In a move that took place today, the Bodogbrand officially left the U.S. market. In its place is Bovada, which does business on the website bovada.lv and is owned and operated by Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, the company that had marketed Bodog in the United States since 2006.

Note that PocketFives does not recommend playing on any sites offering rake-based games in the United States. We fear deposits and withdrawals on these sites could be at risk. We encourage U.S. players to play on sites like ClubWPT until online poker is regulated in the U.S.

Attempting to access bodog.eu from the United States now results in the following error message: “Access to this site is not available from your current location. The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group no longer offers its services under license from the Bodog Brand. You can find their services now available at bovada.lv.”

Bovada.lv has the same look and feel as bodog.eu and, according to an e-mail sent to U.S. Bodog players that was posted on PocketFives, “Your account and balance have automatically been transferred to the new website and you are able to log into the site using your existing account details and password.”

In a thread on PocketFives, Bodog site rep BodogBecky outlined the changes in store for players: “This is a name change we are talking about – nothing more, nothing less. The company that has owned and run the bodog.eu software and operations since late 2006 (MMGG) will continue to operate as normal, just under a new brand name. Your funds will be transferred to the newly branded site and you can request a payout anytime.”

An overnight outage took place to transition the two websites. The same e-mail sent to players noted that the Bovada customer service number was 888-263-0000.

Players on PocketFives posted their reactions to the departure of Bodog’s brand from the U.S. One member of the online poker community admitted, “Is anyone else here kind of somewhat sketched out about this? I have a pending cashout and now they did this. Not really sure what to think about this. Anyone else have pending cashouts in the last two weeks and have received them or at least gotten tracking numbers?”

Bodog cashouts were purportedly taking around three weeks to process, according to posters on PocketFives.

Bodog originally announced plans to leave the U.S. marketback in July. On the logic for the move, Bodog officials explained five months ago, “In order to ensure the brand’s expansion is not affected by negative perceptions, both in the U.K. and elsewhere in emerging markets such as Asia, where Bodog88is already successful, a decision has been made to withdraw the Bodog brand from the U.S. market at the end of 2011.” Bodog officials added that the Kahnawake Gaming Commission licenses Bovada.

In July, the U.K. Gambling Commission granted bodog.uk a gaming license. The site recently made the move to all anonymous tables, which resulted in its cash game traffic dipping 10% within a week, according to PokerScout, as players and software companies alike apparently did not take too fondly to the move.

In a statement posted on CalvinAyre.com on Wednesday, Bodog officials reached out to concerned players: “The Bodog brand is confident MMGG’s customer account information and funds will continue to remain safe and secure, as it has done since MMGG entered its original agreement with the Bodog Brand in 2006, and we would like to wish MMGG the greatest success in its new venture.”

Referencing the .lv extension on Bovada’s website, one poster on PocketFives indicated, “It’s just a top-level domain. It was .eu previously and before that, it was .com. It’s not indicative of anything, I don’t think.” Dot-lv corresponds to Latvia, leading one person to remark, “Is nobody else bothered by the .lv? Because I find Mohawk and Latvia, you know, like together, to be really tilting.”

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