Bovada

Bovada's own help page states that it is "licensed and regulated by the Union of the Comoros and the Central Reserve Authority of Western Sahara." Read that twice. The Comoros licence is issued from Anjouan, one of the lowest-tier offshore regimes in the industry. The second body does not correspond to any recognised gaming regulator: Western Sahara is a disputed territory with no functioning gambling authority. Whatever Bovada is, it is not a regulated sportsbook in any sense a US, UK or European bettor would recognise, and the description this site carried — "licensed in Curaçao" — is no longer what Bovada itself claims.

The same page lists where it will not take you: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia and Washington DC. That list has grown as state regulators have acted; the Michigan Gaming Control Board sent Bovada's operator, Harp Media B.V., a cease-and-desist in May 2024 citing the state's Lawful Internet Gaming Act, and Michigan is on the list. If your state is not, that is because it has not yet told Bovada to leave, not because Bovada is licensed there.

Neither review quoted on this page is a user; both are affiliate editorials. One rates it four stars for fast Bitcoin payouts and "smooth mobile" use, the other two stars and says, in its own words, that Bovada "is not licensed or regulated in the U.S. and that means you shouldn't bet here with confidence." Both list "poor security" as a con. That is the honest range of opinion on an offshore book: it may pay you, and nothing obliges it to.

Bovada takes crypto and has a US customer base precisely because it sits outside every US regulator's reach. For a bettor in one of the thirty states with legal online sportsbooks, there is no reason to accept that trade. For a bettor in Texas, California or Florida, it is one of the offshore options — and this page's job is to make sure you know what "offshore" means here.