Bovada doesn't let you bet both sides to clear a bonus. I inadvertently did it during a rollover when a line moved and I tried to middle it, and it didn't count. They do enforce those terms.

One way to loophole it is with parlays. You could parlay a gigantic favorite line with a normal line, then assuming the huge favorite wins, bet the other side of the 2nd piece.

thanks for clearing this up. i bet they allow it sometimes as people may accidently do it I guess. Also, 'isolated' , I don't think we are talking about the same thing as no one would ever bet both sides of the line for fun. Why not just rip a twenty up before the game and throw out window for fun? We are talking bonus clearing...

zioxcult, I already thought about the parlay thing and I feel it won't work. Could you explain a parlay you would take on sunday's games that would clear a bonus cause my math is as follows:
Let's say since there are two games I decide to bet all 4 parlays on the spreads. Now lets say I get a 10 dollar sports bonus before I do this. Ok, I have to bet 30 bucks to release the 10 so I will bet 7.5 dollars on each 2 team parlay. I will win exactly one of these 4 paylays and lose the other 3 (all lines are 3.5 points so no pushes)

The big problem is that a 2 team parlay even pays 2.6:1 despite the odds of a coin landing on tails twice is 3:1. parlay takes juice twice in other words

So roughly all the parlays pay 19-21 bucks for a 7.5 bet but you spent 30. You will release the 3X bonus adding 10 to your account for a grand total of 30 bucks spent betting to win 30 bucks for a net zero change in acct balance.

Ok. I'm going to retire to the nerdery once again..


PS - Looks like I will be spending the arching majority of my points on the daily $7.75 8pm ultra turbo 3min levels LO8s which finish in like an hour..

He/she's probably talking about something like this:

Parlay: Novak Djokovic vs. his first round opponent + some other small favorite
Bet: the small underdog in that other match

Can probably get about 1:1 on both bets. Just hope Djokovic doesn't lose (and if he does, hope the other underdog wins).

NFL doesn't really have big enough favorites for that.

Edit: Not saying this wouldn't (or would) be considered "reverse activity" by Bovada, btw. No clue about that.

Actually, it's a lot different, because of the part I bolded. And if there was no green, it wouldn't be allowed either.

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, and perhaps they don't catch it most of the time (or maybe they don't always worry about it); I just didn't want anyone to rely on that working when it might not be permitted.

Yeah, I think reverse activity is when you bet all lines guaranteeing a win minus the vig to clear a bonus. In your scenario I feel there is a chance you could lose both bets no?

One last thing to keep people away from using points for sports bonus: For the past several weeks i've been converting 20 bucks or so in points to sports bonus on friday. Then I bet like 7, 3 dollar, 5 team parlays hoping one hits (they didn't.) I figure no worries as when you lose the bonus it just gets deducted from your bonus account and not your account balance so these are 'free' bets cause if you lose no need to clear and if I win the long shot I'll just clear it by a series of smallish bets.

Not true. They keep track of this and your 'back' clearance necessary. All bonuses must be cleared period. I found this out when I hit royal flush bonus for 200$ this week. This has a 1X clearance so I can clear it real fast 4 tables FLH. After couple days not cleared I found out they had tacked on my back sports bets bonuses that I had lost giving my royal a 4X clearance or so...

so now I have cleared my backlog of sb bonuses thru my rf bonus. I suspect if you win a parlay you will certainly have to clear the backlog. just saying..

Man, this is so pathetic Blovada.

Well yeah, that's basically any bonus. No different than if you deposit $500 and get a $500 poker bonus. You can't then lose $500 immediately, and then expect to be able to withdraw the other $500. Have to finish clearing it, or you forfeit the amount of the bonus.

Bovada has actually gotten better at showing/tracking this for you. If you go into your cashier, you'll see a "cash balance" and a "bonus balance". As you clear it, it transfers from the bonus balance into the cash balance. Lost money always comes out of your cash balance first. It's probably best to think about the money in the bonus balance as not yours until it's cleared.

your sb bet comes out of bonus acct first. If you deposit on poker 500 and get a 500 bonus you can always withdraw 500 minimum if you donk off the 500 bonus but they will keep track..

here's an email reply

Thanks for contacting Bovada Poker Customer Service.

Once you convert your 450 Poker Points to a $5 Sports Bonus, it'll be available within 24 hours.

Since it's a non-deposit bonus, your wager amount in Sports, Horses, Casino or Poker will be deducted in the following order:
Bonus balance
Withdrawable balance
Locked balance
If a certain balance isn’t enough to cover your wager amount, the system will automatically get the remaining amount from the next balance in the respective order.

To learn more, click here and take a tour about Bovada’s bonus system.

We’re available to help 24/7 if you need anything else.

Thanks,

Poker Customer Service
[email protected]

The most important thing to remember is the sports bonus is not a 'free' bet. far from it as you will always owe retroactive clearance..

Yes, that's what I meant. I'm fairly sure they don't catch it, even though it could be a violation.

I'm basing that assumption on an experience I had with a free bet that had the same terms (don't bet both sides or it's invalid), where I did a 4 way parlay that hit the first 3 pieces. I then bet the opposite side of the 4th piece. The parlay did win and it paid me out.

Ah, what I posted was wrong, then. Sorry about that. Didn't realize they were treated different than deposit bonuses.

Exactly the same for me. Ive tried deleting and reloading the App..and various other things..nothing works..I'm going through Zone Poker withdrawals..lol..

The lag problem seems to be significantly better today.

Most people seem to say this everyday early in the day, and then at night all hell breaks loose again.

FWIW before the update I virtually never disconnected, now I have a few times. I don't really think that's worth a lot but it's also true.

Mine is back working now.

How long has a check taken you to receive lately?

And now it broken again,played about 20 zone hands...went back and loading screen of death again.

Was finally able to get back on and play on my iPad with no lag at all, played zone for 1-2 hours... hopefully it stays this way

I missed the window of opportunity! lol

Just tried now at 1:20 pm Pacific Time and same as before..the loading circle of frustration.

Well, hopefully they are working on it.

Requested one on 1/2.
Approved on 1/3.
Sent (with no tracking number) on 1/14.
Received 1/16.

Was one of the French Canadian cheques that I can't deposit in my ATM..have to go to the teller.

The Chinese ones they did a few months ago I was able to deposit through my ATM with no trouble. So much for NAFTA, lol.

Hey all. I'm curious about a recent bonus I see. it's been a while since I've seen any kind of deposit bonus that allowed me to clear using poker points. Last I recall was Black Friday after thanksgiving 2014.

Does anybody else see the 20% conference championship bonus and can anyone confirm that you can or can't clear this by generating poker points?

I'm considering adding funds if this is clearable through poker play.

seems much better for me when its late at night when theres less traffic. if its earlier in the day and im playing mtt's along with cash, the more tables i have up the worse it is. aggrivating considering this is going on what 2 weeks now but unfortunately not much we can do

The tables take FOREVER for me to load now...wtf. It wasn't "this" bad when the update happened How the hell could the update of gotten even worse? wtfbbq

Annnnnnnnnd the lag is back.

Congrats Bovada, this is officially the 2nd worst update in the history of online poker (behind only of course, the world famous pp monster fiasco)

Not everyone gets it. Log into the website (not the client), and click on the present/gift icon at the top of the screen. That lists all your available bonuses. Click on "more" for that bonus, and it'll tell you how you can clear it. If it's like the one they sent out to some for the NCAA football championship, it's clearable via poker.