Bodog.com - Review of Poker, Sports & Casino - Is It Legit?

Bodog's online poker, casino, sports, and racing platform is one of the leading gambling sites on the PaiWangLuo Network. The current ownership structure of the Bodog empire is a bit confusing, but suffice it to say that it's descended from the successful gaming destination founded by billionaire Calvin Ayre in the 1990s.

Bodog's Canadian division is housed at Bodog.eu and holds a license from the Antigua Gaming Commission. The Latin American version of the site is called Bodog.com, and it's licensed in Curaçao. There used to also be a version of Bodog for the Indian subcontinent, but Bodog India closed down in September 2020 and is no longer in operation.

There are various small differences between the two sites, which we have noted below where appropriate. All the poker gameplay is identical at both rooms, and they share cardroom traffic with each other and several other partner organizations. The major aspects that vary between these sites are the promotions, cashier functions, and some of the casino gaming options.

Bodog has really improved its poker operations over the past few years to become the seventh-largest online poker destination worldwide. It has achieved this level of success not by copying what others have done but rather by sticking to its own idea of what an online poker room should be.

The philosophy here is called the “recreational player model,” and the basic gist of it is that the site aims to attract casual and novice players instead of catering to experienced pros. If you're a pro yourself, then you might have a few second thoughts about this mindset, but the truth is that this strategy has succeeded beyond all expectations, leading to butter-soft games. What you lose in the lack of Bodog rakeback and other perks is more than compensated for by the quality of the opposition you'll face.

Bodog Poker Bonus

The poker bonus at Bodog is a 100% up to $1,000 match, which will be applied automatically on your first deposit without the need for a Bodog Poker bonus code though you may have to select the deal from a drop-down menu when making your initial deposit in order for it to be applied to your account.

The amount of bonus you earn is tied to the amount of Reward Points you accumulate during the 30 days after you first fund your account. Every time you collect another 150 points, you'll obtain a $5 bonus payment, which will be applied to your balance as real money.

The rate of point accrual is the same at Bodog.eu (CAN) and Bodog.com (LATAM). All users will receive 15  points for every $1 paid in tournament and SNG fees, 15 per dollar contributed in rake in cash games, and 1.5 times the buyin amount of Jackpot Sit & Gos in points.

Bodog Poker Bonus Value

Tournaments, SNGs, and ring games clear the Bodog.eu poker bonus at the same rate: a rakeback percentage of 50% because you must pay $10 in rake to get back $5 in bonus. In Jackpots, you'll actually do considerably better, increasing the cashback percentage to an incredible 71%!

Bodog.com lets players denominate their accounts in currencies other than U.S. dollars. In case you're using a different currency, the total value of the poker bonus will be capped at a figure corresponding to about $1,000 U.S. dollars, which is 4,000 Brazilian reals, 20,000 Mexican pesos, 40,000 Argentine pesos, 3,000 Peruvian sols, or 7,000 Bolivian bolivianos.

Geographic Markets

Bodog.eu accepts poker, sports, and casino players from Canada while Bodog.com transacts in Mexico, Brasil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and El Salvador.

You can join whichever of these sites is appropriate for your location right from this page. If you're ready to take the plunge, then sign up right now. Otherwise, continue reading our reviews of the online poker room, sportsbook, racebook, and casino at Bodog.

STEP 1:  Clear the cookies in your web browser - this is mandatory - you may not receive the maximum deposit bonuses if you fail to complete this step!  Click the correct browser button below for instructions.

Step 2:  If you've previously installed the Bodog poker software, you have to uninstall it now before continuing.

Step 3:  Click on the Bodog button below that corresponds to your geographic location (if your ad blocker renders the buttons invisible, click the direct links below instead):

Click on this Bodog.eu direct link!

Click on this Bodog.com direct link!

Step 4:  Click "Join Now" button.

Step 5:  Enter in your account information - this information must be accurate!

Step 6:  Contact Us with your "customer ID number" and registered email address so that we can confirm your account.  Players can get their "customer ID number" by emailing support or phoning them toll-free.

Step 7:  Deposit and enjoy! You can deposit with a credit card for free. However, Professional Rakeback recommends that all players transact using Bitcoin for access to large and fast payouts. If you think it's a hassle to learn how to use Bitcoin, think again! Check out our Bitcoin gambling guide for step-by-step help, with screenshots, on setting up your BTC wallets.

HUD:  Do you want to use a HUD when playing? Sadly, the terms and conditions of Bodog are restrictive, and very few HUD programs are allowed. In fact, only one appears to natively support Bodog. That program is Holdem Indicator, and it even works in Zone Poker games. Professional Rakeback offers an exclusive 10% discount on Holdem Indicator (and iHoldem Indicator for you Mac users) to our visitors.  If you're interested, head over to our software page. If you want to buy it now, with a ten percent discount off the retail price of $99 USD, then click here for PC and here for Mac.

There's actually another HUD solution that now works on Bodog as well. You see, the developers of PokerTracker have created a free hand grabber that, in conjunction with the main PT4 program, is able to import hand histories from the site. To read more about the features of this piece of software, browse over to our PokerTracker 4 review. To purchase it today, click this link.

Anonymized Tables

The heart of the recreational player model at Bodog Poker lies in anonymous gameplay. No user is identified by any name other than a randomly generated player number. Not only is it impossible to track your adversaries over long periods of time, but you can't write saved notes on them either. There are a couple of HUD tracking software programs that work with Bodog, but they only allow you to monitor your opponents over the course of a single table session vastly reducing the utility of these types of tools.

$0.50/$1.00 NL Hold'em Full-Ring Game at Bodog

Ring Games

In the two most popular forms of cash game poker, No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha, stakes run from $0.02/$0.05 to $10/$20. There are also LHE tables denominated from $0.05/$0.10 to $30/$60. You can only join a maximum of four ring game tables at a time.

Bodog Quick Seat Interface

In April 2017, Bodog introduced a Quick Seat feature that makes table selection impossible. The way it works is that players select the game format, table size, and stakes they wish to play, and then the software places them in a seat at an appropriate game. The consequences of this change have been that the most demanded games tend to fill up more rapidly than before, but thinly played variants, like the limit tables, have seen a drop in traffic.

Zone Poker

Zone is Bodog's take on fast-fold poker, a style first made popular by Full Tilt's RUSH Poker quite a few years ago. In Zone, nobody has to wait for hands to complete after he or she folds; instead, anyone who mucks a hand is brought right away to a new table to begin another round. The elimination of much of the downtime traditionally inherent in poker leads to a blazing-fast pace and ensures that you'll see many more hands per hour in Zone than at a standard ring table.

Zone Poker Lobby at Bodog

Because there are no static tables in Zone, players instead join pools. You can see how many players are in each pool in the lobby although all population figures of 50 or more are indicated as “50+.” It's not uncommon, particularly during peak hours, to see multiple blind levels sporting 50+ participants at once. Although the greatest number of players can be found in NLHE Zone, PLO runs too, and there are a couple of PLO/8 stakes supported as well. Player volume in four-card Zone is lighter than in Hold'em.

Zone Poker on a Mobile Device

Sit and Goes

The buyins for SNG poker extend from $1 + $0.05 up through $200 + $14. Regular, turbo, and hyper turbo speeds are present, and table sizes include heads-up, six-max, and nine-player. There are also 27-man multi-table sit-n-goes. The majority of contests are for NLHE, but there are PLO and PLO/8 games listed up to $100 + $9.

Bodog offers Double-Ups, which are similar to the Double or Nothings you may encounter at other sites, as well as Triple-Ups, which pay out three buyins apiece to the top third of the participants. Most of the Double-Ups charge half rake compared to similarly priced competitions, but this isn't the case with Triple-Ups except at the higher buyin levels. Beginner matches have a flatter payout structure than the other games, allowing more people to get paid.

You can't view sit-n-goes that have already started (except, of course, for the ones that you're in), nor can you even see them in the lobby. Still, as long as you play for micro and small stakes, you should have no trouble getting the amount of action you crave.

Tournaments

Bodog, in past years, ran frequent guaranteed tournaments that overlaid very often. This foresighted decision worked out well as the room now has enough MTT traffic to almost always cover the sums promised. There's more than $1.5 million in guarantees up for grabs each week, and the largest of them is the $150 + $12 $150,000 Guaranteed on Sunday afternoons. Throughout the rest of the week, you can buy into events priced from $1 + $0.10 to $300 + $25.

Bodog Tournament Lobby

Beyond the regularly scheduled tourneys, Bodog hosts series several times per year. These generally have boosted prize pools and an enhanced roster of events that allows you to play formats that are  not commonly spread during the normal course of things. Recurring series at Bodog include the Black Diamond Poker Open and the Golden Spade Poker Open, each of which routinely offer millions of dollars in total prizes to the victors. Whenever these series are about to begin, satellites appear so that cash-strapped individuals can attempt to win their entries for less.

Jackpot Sit & Go

The latest expansion to the Bodog poker palette, Jackpot Sit & Go, went live at the end of October 2017. These three-handed hyper turbo games use a random number to determine the prize pool. The valid multipliers are: 2x, 5x, 15x, 120x, 240x, 1,200x. The higher multipliers are rarer than the cheaper ones; the 2x option is chosen close to 75% of the time. At the top three multiplier levels, all players win with a prize distribution of 80/10/10, but the rest of the Jackpot Sit & Gos are winner-takes-all. It's possible to play up to four Jackpots at the same time. The buyins offered are $2, $7, $20, $60.

$60 Jackpot Sit & Go at Partner Site Bovada With a 240x Multiplier

Bodog Poker Promotions

There are a number of ongoing promos at Bodog Poker, so you'll be able to grab some freebies even after your welcome bonus is done:

Points Exchange: The points you garner while playing at the tables can be traded in for poker tournament tickets (including Jackpot Sit & Go) and bonuses to use in the sportsbook and casino. Watch for tickets to major tournament series events because they tend to represent a better value for your points than the standard exchange options.

Royal Flush Bonus: If you're fortunate enough to get the best hand in poker, a royal flush, you'll be able to claim a reward of 50 times the big blind up to a max of $200. At least three players must have received cards during the hand, and you have to use both of your own hole cards to make the royal. This offer is only available in real money Texas Hold'em cash games. Only available on Bodog.eu (Canada)

Bad Beat Bonus: If you take aces full of kings to showdown and lose, you'll be compensated to the tune of 100 big blinds with a cap of $1,000 on your payout. Three or more people must have been dealt into the Texas Hold'em hand to qualify, and both the winner and loser must use both of their hole cards at showdown. Only available on Bodog.eu (Canada)

Bodog Poker Summary

The Bodog poker software has been refined continuously for more than a decade, and it's now a very polished suite. Zone Poker, Jackpot Sit & Go, and anonymized games are just a few of the elements that developers have added after careful thought. With the capacity to be enjoyed from desktops, laptops, and mobile systems, Bodog is a fine solution for anyone in search of a poker home. A 100% up to $1,000 bonus awaits to give you an opportunity to enhance your profitability.

Bodog Cashier

Bodog offers its clients a standard menu of cashier methods, which we have outlined below. There are sometimes extra payment channels that are provided to certain customers, so you might have additional alternatives to choose from.

Deposits

Bodog accepts a few different payment processors for your deposits. You can either pay with the usual suspects in Visa or MasterCard, Bitcoin using a compatible wallet (Bodog recommends Bread, Mycelium and Electrum), Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV , or Interac e-Transfer (Canada only). Each option has its own pros and cons which you should weigh individually. Be aware that additional methods may be offered in select geographic areas.

Your Visa and MasterCard transactions may need to be cleared for international merchants as Bodog has used processors from a few different regions like India and Hong Kong. If you are not sure if your account is restricted, contact your bank and find out. Of course, you must also keep in mind you may incur other banking fees, which, while not generated by Bodog, must still be added to the deposit. Fees, such as those charged by banks when a deposit is categorized as a cash advance, are not under Bodog's control. International service fees are also a concern. If your bank charges such a fee, it might be upwards of 3%.

Bitcoin (BTC) is the choice that we advise you to employ especially given the current focus among gamblers toward privacy and security. Bitcoin maximum deposit limits tend to be higher than those for credit cards. The most compelling advantages to BTC, however, are that Bodog never charges any fees for its use neither on deposits nor cashouts, and you can bypass the entire banking infrastructure and its sometimes-unpredictable surcharges. You'll only have to pay the miners fees of the Bitcoin network itself, which are usually under $1.

Interac e-Transfer is a way for Canadians to make deposits through their checking or savings accounts at their financial institutions. The maximum amount that can be transferred this way is $1,000, and the process takes between 3 and 20 hours to complete.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a crypto-currency derived from legacy Bitcoin, but it's a distinct digital coin and should not be confused with its forebear. Bodog quietly added BCH to its deposit options sometime in October 2017. Bitcoin Cash has several advantages over its older big brother, including faster transaction speeds and fees of sometimes just a penny or two.

Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) was forked off of Bitcoin Cash in November 2018 and added to the Bodog cashier sometime around the beginning of 2020. It expands the crypto choice available to customers at this group of real money gaming companies.

Withdrawals

The ease of putting money into your Bodog account is great, but depositing funds into nascent accounts has never really been a big problem for most sites and their faithful customers. Withdrawing those funds is where due diligence is required. Depending on the location where you reside, you may have a variety of legacy payment channels open to you, like checks and bank wires. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are probably the best ways to request payout because they never incurs any fees from Bodog and are available to customers around the world.

Of course, questions concerning liquidity and solvency are always the elephants in the room when processing withdrawals. Bodog stands on its claim that it has never missed a payout. That being said, the verbiage used when asked is murky enough; you can see the foresight on their part as they say payouts are made “on a first come, first served basis.” Yet, it's rare to find any complaints of Bodog slow-paying or no-paying any individual.

Withdrawal speed is wonderfully quick, easily one of the best and most reliable in the industry. Bitcoin requests are the fastest by far with funds available in as little as an hour, taking no longer than 6 hours in most cases. Legacy withdrawal processors may take longer, up to a couple of weeks, to deliver the funds to you.

Account Validation

Bodog sometimes requires customers to complete an account validation procedure before being able to withdraw. Occasionally, a player might have to fulfill these requirements even before being able to make a deposit. The reasons for this policy are laid out on Bodog's website:

“We take our player's financials and security seriously and need to ensure that the person using the account is:

• 18 years old and older.
• The true owner of the credit card being used to deposit.
• The person to whom withdrawal payments will be sent to”

You'll have to submit a government-issued identification document. Additionally, if you elected to deposit with your credit card, you'll have to send in copies of the front and back of your card and fill out a Credit Card Verification form before being able to cash out. Verification takes between 24 and 48 hours. Once you complete your account validation, you won't have to do it again in the future unless you move or your personal details change for some other reason.

Currency Conversion

The Bodog.eu Canada platform employs just a single currency (CAD), but Bodog.com lets you hold your balance in several distinct national currencies. Your options are: Brazilian real, Mexican peso, Argentine peso, Peruvian sol, and Bolivian boliviano. The maximum amount of bonuses and other promos varies depending on the currency your balance is denominated in so that they're roughly equivalent for people from different countries.

It may be possible to deposit and withdraw to and from a currency that's not natively supported by Bodog. However, you may be hit with exchange fees. For the best results, use a payment method that's compatible with the currency displayed in your Bodog balance. Or employ crypto-currency, which Bodog never charges exchange fees on.

Bodog Mobile

By using sophisticated responsive web techniques, Bodog is able to cater to users with virtually any type of computing hardware, including mobile devices as well as standard desktops and laptops. The only restriction is that your machine must be capable of running HTML5 software, which is a condition that virtually every system released in the past five years will comfortably fulfill. The sportsbook, racebook, casino, and poker room are all present in mobile form, and you don't need to do anything special because the Bodog website will automatically detect your screen size and adjust itself to accommodate your display resolution. The full range of poker, sports, racing, and casino betting products is present in mobile.

Bodog Rewards/VIP Club

The Bodog Rewards/VIP program is intended to reward the firm's frequent customers. It used to have one disadvantage, which was that playing poker didn't advance your position in Bodog Rewards, and neither did it grant any of the benefits of the system. However, circumstances changed in February 2019 when Bodog added poker to this program. The details of this loyalty system are distinct at Bodog.eu and Bodog.com.

Bodog Rewards (Bodog.eu)

Under the terms of the Bodog Rewards plan, Canadian customers get a specified number of reward points for every dollar risked in compatible products. Video poker and table games only give you 1 single point per dollar, but slot machines are worth 5 and specialty casino games give you 15. Sports bets are worth between 3 and 25 points for every dollar wagered with the higher figure reserved for round robins and parlays. Racebook straight wagers grant 40 points per dollar while exotics are valued at 60/$1.

For your poker play, you'll receive 15 points per dollar paid in rake and tournament fees. In Jackpot Sit & Go, the rate of point accrual is 1.5 points per dollar paid in buyins.

These points determine your rank in Bodog Rewards, and once you reach a tier, you can never drop back down in status.

The benefits of Bodog Rewards are daily cash back on your losses and the ability to redeem your points for bonus cash and poker tournament tickets. The bonuses have rollover requirements of 2x in sports and horses and 10x in the casino. The number of Tier Points required to achieve each level are:

• Bronze: 0 points
• Silver 1: 2,500 points
• Silver 2: 5,000 points
• Silver 3: 10,000 points
• Gold 1: 25,000 points
• Gold 2: 40,000 points
• Gold 3: 60,000 points
• Platinum 1: 150,000 points
• Platinum 2: 250,000 points
• Platinum 3: 500,000 points
• Diamond 1: 1,000,000 points
• Diamond  2: 1,500,000 points
• Diamond  3: 2,500,000 points
• Black: 5,000,000 points

The advantages associated with each tier are:

94 Club

While the extras delivered by Bodog Rewards can be quite remunerative, the organization feels that they're not enough for its most serious customers. Enter the 94 Club – an exclusive VIP section that can be accessed by invitation only. If you're lucky enough to be inducted into this hallowed realm, then you can look forward to waived deposit and withdrawal fees, personalized customer service, extra promotions, a higher rate of point accrual, and even tickets to major events like the Superbowl.

Bodog VIP Club (Bodog.com)

Customers from South and Central America will progress in the Bodog VIP Club with all of their sports, casino, and poker gaming. For each bet made or game played, they'll collect points according to the schedule below:

The amount of points earned will determine your position in the program. Each tier can convert Reward Points at a rate that gets better the further one advances up the levels. These bonuses can be cleared in the Casino with a 30x rollover or in the sportsbook with a 5x playthrough. They cannot be used in the Live Dealer Casino.

The levels that you can work your way toward along with their point exchange ratios are:

There are other benefits in store for those who climb the ranks. For example, Prime level bettors get invitations to exclusive VIP events while Private members have their own dedicated priority support channels.

It's possible to drop down to a lower status in the Bodog VIP Club. At the beginning of each month, everyone loses 16% of their accumulated Tier Points. This may suffice to result in a reduction in rank, so keep playing regularly to retain your position.

Bodog Customer Service

Bodog maintains extensive FAQs on its websites for each type of betting offered, but sometimes, this just isn't enough. You can get in touch with customer service agents 24/7 through Live Chat or by emailing support. Canadians can also request assistance by calling toll-free 1-877-263-6422. Customers of Bodog.com should inquire about the number to dial to communicate by telephone.

The team members at Bodog provide service in languages appropriate for the demographics of their users. This means English for Bodog.eu with Spanish and Portuguese available at Bodog.com.

User Comments About Bodog

We've thoroughly evaluated the Bodog betting and poker platform, and we've found it to be superb. However, we're aware that others have their own opinions about the firm, and so we've decided to present you with a selection of comments about Bodog from around the internet below:

Note: The above comment actually pertains to partner site Ignition, but the security division is network-wide, so it's accurate as far as Bodog is concerned too.

Frequently Asked Questions