Bovada Is No More, But What Comes Next?

7 years ago
What Comes After Bovada?
17:18
16 Aug

Bovada has announced that it will stop providing online poker at the end of September. This appeared to be terrible news, but the more you look into it the more you realize it is not so bad for their online poker players as the poker product has been acquired by “Ignition” and players can transfer their balances to the new site and even claim bonuses for being organised enough to do it early. Bovada have now stopped accepting new players so players wanting a new account must go straight to Ignition.

So who is the new poker room on the block? Ignition Poker is part of the Ignition Casino which launched in March of this year and offers all the usual online casino games like Blackjack, slots, and video poker games. When you take a look at the website you notice something striking straight away, which is that the Ignition Poker software looks very similar to Bovada’s. That’s because it uses the exact same software and also has the same $100,000 feature tournament. It also shares the same player pool as the Bovada network and has inherited one of the most defining aspects of the soon-to-be obsolete Bovada tables, their anonymous tables. For all intents and purposes, this is a restructure rather than an acquisition.



If you currently have funds in your Bovada Poker account you need to transfer your bankroll to Ignition Poker. For reasons not yet revealed (transfers from Bodog to Bovada transfer was automatic) the transfer of your funds from Bovada to Ignition must be done manually and you need to note the strict deadline of September 30th, 2016. Players can now register for Ignition Poker and you can have two active accounts at once, but security measures have been implemented to ensure that players cannot be logged into both accounts simultaneously. It is good to note the integrity of the poker games cannot be compromised during this transitional period.

All new accounts have to be verified by Ignition Poker so they are keen to avoid a surge of registrations and bankroll transfers just prior to the September 30th deadline. In an effort to avoid a scenario where players knew about the change early but take no action until they have to, Ignition Poker are offering a number of incentives to encourage players to begin the transition process early.

They have scheduled a number of lucrative freerolls, the first on Wednesday, August 17th with a $15,000 prize pool and then a further $15,000 freeroll on Thursday August 25th, a $10,000 freeroll on Tuesday September 6th, a $5,000 freeroll on Monday September 12th and finally a $5,000 freeroll on Thursday September 22nd. Each player can get one freeroll ticket and you will note that the prize pools decrease as the transfer deadline approaches. This is designed to incentivize you to transfer funds early so you can play in a larger freeroll, at the same time helping Ignition avoid the registration pile-up we discussed earlier.

Players will receive a $10 instant cash bonus as a way of thanks once the transfer of funds has been completed and they can access a redeemable bonus of up to $100 if they make a direct deposit to their Ignition Poker account.



I think it would have been better if the transfers were automatic, but if that was the case players would not have the opportunity to win money from lucrative freerolls. In that respect I would be happy to manage a transfer process myself and I’d do it early to ensure I played in the biggest freeroll possible.

In summary, players who are thinking about signing up can note that this is a US poker room that has a strong history and standing in the poker community. It is virtually the same platform as Bovada and has a wide variety of games and is licensed and regulated via the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. The sign-up and even the account transfer process is fairly straightforward and the site has good support and fast (they say effortless) depositing and withdrawal processes.

Ignition are hopeful that players support the new brand and advise that their payouts are “not only 100% secure and safe, they’re also incredibly fast.” They advise that payments should be made to players anywhere between 5 - 10 business days and if players prefer to be paid by Bitcoin they can choose this option and be paid within 72 hours. Ignition Poker has a 24/7 support line which players can call toll free on 1-855-370-0600 or get in touch via email at service@ignitioncasino.eu.


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Malcolm comes from Consett in the North East of England and is an avid poker player and writer.Read more

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