After 15 years with 5Dimes, I was suddenly without a sportsbook. My signup "bonus" with 5Dimes was reduced juice so I didn't deal with cash bonuses and rollovers. However, I had a couple books before and had cash bonus and rollover, so I thought I knew how they work. Anyway, at the beginning of football season 2020, I went searching for a new sportsbook and read the reviews here. I liked the site payout and SBR review for Bovada, so I opened an account with Bitcoin.
In September 2020, I sent the cash equivalent of $1,000 in bitcoin to get the maximum 75% bonus ($750). My account was opened with $1,750 and it was my understanding that with a 5x rollover requirement, I would have to make $8,500 in bets for the bonus money to be made permanent. During football and basketball seasons, I have place a few thousand dollars in bets, but not enough to satisfy the rollover requirement as I understood it. Anyway, yesterday I checked my Bovada account and the account had been charged and $750 had been taken out of the account without my knowledge. (WHAT?!?) I went to view the transaction log to see why and there's an entry that says April 8, -750.00, "Bonus Closed". What's that? Did I totally not understand how bonuses work? If so, bonuses seem to be worthless, a bait and switch. Now, all that being said, I have not reached out to Bovada for an explanation yet, I thought I'd come here and ask the experts if you know what's going on before I talk with them. To say I'm freaked out about this would be an understatement.
So my questions:
Can anyone explain why this happened? Boy, I thought after 20+ years of betting online books, I thought I understood the rules.
Does anyone have a good/preferred way to communicate with Bovada about this issue? I would much prefer to speak to someone directly about this, but Live Chat and email seems to be the only ways I've found. If so, which is better?
Thanks to all help and support with this issue.
In September 2020, I sent the cash equivalent of $1,000 in bitcoin to get the maximum 75% bonus ($750). My account was opened with $1,750 and it was my understanding that with a 5x rollover requirement, I would have to make $8,500 in bets for the bonus money to be made permanent. During football and basketball seasons, I have place a few thousand dollars in bets, but not enough to satisfy the rollover requirement as I understood it. Anyway, yesterday I checked my Bovada account and the account had been charged and $750 had been taken out of the account without my knowledge. (WHAT?!?) I went to view the transaction log to see why and there's an entry that says April 8, -750.00, "Bonus Closed". What's that? Did I totally not understand how bonuses work? If so, bonuses seem to be worthless, a bait and switch. Now, all that being said, I have not reached out to Bovada for an explanation yet, I thought I'd come here and ask the experts if you know what's going on before I talk with them. To say I'm freaked out about this would be an understatement.
So my questions:
Can anyone explain why this happened? Boy, I thought after 20+ years of betting online books, I thought I understood the rules.
Does anyone have a good/preferred way to communicate with Bovada about this issue? I would much prefer to speak to someone directly about this, but Live Chat and email seems to be the only ways I've found. If so, which is better?
Thanks to all help and support with this issue.