Bovada Rating on Hold Over Payout Concerns
Posted by admin on 07 December 2011 in Betting Sites News
Sports Betting Sites has temporarily suspended Bodog’s (now BOVADA) Ratings due to payout concerns; and is now advising all players to be extremely cautious depositing funds to their website. Please understand this is a mid level warning but with many additional options available and the situations, risks and history explained in this article, right now BOVADA is not an ideal option for anyone regardless of location or banking methods available.
December 18, 2011 Update: The warning for Bodog.co.uk and Bodog88.com has been lifted. This warning now applies to the three Mohawk Morris Gaming Group (MMGG) owned gambling sites Bodog.ca, Bodog.eu and Bovada.lv. There are a plethora of complaints on forums still about Canadians experiencing delays with Bodog.ca payments, and Americans experiencing delays with Bovada.lv We will be watching all forums and keep you updated when things change.
February 7, 2012: There are still outstanding Bovada payout complaints on forums some bettor waiting over 30 day at this point.
Quoted Payout Time Frames
BOVADA (formerly Bodog.eu) had operated for several months with a quoted average processing time to door for check withdrawals listed at 7 days. A few days ago this was changed to 15-days, and today it was changed to within 3 weeks. Although this is still faster than some other reputable online gambling sites, when a site doubles and triples their processing times required to issue payments in such as short time frame it is always a cause for concern. Keep in mind those depositing just a week ago did so with the understanding checks took an average of 7-days to process. Now with no warning they discover requesting a cashout in time for Christmas has become unlikely. Also consider if you’re fine with the within 3-week period what happens if BOVADA again triples this in the coming days?
BOVADA Payout History
This matter has long since been resolved, but at our original site we had a warning to avoid Bodog.eu (now Bovada.lv) displayed for much of 2008. A similar situation started where quoted withdrawal times increased several times over a short period, and reached all the way to a published 60-day estimate for their only payout method of the time which was paper check. Note that often times back then payouts took well over the 60-day quoted time frame to arrive. Although this is most likely the case of a backlog and something BOVADA will pull through fine, it is worth noting a former A+ sportsbook called WSEX had processing issues, which turned into a run on the bank, and is now left in dire financial shape. At WSEX there are cash out requests nearing 2-years in age that have still not been processed. Compounding the issue is that BOVADA has a lot of things working against them that will cause runs on the bank.
BOVADA Run on the Bank Risks
- Many poker players are FURIOUS at BOVADA over anonymous poker tables. Many websites have made accusations that players are not well protected against collusion and bots, or even worse have accused BOVADA of doing this so they could operate rigged poker games, or games with Super Users. Even if these are dismissed as crackpot theories it wouldn’t change the fact players are angry with BOVADA and many are working in a wide spread effort to warn players not to patronize BOVADA at all. So in addition to poker players cashing out their balance, other sirens and warnings are causing even sports bettors to pull out or avoid joining.
- BOVADA Competence and Integrity Called into Question – There was a known hack of the Party Poker anonymous tables, that BOVADA went on record explaining why it was not possible with their software. They were discredited by hackers who did the honorable thing and exposed it on the wide scale. BOVADA spun the story slightly via CalvinAyre.com; some 2+2 forum posters took this article and Calvin Ayre’s initial comment as needling. These poker community members are having a field day using the poor security practices, software design and response at CalvinAyre.com to call BOVADA’s competency and integrity into question.
- The Rebrand is Fresh. When we first wrote this post, Bovada was named Bodog.eu, they only changed their website to www.bovada.lv on December 14, 2011. As new users with funded accounts discover this they are likely to start searching and wonder “why the change?”. When they do so, they’re likely to find negative Bovada and Bodog press. Meanwhile anytime, regardless of bad press or not, that a gambling site changes its name players are going to be concerned. This has potential to further escalate a run on the bank.
- Compounding Future Possibilities – BOVADA has a no shortage of enemies right now who are becoming passionate about warning other players about them. Whether this is warranted or not does not change that this is a fact. What else might hackers discover? Or what if their bank accounts are discovered and frozen by DOJ? What if a key person is arrested? I’m not attempting to speculate here, I’m only pointing out BOVADA is far more vulnerable now if something else were to come along and compound the problem.
BOVADA has a solid history and we suspect all players will be paid. Please understand this post is not a complaint about three weeks being too long to cash a player out. The intent is to show two back to back changes in quoted payout time frames (7 days to 15 days averages and then to within 3 weeks) over a couple day period is an indication BOVADA is likely dealing with a high volume of cashout requests. There are also additional concerns that indicate the high volume of withdrawals and lesser number of deposits could carry on for a while. Given these factors we are unable to properly assess the risk level BOVADA users face and have placed their rating on hold. All links from our website to bodog.eu or bovada.lv will be redirected to this page while this hold status is in place.
January 16, 2012 Update – Several payout requests from December 14 to December 18 were finally received in recent days, delivered to US players via check by courier using DHL. At this time we are still keep their rating on hold as the payout rush after the Super Bowl will be Bovada’s next major challenge. If you’re looking for an alternative that offers sports betting, casino and poker from the same website we strongly recommend www.5dimes.com. As you can see on our page on US Poker Sites they are by far the best option for US players. Meanwhile for casino they use DGS software with modified payouts, for example red/black in roulette pays $1.09 per $1.00 wagered and this is consistent for all other games (payouts much higher than the competitors offer on each every winning bet, regardless of game played). Then finally for sports 5Dimes offers reduced juice (-105 base) which means on average you’ll need to risk $1.05 for each dollar you want to win, as opposed to the industry standard (-110 base) which requires $1.10 risked. And the best news is not only do get better odds you also get fast payouts as well. Same day or next day cash transfers via WU and MG are available. 5Dimes has been in business since 1998 and has consensus top ratings all three major independent review portals, Sports Betting Sites, Sportsbook Review and Bookmakers Review.