Poker Bonus
Bodog Poker offers a multi-deposit bonus to all new players joining the site for the first time, and this bonus applies to all player deposits made within the first 60 days of membership, up to $1,000. All new players will receive this bonus and will earn bonus dollars in increments as Poker Points are earned. Points can be garnered by playing cash games and tournaments. For every $1 paid in rake at cash tables, 3 points are awarded and 3 points for every $1 in tourney fees paid. For every 10 points earned, $1 of the bonus clears.
Promotions
Bodog offers new players free entry into the $100K New Player Qualifier tournaments, which run three times per week and award first place with a $162 ticket into the $100K Guaranteed weekly tournament. Second through 10th places earn entry into the $100K Semi-Final worth $17.
In addition, Bodog offers multiple other guaranteed tourneys as well as freerolls and other weekly and monthly promotions.
Tournaments
Bodog Poker offers multi-table tournaments, freerolls, Poker Point tournaments, qualifiers, sit n go’s (short-handed and multi-table), re-buy tourneys, guaranteed, and beginner tournaments. Shootout, knockout, and heads up tourneys are also offered.
Games
Bodog Poker offers Texas Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, and 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo poker games.
Software
One of Bodog’s most popular features is its poker software that offers a sleek and classy interface with all the bells and whistles an online poker player could dream of. Function is the name of the game when it comes to Bodog Poker software, which is packed with features, both standard and atypical. For instance, the Quick Seat option allows a player to select the game, limit, and stakes, and the software will automatically seat the player at the perfect table. Other features include in-client blackjack, anonymous tables, and rabbit cam. Multi-tabling is also a breeze on the Bodog poker platform, complete with resizable tables. It’s all about the user.
Deposit Methods
Depositing at Bodog Poker is both safe and easy. Use a credit card, eWalletXpress, Click2Pay, Paysafecard, NETeller, moneybookers, Speed Card, or MyPayLinQ.
Cash Out Methods
Withdrawals can be requested via moneybookers, NETeller, or Speed Card.
Customer Service
Support is offered to Bodog Poker players via toll-free telephone or email.
Beginnings
Bodog was originally the brainchild of Calvin Ayre. Ayre developed and launched the online entertainment and gaming brand in 1994 after selling all of his possessions to fund the company. With a mere $10,000, he was able to assemble a team to build the company, which was initially conceived to be a software development company, but the vision of the Bodog corporation quickly morphed into an Internet gaming site based out of Antigua in the Caribbean. Ultimately, the brand would become all that and more. Bodog Poker was born in 2004.
Licensees for Days
Throughout the years, Bodog grew into an online sportsbook and an online casino, as well as an online poker site, but the brand has also added its name to an online magazine (Bodog Nation), a blog (Bodog Beat – 2004) a music label (Bodog Music – 2005), a mixed martial arts production (Bodog Fight – 2006), reality TV (Bodog TV – 2006), Bodog Coffee – 2011, and much more to its credits, making it not only internationally recognized, but incredibly diverse as well.
2005
BodogBrand.com was created in 2005 to house the ever far-reaching Bodog brand conglomerate and its licensees. According to BodogBrand.com, it is “an entirely new model of venture partner – one that takes the vast, contained energy of a globally-recognized brand from one sector, couples it with deep branding expertise and financial depth, and unleashes it to propel new ventures to prominence in complementary industries.” It also describes itself as “an ecosystem of licensees in complementary sectors whose efforts don’t complete, but enhance, one another’s businesses.”
2006
Bodog first targeted the US online gambling market, but always had global expansion in the works. By establishing the brand in the US as a trusted and fortified online gambling site, Ayre paved the way for the future of the company. Ayre in fact was part of the brand, and his popularity and notoriety grew throughout the mid-2000s. He was featured in the 2006 edition of Forbes Magazine’s annual Billionaires issue. A few months later, he appeared in People Magazine’s “Hottest Bachelors” issue. In 2007, he popped up in Star Magazine’s list of “Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelors.”
In 2006, the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG) began managing the Bodog brand. Also in 2006, Bodog Fight was created when the brand was licensed to an events production company in Canada and produced a television reality show that highlighted MMA fighters and then put them up against each other and pay-per-view events featuring high ranked fighters. Bodog Fight ceased to exist in 2008.
Evelyn Ng joins Team Bodog.
2007
The Bodog brand and its founder had grown into an internationally recognized identity, but in 2007, Bodog lost the rights to its domain name Bodog.com when 1st Technology, a leading technology licensing corporation in advanced gaming, filed a lawsuit against Bodog from the state of Nevada claiming patent infringement on Bodog’s distribution of online gaming software. According to court documents, Bodog was illegally utilizing a “method and system for interactively transmitting multimedia information over a network which requires a reduced bandwidth.”
Bodog representation failed to appear in court and lost the case by default. The judgment required Bodog to pay $49 million in damages and remove all DNS servers associated with the brand and Calvin Ayre.
Meanwhile Bodog changed its domain name to newbodog.com and shortly thereafter to bodoglife.com under which it operated for about two years until the case was settled in 2009 and Bodog regained control of the bodog.com domain.
Bodog’s popularity continued to grow despite problems with the domain, and Bodog won multiple 2007nGambling Online Magazine gold awards.
In 2007/2008 Ayre modified the business model for Bodog by stopping direct operations of the gambling websites and instead licensing out rights of the brand name.
2008
In 2008, Calvin Ayre left the company to pursue his work in the London-based Calvin Ayre Foundation which works to do charitable works in the areas of education, environment, child welfare, social development, and animal welfare. He wrote on his blog at the time, “…I was really more of a brand ambassador for Bodog the past while anyway – but it was fun while it lasted.”
He never really stopped serving as the brand ambassador though, as he still has in hands in many Bodog projects and endeavors.
2009
In 2009, Bodog Network executed a license agreement with BodogBrand.com and developed a new Bodog-branded poker network.
2011
Team Bodog signs poker hotties Amanda Leatherman and Croatian pro Tatjana Pašalić.
Bodog made the decision to withdraw operations from the US market, thus, MMGG terminating its license agreement with Bodog Brand in 2011. In response, MMGG launched a new brand for US players, Bovada. Since Black Friday, Bodog had been one of the only remaining online poker rooms to serve US players, but by year’s end, the Bodog brand had pulled out of the US market. In its place was the new Bovada online poker site that would continue to service the US market.
While Bodog has always been at the forefront of technology, offering one of the best online poker software platforms available, they’ve also made it clear throughout the history of the brand that Bodog is for the average poker player who plays for entertainment purposes only, and is not the right match for professional players. In keeping with this, competition at Bodog tables remains loose and friendly rather than hardcore and cut throat, which appeals to the novice to moderately experienced online poker sector, along with the user-friendly and cutting-edge software that they have always offered.
