of payout data for BetOnline and dozens of other operators available in our monthly payout report.

As its bread-and-butter gambling product, the sportsbook at BetOnline has tons of contests for you to wager on. Here's the full list of sports on which BoL offers odds:

Beyond the bets available on these sports, there's also an esports section as well as futures and props markets that sometimes carry lines on all kinds of non-sporting events, like television shows and politics.

Screenshot of the BoL Sportsbook

Sports Promotions

Needless to say, there are quite a few promos in the BoL sportsbook. Some of them are for new bettors, but others apply to both new and existing customers.

$1,000 Welcome Bonus

You can get 50% of your first deposit amount added to your balance in the form of sports freeplays as long as you deposit $55 or more. The maximum allowable bonus under the terms of this deal is $1,000. You must roll over the bonus and the deposit amount 10 times before making a withdrawal. You have to use the freeplays up within 30 days; otherwise, all of them that are unused at that point will expire.

If you elect to make your initial deposit via crypto-currency, then you can instead take advantage of a 100% up to $1,000 freeplay deal with a minimum deposit requirement of $20. This offer is subject to a 14x rollover on both the sum deposited and the bonus.

Never-Ending Reloads

With every subsequent deposit you make of a value of $50 or more, you'll be eligible for a 25% sports bonus up to $250. A playthrough requirement of 6x applies to the amount you deposit and the freeplay funds. This bonus expires after 30 days.

Crypto fanatics instead qualify for a 35% bonus up to a max of $350 with a redeposit of at least $20, and this offer is subject to an 8x rollover.

The best part about these reloads is that they are UNLIMITED. That's right – you can get a reload on your redeposit whether it's your second, third, or hundredth deposit to the site (though a bettor with your undoubted handicapping skills shouldn't ever have to make anywhere near 100 deposits).

Live Betting $25 Free Play

BetOnline is willing to give you a $25 money-back guarantee on the first bet you place in the Live Betting software. The way it works is that you make a bet with $25 of your own money. If you win, all's good. If you lose, then you can get the $25 added back to your balance as a free bet.

You must email BetOnline support at freeplay[at]betonline[dot]ag within 24 hours after your losing bet settles. Include your account number and the ticket number of the bet inside your email. Put “$25 Live free bet” as the subject.

The $25 free bet will be credited within 48 hours. It's subject to a playthrough of 6x, and it must be used within 30 days.

Mobile $50 Free Play

You can get cash back on the first bet you place with a phone or tablet in the sports book. If you win, then congratulations; you don't need the money back deal. If, on the other hand, your first mobile wager is unsuccessful, then you can get up to $50 back through this free play promo.

Simply send an email to freeplay[at]betonline[dot]ag with your account number and ticket number. Put “$50 Mobile Free Play” as the subject of your email. You must complete this step within 24 hours of the completion of the event you bet on.

The free play for the amount of your wager, up to a max of $50, will be credited to your account within 48 hours. It comes with a 6x rollover.

eSports

A rapidly growing segment of the sports betting industry, eSports is especially beloved by the younger crowd. If you enjoy following major teams and competitors in the most prominent video games as they do battle around the world, then perhaps you'd like to put down a dollar or two to back your favorites. eSports is shown in a separate section of the BoL website, which is why it's not included in the list of sports above.

For a newer addition to the BetOnline portfolio, the number of games covered is pretty extensive although for some of the more obscure titles, you might only find matches listed every once in a while. BetOnline lets you wager on:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Dota 2
• League of Legends
• Overwatch
• Call of Duty
• FIFA
• Hearthstone
• King of Glory
• Starcraft 2
• Starcraft BroodWar
• NBA2K
• Warcraft 3
• Rocket League
• PES
• PUBG
• Rainbow Six
• Street Fighter
• SMITE

You can bet on the moneyline to predict which player or team will win, and in most cases, you can also engage in handicap betting (similar to the spread in traditional sports betting). Depending on the particular eSport, there may be additional wagers available, like guessing the winner of each map, the final score, the total number of rounds won by a side, and more.

Placing a Bet

It's a piece of cake to place your wagers at BetOnline. Through the left nav, you can select the sport and league you're interested in. Then, you'll see a list of competitions in the center of your screen along with betting odds for various possibilities. To see even more outcomes you can bet on, you can click on the plus sign next to the game, and an expanded view will open up.

To make your selection, simply click on it within the main window. Then click on the type of bet you want in your bet slip toward the right of the screen: Straight Bet, Parlay & Robin, IF Bet & Reverse, Teaser & Pleaser. Enter in the amount you wish to risk in the field provided, and the system will tell you how much you stand to win.

Your Wagers Will Show up in Your Betslip

Press “Place my bet” to proceed. If all appears good, click “Confirm Bet” to book your wager. You can choose “Back” if you change your mind.

The process for making a bet from your mobile device is similar. However, due to the smaller size of the screen, less information can be displayed at once. Therefore, the places you'll have to click to choose and book your wagers are different. Everything is more or less self-explanatory, and you'll be placing your mobile action in confidence before too long.

Placing a Bet on a Mobile System

Betting Limits

The amount you can bet at BoL starts off small, at $1 in most cases, but the maximums run into the thousands of dollars at least for the most popular events. Even better, once you reach the max for a given bet, you can still bet again once 61 seconds have passed or whenever the odds change. Here are the maximum bet amounts for some of the most popular sports and wagers:

Maximum Wagering Limits for Popular Sports/Bets

For info regarding the betting limits for other types of events, call BetOnline at 1-800-977-4717. You can also call to have your personal limits increased.

Live Betting

Live Betting is becoming an increasingly demanded feature of online sportsbooks, and BetOnline won't disappoint if this is what you're looking for. The Live Betting interface allows you to keep making picks even after a particular contest is underway.

Though coverage is quite a bit more limited than in the regular sportsbook, a limited roster of matches from the most popular sports is supported for Live Betting every day. There's a calendar showing the games that will be featured in the Live Betting section.

With Live Betting, the lines are continuously updated as play progresses on the field. You'll have to get your bets in quick when you see a good opportunity before the odds shift away from your side. Turn on the “Quick Bet” box to make your wagers rapidly without having to confirm them.

The Live Betting Area of BetOnline

The casino at BoL opens up right in your web browser, so there's nothing to download or install. There are hundreds of titles to choose from with most of them created by the renowned gaming development firm BetSoft. There are also a number of titles from Dragon Gaming and a selection of Live Dealer games powered by Visionary iGaming.

Casino Promotions

Though the casino games are entertaining in their own right, BetOnline has a broad array of bonuses and other special deals, which may make casino gaming here profitable as well as amusing. Some of the offers are recurring, but others apply only to newcomers to the casino.

$3,000 in Welcome Bonues

On each of your first three deposits, you can claim a 100% up to $1,000 bonus, for a maximum of $3,000 in complimentary casino cash! In order to qualify, you must deposit at least $25.

These bonuses do come with some pretty stringent rules attached. First of all, you cannot use the bonus funds on Baccarat, Roulette, or Craps. Secondly, you have to complete a wagering requirement of 30 times the sum of your deposit plus bonus within 30 days after receiving the bonus. Finally, only games created by BetSoft can be played with the bonus.

20% Monthly Reload

If you think the welcome casino bonus at BoL is generous, wait till you see what the site has in store for you every month. There's a monthly reload bonus code that grants you 20% of your redeposit up to a maximum of $500 – and you can use it as many as four times, for a total haul of $2,000 per month extra for your casino bankroll.

You need to deposit at least $25 each time you wish to take advantage of this deal, and you then have to roll over the deposit AND bonus 35 times. Each bonus is valid for 14 days before expiry.

These monthly reloads can only be used to play Betsoft games, and all games other than slots contribute less than 100% toward the wagering requirement. You cannot put in any action using these bonus funds on Craps, Virtual Racebook, Specialty Games, or any game with a progressive jackpot.

10% Weekly Rebate

Every week (Monday through Thursday) that you lose at least $1,000 in the BetOnline Casino, you'll get a 10% rebate. This perk is calculated in $10 intervals, so if the amount you would be credited falls in between a $10 segment, it will be rounded up or down to whichever value is closer. Losses in the Live Casino don't count for the purposes of this promotion.

The rebate bonus comes with a 40x playthrough total, and you can cash out a maximum of five times the value of the rebate. The bonus can only be used on selected games. The rebate bonus expires after seven days. The maximum rebate is $250.

$15,000 BTC Deposit Leaderboard

Each month, BetOnline rewards users who have made a deposit during the month via crypto-currency. There's $15,000 to be handed out to those who wager the most in the casino with eight places paid. The top prize is $5,000, second is $3,000, third is $2,000, and positions 4 - 8 each get $1,000.

What's amazing about these prizes is that they require a super-low rollover of just 4x! Prizes are distributed within 72 hours of the end of the month. Free chips do not expire until the end of the month in which they're distributed.

Live Casino Weekly Leaderboard

Every week, the players who earn the most points on Live Dealer Blackjack and Roulette will win a portion of a $1,800 prize pool. The prizes for Blackjack are $500, $400, and $300. The corresponding payouts for Roulette are $300, $200, and $100. You earn 1 point every time you bet $10.

The free chips that are awarded as part of the Live Casino Leaderboard only need to be played through once before they become real cash. This rollover must be conducted in any Live Casino games except standard Blackjack. If you do not meet this requirement within 14 days, the free chip will expire.

Casino Games

No matter what particular kinds of casino fun you most look forward to, you're almost certain to find something that fits the bill at BetOnline. The casino is divided up into sections, each containing a distinct form of gameplay. When you opt to play in the BoL Casino, you will be able to enjoy:

Slots

The slots are the mainstay of the casino at BetOnline. There are more than 100 titles available, so you won't run out of slot gaming entertainment anytime soon. Open up the box below for a comprehensive listing of all the slots in the BoL catalog.

Many of these games utilize the innovative Slots3 engine from BetSoft, which enables 3D cinematics and animations. There are plenty of special features here from free spins to bonus rounds and sizeable jackpots.

Spinfinity Man Slot Machine

You can play slots on your mobile too although the game library is a bit restricted.

Mobile Slot Lobby

Table Games

Though they're not as numerous as the slots, there is a surprising amount of variety in the table games at BetOnline, including no fewer than a dozen forms of Blackjack and its derivatives. Other staples of the casino scene, like roulette, craps, and baccarat, are well-represented too.

Video Poker

The video poker menu at BoL consists of some of the most widely appreciated formats, like Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild. There are even multi-hand versions of some of these games where you draw multiple times to the same starting cards, which somewhat reduces the large variance involved in these games.

Specialty Games

“Specialty Games” is where BetOnline puts everything that doesn't quite fit in anywhere else. Here you'll encounter bingo, keno, and a few other games.

Live Casino

The Live Casino incorporates physical gaming tables that are operated by human dealers. The betting interface is completely digital, but the actual gameplay results are determined by real dealt cards (or spun wheels as the case may be).

Live Dealer Blackjack

There are variable betting limits that apply at the distinct tables in the Live Casino section. For example, a low-stakes Blackjack Early Payout table lets you put down between $5 and $100 per hand whereas in a high-stakes Blackjack HD Exclusive game, you can risk anywhere from $100 to $10,000 on a hand.

Near the beginning of 2020, BetOnline revamped its Live Dealer section and divided it into two components: Live Dealer Black and Live Dealer Red.

Secret Games Section

There are actually quite a few games in the two Live Dealer sections that have nothing to do with live dealers. They cannot be seen unless you're a customer of BetOnline and are logged into your account. They are not shown to just anyone who browses the BOL website.

After you log in and go to either one of the Live Dealer areas, you will see a list of slots, tables, and other games for your delectation. These titles come packaged with the Live Dealer suites, which is why they're found in the live casinos and not in the other normal categories of the Bet Online Casino.

Within this hidden section of the live dealer platforms, you'll see such popular table games as Single Deck Blackjack and Craps. In addition, there are renowned slots, like A Night With Cleo and 777 Deluxe. Even though these games are situated in a somewhat obscure part of the gambling platform, they play like normal with your regular account balance and run just as smoothly as any other game.

Below, you'll find lists of all the gaming options in both Live Casino divisions, including the underground titles:

In-Client Poker Casino

An additional segment of the casino that you may wish to explore is that contained entirely within the poker client. These titles are provided by Connective Games, the software supplier for BetOnline Poker, although some of them were originally produced by Fuga Gaming Technologies.

Alternate Casino Providers

If you're mainly interested in BetOnline because you like to play casino games, then there are two other sites you may wish to consider: Wild Casino and SuperSlots.ag. They're managed by the same group that owns BOL and have the same full lineup of casino entertainments.

However, Wild Casino and Super Slots are casino-only brands; there's no poker or sports betting to be had at these sister sites of BetOnline. Compensating for this, they're solely focused on those who love casino games. The promotional offerings bear this out: Without the need to market to card game enthusiasts or sports bettors, there's more room on the menu to reward casino gamers.

For instance, there's a welcome bonus of up to $9,000 at Wild Casino, three times the size of BOL's $3,000 casino deal. For its part, Super Slots provides a welcome bonus of $6,000 though it delivers its full value over the course of just three deposits rather than the five required to realize the entire Wild Casino bonus.

To learn more about these potentially profitable casino destinations, check out this comprehensive Wild Casino review page and thorough review of Super Slots.

Just like you can at the track, you can wager on the ponies over the internet at BetOnline. The process is very similar to in the sportsbook, but there are minor differences. Perhaps the most notable is that BoL pays full track odds, meaning that the amount you can win is actually determined by the way the public at large bets at the track. The odds you see when you make your selections are only estimates.

The Racebook Supports Both Straight Wagers and Exotics

Win, Place, and Show are just the beginning of the fun. Exotic wagers are also listed, like the Trifecta, Daily Double, and Pick 3. Boxing your bets to cover multiple outcomes is possible.

Racebook Promos

Despite the fact that BetOnline doesn't push its racebook as hard as some of its other gambling platforms, there are a couple of promotions for racing fans to look forward to.

$25 Risk-Free Bet

Anyone who has never made a real-money bet in the racebook can benefit from a risk-free $25 bet. If you win your bet, then nothing special happens. But if you lose, you can claim up to $25 back depending on the amount of your stake.

To avail yourself of this offer, you must email freeplay[at]betonline[dot]ag within 24 hours after the end of the race with your account number and ticket number. In the subject line of your message, put “$25 Horse Free Play.”

Within 48 hours, the value of your bet will be added back to your account in the form of a freeplay. This freeplay will expire in 30 days, and you must roll it over 6x before being able to cash out.

Wagers on Breeders' Cup, Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes are excluded from this offer. So are bets on horse match-ups, futures, and props.

9% Rebate

You will get a 9% daily rebate on all the racebook action you place over the internet. However, there are a list of wagers that are not eligible for this rebate:

• Bets that pay $2.20 or less for $2.00
• Bets on races at tracks in categories D and E (see below for tracklist)
• Matchup, fixed-odds, and proposition bets
• Canceled wagers or bets refunded due to scratch

Moreover, NYRA tracks only qualify for a 4% rebate instead of the full 9%. Telephone wagers will receive a 5% daily rebate on exotics and a 2% rebate for Win Place Show.

Track List

There's a list of tracks at which BoL carries races, divided into categories. The main distinction between the various categories is that they each cap the maximum net profit you can make from your wagers. Any North American tracks not listed have a maximum net profit per race of $2,500. The corresponding figure for tracks outside the USA and Canada is $5,000.

There are sports-related contests that you can enter to compete against others for a portion of a prize pool. Most of them are centered around predicting the top finishers in an event or filling out brackets in such athletic tournaments as March Madness or the NBA playoffs.

Most of these contests cost money to enter, but some of them are open to all, free of charge. You can buy in multiple times for many of them with a discount for every entry past a certain number.

BetOnline used to pride itself on accepting customers from all 50 of the United States, but this all-inclusive policy ended when the site opted to exclude New Jersey users in August 2019. Furthermore, there are several other parts of the world with which this gaming site does not transact. Here's the full list of restricted areas:

• Australia
• Afghanistan
• Bulgaria
• Central African Republic
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Cuba
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Eritrea
• France (including French Guiana, French Polynesia, and French Southern Territories)
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Iran
• Iraq
• Lebanon
• Liberia
• Libya
• Mali
• Malta
• Myanmar
• North Korea
• Panama
• Slovenia
• Somalia
• Sudan
• Syria
• United Kingdom
• Yemen
• Zimbabwe

If you encounter an issue at BetOnline and would like help in resolving it, you can contact the customer service team. They are available 24/7.

The CS phone number is 1-888-426-3661, or you can send an email to cs[at]betonline[dot]ag. There's also a poker-specific support email: poker[at]betonline[dot]ag. Perhaps the most convenient way to get in touch with support personnel is through Live Chat, which you can open up through the Contact Us page on the BoL website.

BetOnline has never been the largest internet poker destination open to USA players, but over the past few years, it has increased its player volume to the point that it's now the third-biggest online cardroom for Americans. We've taken a look at the historical traffic trends for BoL to gain an appreciation for how it was able to achieve the success that it has. Our data comes from poker industry traffic resource GameIntel.

The Growth of the Chico Poker Network

BetOnline has a history as a sportsbook going all the way back to 2004, and it in fact operated its own poker room at this time. However, all mention of poker was gone from the website by the end of 2006, and this early, abortive poker attempt has little in common with the current BetOnline poker site that's doing business today.

It was only in 2011 that the current incarnation of BOL poker came to fruition as a part of the Action Poker Network, which was never anything more than a niche operator. Early traffic levels were therefore understandably light.

There was a corporate restructuring shortly after this time, and BetOnline emerged as the flagship of the new Chico Poker Network. We saw an immediate uptick in player volume although for its first couple of years, the network was marred with payout issues: a holdover from the way the old, incompetent managers of the Action Network handled their affairs.

In 2013, the new team managed to clear these outstanding debts to the satisfaction of those affected, and it appeared to be smooth sailing for the network. In 2015, CPN became one of the first poker organizations to begin accepting Bitcoin, further boosting its popularity.

From 2015 to the early part of 2018, we saw player liquidity grow at a steady, sustained pace. Nevertheless, there was a drop-off in traffic levels during that year. Although we're not exactly sure why this happened, it could be related to the elimination of several game types, including all cash games below $0.05/$0.10 and most of the freeroll schedule. Even the introduction of new products, like Boost and Windfall, was insufficient to bolster the player counts to what they had previously been.

However, we saw new player count highs in early 2020, and while there has been a bit of a drop off since then, traffic still remains at a strong plateau. Given this fact, and the concentration of action in higher-margin game formats than before, the company is probably doing very well from a profit/loss perspective.

Everything we've told you about BetOnline Poker is well and good, but we're aware that you might be interested in what other real money players have to say. Therefore, we're pleased to present below comments from actual users across the internet.

Although there are a few minor drawbacks to BoL Poker, we're confident that it will satisfy the needs of the overwhelming majority of online poker players. We heartily recommend BetOnline Poker whether you're looking for a primary internet poker home or you seek to expand the mix of sites that you already play at. Relatively fast payouts, a soft player pool, and frequent promotions make this a place where you can pad your profits without too much effort.

Nevertheless, if you've absorbed all the information we've presented above and you still feel like taking a pass on BetOnline, you have other offshore poker solutions awaiting you. Check out our USA internet poker guide and rundown for details on some of the top rooms for Americans.

Though we have gone over a wealth of information in the review above, you may still have a few unresolved questions about BetOnline Poker. Check out our FAQ below for answers to some of the most common queries about this poker operation.

We've attempted to be as comprehensive as possible with the BetOnline review above. Nevertheless, time and space considerations mean that we could not by any means hope to capture all the information that's out there about this gaming site. If you would like to learn more, then please follow the links below to go to third-party resources that have additional details about BoL.

1. https://poker.fandom.com/wiki/Betonline_Poker
2. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/284/betonline-ag-online-poker/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BetOnline
4. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/betonline.ag