Bodog.com is perhaps the best known brand in sports betting industry. Their story starts in 1990 when the son of a Canadian farmer named Calvin Ayre, then age 29 borrowed Cisco training manuals and learned network design. In 1994, after reading an article about Ron “Cigar” Sacco’s massive Dominican Republic headquartered phone-in betting operation, Ayre invested his entire $10,000 life-savings to create the first ever web-based betting software. He marketed this software to offshore betting companies in 1995, and helped other bookmakers launch the internet’s first online casinos in 1996. As the world leader in online gambling technology, Ayre’s company took the gambling world by storm, launching their own online betting site Bodog.com in April 2000. In the few years that followed, Bodog accumulated 16 million customers with net sports handles exceeding $10 billion annually.
The reasons to choose Bodog.com as an online betting site are many. For so long as online gambling existed, so has Bodog; they developed the first ever online betting software. With now more than eleven years in the business, Bodog has never missed a payout. In fact, in 2001 Bodog became the first online betting site to offer e-check withdrawals, a move designed to expedite payouts.
As of February, 2011, while other gambling sites often delay payouts for weeks on end, at Bodog the average processing time to receive a paper check to your door is 3-7 days. Cash outs via cash transfer services take a day or two, while e-wallet electronic based withdrawals arrive in a matter of hours. Bodog’s customer-service philosophy which focuses on keeping betting a fun and hassle free form of entertainment, has largely been the catalyst to their success.
Bodog Bonus Offers and Promotions
Bodog offers new players a 10% initial deposit match which is credited instantly as a cash bonus. There are no strings, red tape, rollover requirements, bonus codes or other monkey-business attached. If you visit Bodog.com right now, register an account, and deposit $500, you’ll get $50 extra free. If you deposit $1,000 you’ll get $100 free. No matter what amount you deposit the first time, right away and immediately an extra 10% will be added. The only requirement is that you stake your initial deposit a single time prior to cashing out.
In addition to the “sign-up bonus”, Bodog.com offers a “poker bonus” and a “refer a friend bonus“:
Bodog Poker Bonus
The poker bonus is 110% up to $1,100 free, which you can read about at poker.bodog.com.
Refer a Friend Bonus
When referring a friend to Bodog, you’ll receive 20% the size of their initial deposit as a cash bonus, up to $100 maximum for each friend. This particular bonus has a 3-time rollover requirement.
As a Bodog account holder here are some of the other promotions you can expect.
Reload Bonuses
Bodog offers reload bonuses randomly a few times per season. You can almost certainly count on a reload offer at the start of the football season, and most likely also for March Madness and the Super Bowl.
Free Contests
Bodog’s most famous contest is the “Bracket Buster Challenge”. This is a March Madness promo that pays several thousands to the winner, and is 100% free to join.
Survive the Season
The past two football seasons Bodog offered a promotion called “Survive the Season”. Simply wager $25 or more all 17 weeks of the NFL season and you receive a $100 cash bonus; wager $100 or more all 17 weeks and the bonus increased to $250.
Parlay Jackpot
For the 2010 football season Bodog offered at $10,000 progressive parlay jackpot. Simply stake $5 or more on a 10 team parlay and if it wins, in addition to your standard winnings, you split the $10,000, or more because it’s progressive, jackpot with any other winners. Last season the jackpot was won most weeks by a single winner. For the one week there wasn’t a winner, the following week 3 people split the $20,000 prize.
Future Bet Promos
Over the years I’ve had a Bodog account there have been a fair number of future bet promos. The most recent I recall allowed players to bet on any team winning the NBA championship other than the Lakers. If the Lakers, who were the favorite to win, were victorious all future bets were refunded. Sure enough the Lakers won the Championship that year and Bodog promptly made good refunding backers of every other team.
I’ve shared only a small highlight of the promotions offered at Bodog. As a professional with a long term winning track record there are very few sites willing to give me a bonus. Yet at Bodog.com I continue to receive random gifts such as a free entry into $100,000 prize pool poker tournaments worth $109 each, free bets, reload bonuses, access to free contests and much more
Bodog.com Wagering Options
Bodog offers betting lines on all major sports including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, boxing, cricket, darts, golf, horse racing, mixed martial arts, motor sports, rugby league, rugby union, snooker, as well as minor sports such as poker, beach volleyball and curling. All the wagering options you’d expect to find at a world class sportsbook such as moneylines, point spreads, totals, half time, quarter/period, propositions, teasers, parlays and more are available.
In addition to sports, Bodog offers odds on world events and entertainment. Here you can find options to bet the presidential election, who will win this seasons Survivor, American Idol betting and much more. Bodog Casino and Bodog Poker are seamless integrated, meaning you can wager on these using the same log-in and account balance as your sports betting account. The bottom line is no matter what your wagering preferences are Bodog is likely a great fit.
Bodog UFC Betting
Bodog offers a decent selection of MMA & UFC odds to bet on including odds on most UFC and Bellator fights, but they don’t provide odds on many prop bets. They are also notorious for posting odds fairly late. Money line UFC odds are posted well before major fights, but that’s about it. In most cases you won’t be able to bet on the round total or props until the day of the fight and most fights won’t have any props to bet on at all. Bodog used to own an MMA promotion in the past, but they seem to have lost their way in this field and aren’t the best UFC sportsbook at the moment.
Bodog Tips from a Professional
The first thing you need to know: Bodog uses two sets of lines the industry has coined, square lines and sharp lines; every account starts with square lines. This initial line profile offers professional bettors amazing value, especially on underdogs. For example when other sites are offering +7 on an NFL team, Bodog might offer +7.5 -110 or +8 -110. This is because Bodog services a millions of small time bettors, whose wagers add up to massive sums of cash. These bettors tend to bet mostly favorites so Bodog makes more money setting lines worse for the favorite, which likewise makes them better for the underdog. During your first few days with a Bodog account bet as many underdogs as possible, because once Bodog catches on you have knowledge about sports betting you’ll be changed over to sharp lines.
I should note that while most on sports betting forums use the term “sharp lines”, these are really not that sharp. As a long time professional bettor I still find tons of value on Bodog’s “sharp lines”, again usually on the underdog.
Here are some the unique betting intricacies I enjoy about Bodog
6-point NFL Teasers
Bodog offers +180 on 3-team six point NFL teasers, which is about the same odds as if two team teasers were offered at +100. The unique part here is that Bodog tends to shade their lines in such a way that advantage bettors gain value. This is particularly true of small underdogs. When other betting sites have a line at +2.5 -110, Bodog often has the same at +3 -130. As you’re probably aware, when teaser betting only the point spread, and not the price (-110, -120 etc.) matters. Therefore what would be a six point teaser to +8.5 at other sites ends up being a six point teaser to +9 at Bodog. I spent a lot of time shopping and calculating teasers during the NFL season and find myself most weeks choosing Bodog as the site to place my teaser bets.
Proposition Bets
Bodog is one the best kept secrets for proposition bets, likely because most prop bettors give up on them too quickly. When line shopping prop bets 19 of 20 times I find a better line elsewhere. However that one time I find the best line at Bodog it’s generally by a wide margin.
For example: late last season I was shopping an over/under prop bet on sacks. 5Dimes was offering u5 -130, Pinnacle was offering u5 -131, and meanwhile Bodog had u5.5 at -105. Thinking it was surely a mistake I phoned them to confirm. To my surprise, the line was valid! My $500 max bet was accepted and then paid out on as soon as the game was complete. This isn’t an isolated incident either, I find many high value prop bets at Bodog after weeding through the 95% that are -EV on both sides.
Futures
Bodog tends to shade their future lines heavily for whichever teams they’re looking to get more action on. As a result in a large market such as 32 NFL teams, most of the options will be poor value, while 1 or 2 they’re looking for more action on will be priced well better than market price. While I wouldn’t suggest Bodog as a site to blindly make future bets, lots of value can be picked up when using them as one of many line shopping outs.
Sweetheart/Monster Teasers
While I don’t bet too many of these myself, Bodog has industry leading odds on 3-team 10-point football teasers at -110. The same is offered at Bookmaker for -120, and Pinnacle for -130. They also offered 4-team 13-point teasers for -120, far better than the -140 Pinnacle offers for the same.
Half Time Lines
Bodog has some of the softest half time lines in the industry. Simply comparing Bodog’s half time line with the half time lines of 5Dimes, Bookmaker.com and Pinnacle and betting anything that is off at Bodog, is almost enough to beat these blindly.
Honestly, there is so much about Bodog I love. Not only do they offer fast payouts, great support, high value promotions and many soft bets, their founder also spends time and money making a difference. Born in the farmland regions of Northern Canada to grain and pig farmers parents, with a past that once involved selling peaches road side to motorist to survive, Ayre is now one of the wealthiest men alive, and he’s not at all shy about giving back.
As a committed philanthropist, Calvin Ayre has invested countless dollars and time into his private foundation to improve the health and educational conditions of under-privileged children and tackle global issues such as the environment and fighting the horrors of bear bile farming and evils of animal cruelty. All this while having a lot of fun and running one of the best gambling products in the businesses.
To any recreational bettors reading this, honestly I don’t think your sports wagers could be in any better hands than they’ll be at www.bodog.com.
