Bodog was once one of the biggest names in online sports betting. In 2005, the company reported hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, thanks to owning a big share of the North American market. These days, Bodog is a pretty typical “all-in-one” site, with sports betting, a racebook, casino games, and head-to-head poker collected under one roof. Bodog Sports no longer welcomes US players.
Just because they got out of the US market does not mean Bodog is any less valuable of a product. They have tons of industry experience, run a promotions program that’s updated and targeted to different types of bettors, and their sportsbook is popular and well-reviewed.
Bodog Bonuses
Canadian entrepreneur Calvin Ayres founded Bodog in 1996. It took four years for Ayres to launch Bodog as a betting brand, releasing an online sportsbook in 2000, in the early days of the Web-based betting boom. Bodog.com was quickly turned into a household name, and Ayres’ company reported revenue of nearly a half a billion dollars in 2005.
Bodog no longer serves the USA or Canadian market due to the consequences of changing legislation in those North American countries. The now American-less Bodog was losing money and was forced to sell its American operations to the Morris Mohawk Group. That company now operates a Bodog clone for American and Canadian customers called Bovada.
Bodog is still a popular choice for bettors outside the US. It’s an all-in-one site providing sports betting, a racebook, casino games, and a poker room. The site has more than a decade of experience in the gambling industry, and though they aren’t the giant they once were, they have a solid promotional program.
Here are details on the bonuses currently available at Bodog:
Welcome Bonuses
Bodog advertises their casino welcome bonus most heavily, probably because it has the most impressive terms. This isn’t a single bonus offer, by the way – Bodog combines two bonuses into one to make the total amount available more interesting to potential bettors. When you combine these two offers, you can technically earn up to $3,000 in bonus cash, all at a match rate of 100%. However, to get three grand like the ads all say you can, you have to earn the max bonus available from two bonus offers – and then repeat that four times for each bonus. Since the rollover requirement for these bonuses is between 25x and 40x, you’d spend a good chunk of change chasing that pile of free cash. The only situation I can imagine pulling $3,000 out based on these terms is if you’re a high-roller or a dedicated bonus chaser with a surprisingly fat bankroll. Note that only wagers on select casino games count toward clearing this bonus – read more details about Bodog’s casino welcome bonus here.
Bodog’s second welcome bonus offer is aimed at sportsbook customers. If you plan to bet on sports, your first deposit at Bodog.eu is eligible for a 50% deposit match bonus capped at $250. This is a weird bonus because playing certain casino games can clear your bonus cash. You don’t have to clear it with just sportsbook bets. I happen to like playing a little Blackjack and Craps while I wait for a game result, so this one would be perfect for me. The rollover requirement is 6x the deposit plus the bonus for all sports bets, but it goes up to 30x for wagers on casino games. Read more details about Bodog’s sportsbook welcome bonus here.
Poker players aren’t left out of the welcome bonus action at Bodog. If you make your first deposit and plan to play poker, your offer is a 100% deposit match bonus worth as much as $1,000. The payout system is a bit more complicated than the rollovers described above;, the more poker you play and spend on tournament fees, the more bonus cash you’ll earn. It’s a loyalty system that’s easier to read about than for me to spell out in words. Read more details about Bodog’s poker welcome bonus here.
Referral Bonus
If you refer someone to Bodog and they make a qualifying deposit, Bodog will pay you a referral bonus. This is common practice at Web-based betting sites. I like Bodog’s version because the terms are a little better than average. Your referral bonus will be worth 200% of your friend’s deposit up to a total of $100. The deposit must be at least $20, and in order to earn your referral bonus, you must have at least one deposit in your history. The rollover depends on how you choose to wager – you’ll need to wager 5x for sports bets, 30x for casino bets, and 6x in poker points to earn the entire referral bonus. Read more details about Bodog’s referral bonus here.
Mobile Bonus
The mobile bonus is designed to get existing customers to try their hand at the site’s mobile casino. The offer is simple – accept a $10 bonus in exchange for your mobile wagers. You can play on an iPhone, an Android device, a tablet, or pretty much any Web-capable gadget. The catch is you have to bet $250 or more between Monday and Sunday of the week you request the bonus. Do that, and Bodog will hand you a free $10 mobile wager coupon, along with a rollover requirement of 20x for all forms of betting. Read more details about Bodog’s mobile casino bonus here.
Royal Flush Bonus
Poker players lucky enough to win with a royal flush are eligible for an instant Royal Flush Bonus. This automatic bonus is worth 50x the big blind paid on the triggering hand. The site will pay up to $200 as a Royal Flush Bonus. A winning royal during tournament play doesn’t count. You also must use both pocket cards to form the winning hand. The final restriction is that the table has to include at least three players. Read more details about Bodog’s Royal Flush Bonus here.
Bodog Deposits and Withdrawals
Bodog is a global gambling brand founded two decades ago. Bodog runs an all-in-one betting site, offering a sportsbook and racebook, Web casino, and live poker games to players from all over the world. That laundry list of customers no longer includes players from the United States.
Bodog is a curious case when it comes to payment methods. Betting sites that cater to an international audience tend to offer a long list of deposit and withdrawal methods and provide support for several global currencies. That’s not the case at Bodog. The site has more experience in the industry than almost any other online provider, and the site has some things going for it in terms of promotions and game software, but it isn’t very financially accessible.
Bodog’s most popular property is no doubt the poker room, though the sportsbook is well-reviewed and offers good lines and an interesting variety of world sports markets. Bodog uses sport- and game-specific promotions to attract attention from customers all over Europe and Canada. You’ll find many casino games, available sports bets, and an active poker community at Bodog.
Currency Support
You can make a deposit to Bodog (without paying a conversion fee) in the following currencies: British pounds, Canadian dollars, Euros, South African rands, and US dollars. If you think about it, that’s a strange collection of currencies. It’s also a short list for a site that’s seemingly aimed at a variety of European customers. It looks to me like Bodog is really interested in bettors from Canada, but I’m just inferring that. You can, of course, make a deposit in any currency you want, but you’ll have to undergo a currency conversion process, which will cost you the payment of a small fee.
Bodog Deposit Methods
• Visa Credit & Debit Cards: $20 minimum deposit, $500 maximum. No fee.
• eWallet Xpress: $20 minimum deposit, $5,000 maximum. No fee.
• Click2Pay: $20 minimum deposit, $5,000 maximum. No fee.
• Rapid Transfer: $100 minimum deposit, $1,200 maximum. No fees on deposits over $300.
• Bank Wire: Designed for high rollers. $1,000 minimum deposit, $100,000 maximum. No fee.
• MyPaylinQ: $20 minimum deposit, $5,000 maximum. No fee.
Bodog Withdrawal Methods
• Check by Courier: All checks sent by courier are maxed out at $3,000. Anything over $3,000 will be sent in increments of $3,000 every “five to seven business days,” according to the site. I found this in the fine print – “We suggest depositing each cheque you receive as soon as possible as cheques may become non-cashable after a certain period of time.” Checks must be sent to a physical address, not a PO Box. Take note – Bodog won’t deliver to military bases, either.
• Direct Bank Transfer: The minimum amount you can receive via DBT is $20, and the maximum is $3,000. You have to go through a registration process in order to send or receive money via this method, so contact customer service if you’re interested.
Bodog Payment Terms & Conditions
I found a few items of interest while reading through Bodog’s terms and conditions pages:
• Every customer is eligible for one free withdrawal per calendar month. All additional payouts in that month will cost you an extra $40 in processing fees. This is an incentive to lump your withdrawals into a single monthly payout rather than lots of small withdrawals.
• Customers are only allowed to use each available withdrawal method once per week.
• All players are limited to winnings of no more than $100,000 per week, parlay wagers excepted. It’s unclear whether players can petition for an increase in that amount or not – contact customer service for details.
• Bodog is pretty specific about the potential handling time of all payments made via check, stating that check withdrawals (for instance) can take “up to 28 calendar days” for processing and delivery.
• Here’s a scary line buried in the site’s FAQ – “Bodog reserves the right to process large withdrawal requests in the manner that is most appropriate.” That’s not clear at all. I’m not interested in making anything close to a “large withdrawal,” so I’m not worried about it. If you are, contact the site.
• If you let your account go to “dormant” status, Bodog reserves the right to charge a monthly inactivity fee of $100 until activity resumes or the account balance reaches $0. This sounds a lot worse than it really is – for instance, you have to be inactive for eighteen calendar months to trigger the fees, and all fees can be reimbursed at the whim of management. Also, deposits and withdrawals count as activity, so you don’t even have to bet to avoid dormant status.
Design & Interface
I can report that Bodog’s user interface is attractive, easy to use, and responds quickly. I wish I could say the same about Bodog’s mobile services, which won’t even display correctly on the large display on my iPhone. I attempted to contact customer service on this issue, but they insisted it must be caused by a setting on my phone and not their service.
What’s great about Bodog’s design is that you won’t remember it at all. That’s because it’s designed intuitively, the design itself is spare, with easy-to-read text, and a layout that lines up with what you’d expect. Bodog’s design follows the industry standard in every way, from listing markets on the left to one-click betting options on its bet slip.
Is it a particularly gorgeous design? No. I like that big events and special promo announcements pop up in the center of the screen while I scroll for games and bets, and I like the use of a set of simply-designed tabs along the top of the bet slip so that I can switch easily between lines and odds formats. I’m not particularly into prop bets, but a link to them (and a link to the site’s live betting options) are one click away from the main betting slip.
About that bet slip – it works really well for my needs. When I click a check box to place a bet on an event, my bets are tallied automatically, and I can alter my risk amount, win amount, or form a parlay with a single click rather than any complex navigation or having to pick from a long and confusing list. I noticed that the bet slip stayed consistent regardless of where I visited on the site – even when I clicked over the site’s attached casino, I was able to return and keep working on my existing slip.
Bodog operates a nice Live Betting feature, but nothing compared to the bigger names in the business. You can’t watch the games via a live stream, though the site provides a graphic representation of the game so you can follow along as your bet plays out.
Here’s the list of live betting markets available on the day I visited to write this review:
- Basketball
- Tennis
- Soccer
- Baseball
- Golf