Bodog Poker Rebrands to BOVADA for U.S. Players

The U.S. has still not come to grips with legalizing online poker and that has caused many poker rooms to bail on the lucrative market. Bodog announced last June that it was pulling out of the U.S.  Now they’ve announced that they will be offering a new room designed just for those in the States. That room is called Bovada Poker and it will be part of the Bodog Poker Network.

How It Works

The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG) has been designated to operate Bovada Poker. MMGG was the licensor for Bodog Poker in the U.S. The new Bovada Poker site is for U.S. players only. That means players from other countries simply cannot join Bovada.

The database of U.S. players who have been playing on Bodog Poker and their accounts will be moved to the new site instantly and because Bodog and Bovada are both part of the Bodog Poker Network, those on Bodog will still able to play against former U.S. members.

Bodog software will no longer be applicable to those in the U.S., and that means they will have to download and set up new poker software from Bovada. However, those in the U.S. now playing on Bovada can still use the same password and username that they utilized when playing on Bodog.

Why Rebrand?

Although Bodog did well after Black Friday when three major poker rooms were shutdown by the U.S. Department of Justice and many other rooms got out of the U.S. market, since the Merge Network, which includes Carbon Poker and Diamond Poker, decided to start accepting players from the U.S. again Bodog has seen their volume drop off.

Rebranding by setting up Bovada Poker means that they can attract more U.S. players with new incentives and by focusing their marketing and promotional efforts directly on those in the States. At the same time, they are able to keep those players from the U.S. who were formerly with Bodog. It’s a combined effort of retention and recruitment.

What About the Future?

One question that many are asking is what happens to those networks that have decided to allow and actively attract U.S. players, such as the Merge Network and the Bodog Poker Network, once the federal government makes online poker legal? Many analysts believe that the companies that will be in a solid position to apply for and acquire a U.S. license are those such as Playtech who are prepared to enter the U.S. market by contracting for online services with established U.S. casinos and software companies.

However, Bodog’s new venture does not necessarily mean it will not be licensed in the U.S. as the major reasons for licensing are to collect fees and taxes and to ensure that American players are being playing on fair and safe sites.

Is Bovada Ready?

A recent search led to a site that had a listing on Google that read “Bovada means freedom of choice for America. Find out more!”  Upon clicking on the link, you were originally taken to page with chess pieces on it that had the following phrase, “Learn About the New Bovada. Laern more about Bovada now.” (The page did include the misspelling of “learn.”)

Another search a few hours later revealed a new page with a picture of a cresting ocean wave with the same phrase except that the misspelling had been corrected.  Like the former page, this one was inactive.

Just a couple of hours later it was all known and clear that it became bovada.lv. To find a review of Bovada Poker is still a bit difficult and we will follow with our review shortly. For now check out the Bovada Poker review at Poker News Report. This move by Bodog is yet another interesting choice that online poker sites have made in the late wake of Black Friday.