Full Review of BetOnline Poker

BetOnline Game Selection

The only constant action at BetOnline is micro No Limit Texas Hold’em.  There is some action up to 1/2 blinds.  Some Pot Limit Omaha action may be found during peak hours.

 

BetOnline spreads more than $250,000 in guaranteed tournaments each week.  The biggest are spread on weekends.  There is a $22 No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament with a $10k guaranteed prize pool every Saturday at 7pnm ET and Sunday at 6pm ET.

 

Sit and gos starting at pennies up to $11 run nearly 24 hours a day.  Most are No Limit Texas Hold’em, although a handful are Pot Limit Omaha.

BetOnline Bonuses

BetOnline offers a 200% up to $1,000 first deposit bonus. It releases in five increments.

 

The first 10% of the bonus is released 30.3% of the deposit has been paid in rake.  The next 20% of the bonus is released after a player rakes 99.27% of the bonus amount.  Another 40% of the pending bonus is cleared when 220.4% of the bonus has been paid in rake.

 

The next 60% of the bonus is released upon raking 402.3% of the bonus.  The remaining 70% of the bonus is cleared when raking 652.3% of the bonus.

 

The $2,000 bonus will require $13.046 in rake paid to clear the entire amount.  Players have 120 days to clear the entire bonus.  Any portion not yet released will expire.

BetOnline VIP

BetOnline does not offer any poker VIP program.  They specialize in sports and casino games.

Has There Ever Been a Scandal at BetOnline?

There have been dozens of scandals at BetOnline involving big winners being accused of cheating in one way or another.  Some of these players convinced BetOnline to pay them by taking the issue public.  All of these issues happened in 2011 and 2012.  There have been no issues reported since then.  BetOnline appears to have cleaned up its act.

 

BetOnline was not honest about their connection to the Action Poker Network when they first launched.  The company claimed that they were a member of the new Hero Poker Network.  This is not to be confused with the legitimate Merge Gaming skin known as Hero Poker.

 

It was discovered quickly that BetOnline was actually on Action Poker, later renamed Chico Poker.  Not only did they deny the connection, they failed to prevent players from being able to log into BetOnline and Action Poker and sit at the same table at the same time.  Action Poker and their skins do not accept U.S. players but players outside the U.S. could log into Action Poker or a skin and sit at the same online poker table as their username at BetOnline.  This is a recipe for collusion.

 

Action Poker has been plagued with problems ever since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act came into law in the U.S.  The network was left with a handful of loyal Canadian players and failed to peak at 100 players on most days.  Late payments to players and affiliates gave the network a bad reputation.

 

The network attempted to enter the rake free poker model with their skin PayNoRake.  Players that raked $100 in a day would get 100% rakeback.  The problem was that there were not enough games for players to reach this goal.  The addition of BetOnline into the network added much needed stability.  All of the network issues seem to have been resolved.