Bovada Replaces Bodog Poker In The US Market
On Dec 14 Bodog was officially rebranded as Bovada. The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG), who was the US licensor of Bodog, will operate Bovada. It was announced back in July that Bodog intended to withdraw from the US market entirely and announced the launch of a new site exclusively for US players. We have since found out this new site is Bovada.
What effect will this have on players?
For US players, Bodog will no longer be accessible. Instead, they will have to visit the website of Bovada. The accounts of US players at Bodog have been moved to Bovada. US players do not have to register again, they can just use their Bodog usernames and passwords.
For non US players, the bad news is that the new online brand is meant only for US players and will not accept non US players. The only difference is the access point.
Bodog is leaving the US Market in 2012
Bodog announced it's going to no more offer its internet gaming suite to the US market starting January 1, 2012. This news comes after UK Gambling Commission announced that Bodog is the first bookmaker to obtain both a remote and non-remote gambling license. Bodog’s license agreement with Morris Mohawk Gaming would expire at the end of 2011, and Bodog doesn't have plans of renewing. Bodog Brand released this statement about their decision to let their brand licensing deal with Morris Mohawk Gaming expire at the end of the year. “Following recent news that Bodog UK has been granted a gambling license by the UK Gambling Commission, we are very happy to announce further developments to the Bodog brand moving forward. As highlighted last week, Bodog UK's CEO, Patrik Selin believes the trust and credibility that having a UK license gives the brand will benefit customers and allow him to attract the best talent in the market to work alongside him.
Bodogs online sportsbook is among the online sports books still accessible to US customers since Black Friday on April 15th of this year. The Bodog Brand exploded during the last couple of years to become the premier online gaming brand servicing the US market Bodog became symbolic of gambling online in the US. It might now be assumed that their numbers will decline significantly with the impending loss of the US market at the end of the year.
So whats the status of US sportsbook players who play at bodog?
At first glance this definitely seems like a shocking development as another major player gets ready to leave the US market, but a closer look at this news indicates this may simply be a rebranding issue by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group. Bodog stated their players will have their accounts and balances transferred to a new brand run by Morris Mohawk Gaming Group. It is supposed to be seamless and you won’t notice a difference with the new brand which has not been announced yet. This is a great relief to US sportsbook players as they will be confronted with moving again to a new sportsbook. Given the present volatility for online gaming in the US, it remains to be seen whether or not the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group will actually follow through and create the new brand.
More Domain Names And Gambling Operations Seized On Gray Monday.
The Department of Justice in Baltimore Maryland Has seized two internet gambling businesses and their international owners as part of a long, undercover sting, details of which were released Monday after 11 associated bank accounts were seized in five countries and 10 Web domain names were shut down. Homeland Security set up a phony payment processing business in Atlantic City and spent two years infiltrating the world of illegal online betting. If convicted of running an illegal gambling business, the defendants face a maximum of five years in prison. Money laundering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
The domain names seized were
Funtimebingo.com
Goldenarchcasino.com
Truepoker.com
Betmaker.com
Truepoker.com
Betmaker.com
Betgrandesports.com
Doylesroom.com
Betehorse.com
BetEd.com
2Betsdi.com
We have heard many people say they can still access the sites mentioned above, but we believe this is just because it takes a while for the DNS records to take effect. Sometimes we get the dreaded DOJ page and sometimes we don?t. We will see what happens in the coming days.
Several of the domains seized this time were a part of the Yatahay Network like True Poker, Doyles Room, Bookmaker, 2betdsi, Betmaker, Betgrandesports, and Beted. Why so many are from one network in not known, but the spectrum of sites this time is greatly expanded to not just online poker sites, but online casinos, online sports books, and bingo sites.
When Black Friday happened the biggest online poker sites were targeted and soon after left the US market. We have not heard of any of the above mentioned sites leaving the US market as of yet, but would not be surprised to see this happen in the next couple days.
Bookmaker said in an email that business is as usual. As you may already know, Bookmaker has temporarily lost the rights to the Bookmaker.com domain. We are confident that in time, it will be returned to us, until then, we have launched a new, temporary site: www.bmaker.ag.
Check back often as we will be updating the site as the information comes available.