Bodog Poker Network Expands Into Latin America
The Bodog Poker Network is opening in 15 new Latin American countries beginning on February 15th, 2017.
Bodog and Bovada to Expand Gambling Operations to New Markets
The Bodog Poker Network is a real money online poker network and is composed of three companies currently. Bodog, Bodog88, and Ignition Casino are those entities. Bovada was previously the US-friendly arm of the network, but sold its operations to Ignition in late 2016. These three sister sites, or network skins, have up until recently serviced very specific markets. Bodog88 was strictly for players residing in China. Ignition Casino was strictly servicing players from America. And Bodog was only available to players residing in Canada. As of February 15th, 2017, that will change.
Earlier today, the marketing arm of Bodog reached out to us and let us know that they are greatly expanding the number of countries allowed to play poker (as well as bet sports and casino) on the Bodog brand. Bodog is going from allowing one country, Canada, to sixteen different countries! Most of the new additions are in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries in Central and South America, collectively known as Latin America. Here is a quote from the email they sent to affiliates this afternoon:
We are excited to announce that, as of February 15, our partnered brands Bovada and Bodog will be launching their product offerings in Latin America.
Bovada Sports and Casino will be available in Mexico only while Bodog Poker, Casino, and Sports will launch in the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
And just like that, one week from now, we should see some big changes in the online poker market. The addition of 15 new countries should create a noticeable increase in poker liquidity on the Bodog Network. This will benefit not only the Canadian players on Bodog, but the Chinese players on Bodog88 and the American players on Ignition since all three sites share player pools. This is great news for the real money US online poker market!
What Changes Can We Expect?
Well, for starters, we expect that multi-lingual support for all brands will be much more readily available in Spanish and Portuguese languages. But aside from that, here is some of our other educated guesses:
[1] Bodog, which is currently only for Canadian gamblers, will be expanding quite a bit in scope and size.
[2] Bodog, who currently shares its Canadian player base with that of Ignition (USA) and Bodog88 (China), will continue to share players current and new players with the network.
[3] The influx of new players will drive Bodog back up the international rankings provided by Game Intel. In fact, we suspect that Bodog (Ignition on Game Intel) will vault back into ranks of the top three largest online poker networks.
[4} The bulk of the new players will be micro and small stakes players due to the generally poor economic status of Latin American countries.
[5] New deposit and withdrawal methods, perhaps some country specific, will be available on Bodog.
[6] Players who were upset about the recent rake increases will cheer up and think twice about leaving.
All things considered, we think this should be a very good thing for players. The Latin American market has the potential to inject a huge amount of liquidity into online poker. As it stands now, there aren't a ton of mainstream world-wide sites who tap into this market very well. Ya Poker, a Winning Poker Network skin, is one of the few, and even then, they haven't gained a ton of traction. We expect though that with Bodog's powerful and effective marketing arm, that Bodog Latin America will flourish.
As stated above, we do think the bulk of players coming from Latin America will be lower buy-in players simply due to the low average wages of LAM countries in general. As many of you know, the poker economy is a pyramid. The more players at the bottom, the more money filters up to the higher stakes when players run well, move up, and take shots at bigger games. An influx of players to the lower stakes would certainly have noticeable effects on the mid and higher stakes games, if not immediately, then over the course of the next few months as word gets out in all of the new countries.
Other Changes
Last week, on February 3, 2017, Bodog and Bovada updated their deposit bonuses, likely In preparation for this new Latin American launch. There is no news of any changes to the poker bonuses as of yet, but Professional Rakeback is attempting to confirm and will update this article as necessary. The new bonuses are casino bonuses and are as follows:
Bovada:
$3,000 Casino Welcome Bonus
100% match bonus up to $1,000 - redeemable 3X
Code: NEWWELCOME
Bodog:
$600 Casino Welcome Bonus
100% match bonus up to $600 - redeemable 1X
Code: WELCOMEGAMES
While these are casino bonuses and do not directly translate into extra money in the poker economy, let us think about it from another angle. The reason the Bodog brands are so soft and fishy with regard to poker is the fact that they are attached to such a large and profitable sportsbook and casino company. Punters on a hot streak love to gamble some of their winnings on the poker tables. So these new bonuses could conceivably bring in wealthier Latin American players with money to burn and ultimately trickle some more money into the poker economy.
Conclusion
While we still expect the anonymous tables and lack of offering rakeback deals will continue, Professional Rakeback sees nothing but good things coming from this expansion. More gamblers at the poker tables will be good for us all. LAM players have not been exposed to nearly as much poker as Americans have been over the last decade and a half and are, on average, a bit behind the curve when compared to their ROW counterparts. More newbie poker players from these new markets will undoubtedly improve gaming conditions. This move will likely become a nice bonus to offset the increased rake on the network that took effect at the beginning of 2017!
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