Bovada Bonus Guide: Maximizing Poker, Casino, Sports Bonuses

Bovada is a longstanding, popular operator in the U.S.A. offshore gambling market, and it has attained this position in no small part through the provision of valuable Bovada bonuses to its customers. Bovada manages a sportsbook, racebook, casino, and poker room, and you can grab a Bovada bonus for any and all of these products. However, you're just flying blind if you claim a Bovada poker, casino, or sports bonus without understanding how the bonus system works.

If you're found this page, though, then you're in luck because we have investigated all aspects of the bonuses at Bovada to give you the real scoop on how they work. Included in our reporting is a rundown of the important rules and conditions attached to Bovada bonus offers so that you'll be able to understand how to benefit from these wonderful promotions without running afoul of any restrictions or fine print attached to them.

The Best Bovada Casino, Poker, Sports, Racing Bonuses

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here; it's critical that you understand what the best Bovada bonuses are so that you don't overlook any profitable situations. We'll get into the nitty-gritty of the bonus details later, but for now, examine the chart below for a broad overview of the top Bovada bonuses for any kind of bettor.

The Best Bovada Bonus

Unlike at some gaming firms, which let you claim multiple welcome bonuses for separate products, you're allowed to select only a single bonus for use with your first deposit. That's why it's so important to choose the one that's best.

After doing all the relevant research, we think that the Bovada Poker Welcome Bonus is the superior one for the majority of our readers. We're a poker site, and so we're pretty sure that our visitors are also generally focused on poker rather than other games. Furthermore, this is one of the fastest-clearing poker bonuses available anywhere although it is a bit small at $500 max.

How to Claim a Bovada Bonus

The process of redeeming a Bovada bonus is easy. At a certain point in the depositing process, you'll be prompted to “Choose Your Bonus.” Open up the menu and select the bonus you want from the list presented to you. If the bonus you're interested in isn't listed, then you can enter the appropriate Bovada bonus code to claim it.

Pick Your Bovada Bonus From the List

Overall Bonus Info

There are distinct rules that apply depending on which type of Bovada bonus you're dealing with. Look below for general information about these bonuses depending on what product they're for.

Poker Bonuses

Bovada Poker bonuses are not added to your account right away. Rather, they remain pending until you begin to satisfy the wagering requirements. As you do so, small portions of the bonus will be added to your real money balance.

By the time you complete the entire playthrough requirement, all of the bonus will have been transformed into actual cash in your account. If the bonus expires before you finish the rollover, you'll still get to keep that fraction of the bonus funds that you have successfully earned.

Casino Bonuses

When you make a deposit for a Bovada Casino bonus, the bonus amount is added to your balance right away. However, you must complete a rollover, or wagering requirement, before you'll be able to withdraw and of the bonus money, the deposited funds, or the winnings you've been fortunate enough to accrue.

Should you fail to meet the wagering obligations before the bonus expires, then the entire bonus amount will be forfeit along with any wins derived through the use of bonus funds. However, your deposit used to qualify for the bonus will become unlocked and fully withdrawable.

Sports Bonuses

Just like with casino bonuses, sports bonuses are immediately visible in your real money balance to bet with. The racebook and sportsbook are considered practically the same product at Bovada, and so your sports bonuses will almost always be clearable in the racebook as well. Sometimes, you can even use casino games to clear sports bonuses though the wagering requirements are generally higher in the casino than the sportsbook or racebook.

If you fail to complete the stated rollover for a sports bonus by the expiration date, then you'll lose the bonus and all associated winnings.

Forfeiting Bonuses

With the number and variety of bonuses available at Bovada, it's not uncommon for someone to accept a bonus by mistake or to claim one and then change their mind about it. If you don't wish to be locked into onerous wagering requirements that you think you'll have no chance of fulfilling, then forfeiting your bonus is the way to go (although, of course, not accepting the bonus in the first place would have been a better move).

Bonus Forfeiture Instructions

Fortunately, there's a simple series of steps you can take to forfeit any bonus at Bovada. After logging into your account, click on the profile icon near the top-right of the window. Then select the “Rewards” tab. Under “Active Bonuses,” you'll see a list of all the bonuses that are active. Press the small arrow next to a particular bonus to see more information about it.

How to Forfeit a Bonus at Bovada

Near the bottom of this info, there will be a link to “Forfeit bonus.” Click on this link, and click “Forfeit” when the confirmation message appears. The bonus will be canceled.

If you change your mind and want to keep the bonus, don't click “Forfeit” on the confirmation message but rather “Cancel.” Then it will be as though nothing had happened, and your bonus will still be intact.

When to Forfeit a Bonus

Ideally, the best time to forfeit an unwanted bonus is before you have begun wagering with it. Failing that, the next-best thing to do is the forfeit it as soon as you realize that you don't want the bonus.

The problem with betting a significant sum and then deciding to drop a bonus is that you may have accrued big winnings that are now at risk of disappearing in the event of bonus forfeiture. Because of the order in which Bovada draws money first from your unlocked balance and then from your other funds, you may in fact find a considerable amount of your balance tied together with the bonus as locked cash even without having won much at all.

Therefore, it's best to forfeit any unwanted bonus right away. This will also protect you from inadvertently breaking any of the bonus rules and thereby putting your account in jeopardy.

Bovada Bonus Clearance

As we've discussed above, there are certain differences between the Bovada bonuses for poker, sports, races, and casino. Therefore, we'll go over the specific details of clearing bonuses for every product offered at Bovada.

Bovada Poker Bonus

To clear the Bovada Poker bonus, you need to collect Reward Points. For every 150 Reward Points earned, you'll unlock a $5 portion of your pending bonus. This $5 in bonus funds will be added to your real money balance.

You have 30 days after which the poker bonus will expire. At this time, any unearned parts of the bonus will expire useless, but any fraction of the bonus that you have collected enough Reward Points to redeem is yours to keep.

Earning Reward Points for Poker

The rate of Reward Point earning for poker is 15 points for every $1 paid in rake or tournament fees. Jackpot SNGs are a special case: In these games you get 1.5 Reward Points for every $1 in buyin.

Best Game to Use With Bovada Poker Bonuses

The rate of return in Bovada ring games and tournaments is identical: the equivalent of 50% rakeback. This is very good and makes Bovada's among the fastest-clearing poker bonuses out there. However, if we run the math, we see that Jackpot Sit & Gos allow you to achieve an even better rate of return. When you play Jackpot Sit & Go, you'll earn Reward Points at a speed that lets you clear your bonus with an effective rakeback percentage of 71.4%.

Zone Poker is a special case also. Although it adheres to the normal 50% rakeback rate standard for bonus earning in Bovada cash games, the sheer speed at which it runs means that you'll be seeing hands pass by at a fantastic clip. Thus, you might be able to clear your bonus faster at Zoom although at a lower percentage of rakeback than in Jackpot Sit & Go games.

Bovada Sports Bonus

The best Bovada Sports welcome bonus is that extended to crypto depositors. You can maximize its value by depositing $1,000 for a $750 bonus. This will give you $750 in bonus funds. The rollover amount is ($1,000 + $750) * 5 = $8,750 when betting in the sportsbook and racebook.

It is possible to use casino games to earn this bonus, but the wagering requirement increases from 5x to 30x. In our example case, the playthrough requirement in the casino would be ($1,000 + $750) * 30 = $52,500.

Regardless, you have six months from the time of deposit to complete the rollover requirements. A failure to do so will result in the voiding of the bonus and all associated winnings.

Bovada Sports Rollover Calculations

When calculating how much a sports wager contributes to the playthrough requirements of a Bovada bonus, the calculation is slightly different depending on whether you win or lose the bet. If you lose, the full amount risked counts toward the rollover. If you win, though, it's the lesser of the amount risked and the amount won that counts.

For example, let's say you find a -130 moneyline that you bet $130 on to win $100. If you lose the bet, then you get credit for the full $130 loss. If, however, you win, then you'll only reduce the remaining rollover by the $100 win amount.

Bets that wind up being voided or canceled do not contribute to the wagering requirement at all.

Best Bets for Clearing the Bovada Sports Bonus

If you max out the Bovada Sports welcome offer at $750, you will need to fulfill a rollover requirement of $8,750, which we have calculated above. You'll want to stick with underdogs or even-money bets because of the way rollover is attributed at Bovada Sports.

We've examined popular lines (spread, moneyline, and total) on a couple of major U.S. sports to get an idea of what the vigorish – or house hold – at Bovada is like. In most cases, the house advantage in sports betting at Bovada runs between 4% and 5%.

Using an average house edge of 4.5%, we can see that our expected loss when clearing the Bovada Sports bonus is $8,750 * 0.045 = $394. This means that you'll expect to keep, on average, $356 on your bonus plus your initial deposit after fulfilling the terms of the bonus. If you're an especially sharp line shopper, you can do ever better still.

You can expect to fare worse if you elect to bet on props, parlays, or other esoteric bets. The odds tend to be worse on these kinds of wagers. Racetrack wagers at Bovada pay full track odds, which unfortunately are not very good, so you should steer clear of betting on the ponies with Bovada bonus money too.

Bovada Casino Bonus

The Bovada casino bonus funds will appear in your account right away. If you choose the crypto-currency casino welcome bonus, then you can maximize it by depositing $1,000 to get a $1,250 bonus.

In order to cash out any of your bonus or attached winnings, you need to wager 25 times the sum of your deposit and bonus. This works out to ($1,000 + $1,250) * 25 = $56,250. Should you fail to complete this playthrough within six months of your deposit, then the entire bonus and all winnings derived from it will be null and void.

Bovada Casino Game Weightings

Complicating matters a bit for Bovada casino enthusiasts is the fact that not all games contribute 100% to bonus clearance. The games are weighted as follows:

• Slots & Specialty Games (unless noted otherwise): 100%
• Table Games (unless noted otherwise): 20%
• Video Poker, Blackjack (unless noted otherwise), Reels and Wheels XL: 10%
• Roulette, Baccarat: 5%
• Double Deck Blackjack: 2%
• Single Deck Blackjack, Classic Blackjack, Craps, Live Dealer games, Hot Drop Jackpots: 0%

Besides the categories above of games that contribute 0% toward the wagering requirement, there is a specific list of games of games that are excluded from use with bonuses:

Best Bovada Casino Game for Bonus Clearing

Many looking to maximize the value of their Bovada Casino bonus tend to cast eager eyes at relatively fair table games, like Blackjack and Baccarat. However, Bovada has structured the wagering contributions such that the rollover increases dramatically with these games, which negates their high Return to Player (RTP) percentages.

Looking at the slots, which mostly count 100% toward playthrough totals, we find that many of the most favorable of them, like Gold Rush Gus, are specifically excluded from being used with bonuses. However, we encountered one slot that has a very high RTP percentage and is permitted for clearing bonuses. Dragon's Siege was created by Qora Gaming and has an RTP figure of 98%: better than all but a few online slots.

The Dragon's Siege Slot Machine

If you elect to claim the Bovada Casino first deposit bonus and fund your account with crypto, then the max deposit of $1,000 would lead to a bonus of $1,250 and a rollover requirement of $56,250. Completing this playthrough on Dragon's Siege would leave you with an expected loss of ($56,250 * 0.02) = $1,125. In other words, you'll expect to retain, on average, your entire deposit plus $125 in cleared bonus funds. Bear in mind, though, that this is just an average; you easily could win or lose thousands of dollars while earning the bonus money.

Every other Bovada Casino bonus is inferior and will yield worse results. Remember that these offers are for gaming purposes only, to enhance your enjoyment and prolong the time you play. Expecting to book regular profits from these bonuses over time is almost always a fool's errand.

Bovada Bonus Rules

Because a number of users in the past have found unscrupulous ways to take advantage of Bovada bonuses in ways that were never intended, Bovada has had to put some rules in place. The most important of them are:

• DO NOT wager on excluded games
• “Opposite” bets, like betting on black and red on roulette at the same time, are prohibited
• Using a VPN might be considered a sign of bonus abuse
• In the casino, the maximum bet with an active bonus is 20% of the deposited sum
• In the sportsbook, the maximum bet with an active bonus is 50% of the deposited amount
• Significantly changing the pattern of play in the middle of bonus clearing might be construed as bonus abuse (moving from low-weighted to higher-weighted games, placing large, high-variance bets to increase balance quickly then grinding out the remaining playthrough with smaller wagers)
• Using the “Double-Up” and “Gamble” feature may be viewed with suspicion
• Building up persistent states in a slot game with bonus funds and then redeeming the stored-up value with a second deposit is probably considered bonus abuse

Should Bovada question your status as a recreational bettor and have reason to suspect you're a bonus hustler, then your bonus might be revoked, your account could be closed, and your entire balance might be seized.

Keeping Track of Rollover

It can be hard to keep track of how much rollover you have already completed and how much remains. Fortunately, Bovada makes it easy to view this information right on its website.

First, you'll need to log into your Bovada account. Then go to the profile in the top-right of the browser. Choose “Rewards” and go to the “Active Bonuses” section. This will show you details about every bonus that's active.

Among the details shown is a Playthrough Progress bar. This gives you a visual representation of the total wagering requirement demanded as well as the percentage that's completed. You can hover the mouse over an info indicator to see what the total rollover requirement is.

Monitor Remaining Playthrough From Here

The numbers that are shown correspond to betting in games weighted 100% in the casino or picking underdogs in the sportsbook. If these conditions don't apply, then it's on you to realize how your personal strategy affects your playthrough requirements.

Grab Your Bovada Bonus Today

Join Bovada today, and get your share of its wonderful bonuses. We advise you to start with the poker 100% up to $500 offer, but there are a number of other valuable deals for you to choose from:

Bet at Bovada Now

To learn more about the site before signing up, check out this informative Bovada review.

Bovada Bonus FAQ

Though we've tried to be as comprehensive as possible in our Bovada bonus guide, there's a lot of ground to cover in this expansive topic. If you still have questions, look below because the answers might be contained in our FAQ.

✅ Can I Redeem Multiple Welcome Bonuses at the Same Time at Bovada?

No, you can select either a sports, casino, or poker welcome bonus at Bovada. However, the sports bonus can also be used in the casino.

✅ What Is the Minimum Amount I Can Deposit for a Bovada Bonus?

Unless indicated otherwise in the specific terms of a promotion, the minimum deposit to activate bonuses at Bovada is $20.

✅ When Do Bovada Bonuses Expire?

Most bonuses at Bovada expire in six months. The major exception is the poker welcome bonus, which expires after only 30 days.

✅ My Balance Available to Withdraw Is Less Than I Expect – What Gives?

Whenever you have a bonus active, your withdrawable funds at Bovada might be lower than you expect. This is because Bovada pulls from your withdrawable balance first before using up bonus funds. Moreover, the deposit you used to qualify for the bonus is locked for the duration of the rollover.

Sept. 28, 2025 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief