Hedging = Cheating?

Got this response from a supervisor and am pretty shocked, hedging or a middling a wager is one of the most common strategies in sports wagering but on bovada it is considered fraud

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Wow. How in the world???

This is crazy. Unfortunately I’ve seen this in other threads as well. Can a mod chime in here – if we hedge a bet, does Bovada have the right to withhold winnings and limit our account??

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They 100% consider hedging cheating and have said so on multiple occasions

Which of course is preposterous as hedging is legitimate strategy

But there’s no need for a mod to chime in as this has been broached here enough to already state the sites perspective

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I feel like ive seen a mod say hedging is fine EXCEPT when using bonus funds to try to beat rollover. I could be wrong…

For clarity this was in response to an issue of a suspended match not opening after its resumption so that I could hedge, no bonuses or rollovers involved. Got any insights @Mikey_Bovada ?

This would be our terms about betting integrity:

6.10 Integrity of Sport. We are committed to ensuring the integrity of sport and to participating in efforts to identify and eradicate match fixing. As such, notwithstanding any other term of this Agreement, or any provision of the applicable Privacy Policy, by placing a bet or wager on the Website, you expressly acknowledge and agree that we at all times reserve the right in our sole discretion to report Irregular Betting Activity to such sports federations, regulators, agencies, commissions or associations (or their respective agents) as we deem appropriate (“Regulatory Bodies”) in order to enable identification of irregular activity and to support appropriate investigations. “Irregular Betting Activity” means activity that, in our sole assessment, deviates from expected betting patterns and includes, without limitation: (i) an unusual and significant number of bets originating from the same geographic region or through linked accounts; (ii) a bettor continuing to place bets at any price in the face of a steady reduction in the applicable odds; and/or (iii) any other indicator or pattern assessed by us as indicative of potential match fixing. We shall use reasonable commercial measures to ensure that any information provided to Regulatory Bodies pursuant to this provision is subject to reasonable contractual non-disclosure provisions and that all information or documentation shall be destroyed by such Regulatory Bodies when it is no longer relevant in connection with any ongoing investigation, inquiry or disciplinary process.

Nice legalese, really helps explain this misconception!

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how does what you copy and pasted have anything to do with hedging a bet? Do you misunderstand what hedging a bet is? Maybe someone with some sports betting knowledge on the staff could explain if hedging is allowed or not on bovada and if not why not because its very common place in any casino or book in the world.

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You should know by now Scamvada will never give you any sort of edge

Mikey

Lets clear the muddy water here and get straight to a transparent answer on this once and for all.

If i have a 3 leg parlay . I win the first 2 . I decide to play the other side of the 3rd leg you/ Bovoda is calling that cheating???

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My take on this is whenever you want to hedge, you should use an account on another betting site to accomplish this. Bovada appears inadvertently to be encouraging you to do this. Any bet they offer you at any time should be totally available to you, but if they don’t want you to place a hedge bet, then fine, deny them the business and use another site. You might discover that the other site doesn’t have a problem with hedges at all, and in that case Bovada might lose 100% of your business.

As is often the case, Bovada management seems intent on driving customers away with their business practices. So my advice is don’t try to fight them; they’re not regulated in any way and can impose their will on you whenever they choose, fair or unfair. So once you learn that the possibility exists of them weaseling out of paying you for your bet, don’t give them the opportunity. Hedge elsewhere. That requires at least one additional account at another site, but that’s a good idea anyway.

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I’ve never heard that hedging a bet was illegal?

Doesn’t the house hedge the bet they are taking by offering an early cashout?

That’s a form of hedging to either take profits or lower a loss. The house is doing the same thing.

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2023 should have better options but for whatever reason, most of us are still here

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EXACTLY!! 100% agreed here.

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I asked this question recently as it refers to bonus funds according to the T&C’s. Here is the link to that post:

I 100% agree that hedging to limit your potential loss should not be illegal and subject to account being penalized. When I asked Paul if hedging could be used outside of bonus funds, he mentioned that he believes it is only related to bonus funds.

But then again, I could see Bovada still punishing you for wanting to limit your losses… because how dare you try to properly manage your bankroll lol! Shame on us.

In my experience, Paul knows his sports pretty well and should be chiming in here to add his thoughts.

@Paul_Bovada, can you provide your thoughts on the scenario @MarkyMark1970 listed regarding hedging the last bet of a parlay? @freaksforum also makes a great point where the house also hedges their liability by offering a cash out, say… in this same scenario of a last leg remaining and the house offering a cash out. This would be the same thing as a player betting the other side of the final leg to hedge the entire parlay if a cash out would not have been offered.

I think we just all need a bit of clarity here. Thanks!

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Lol this is funny. I agree that this copy and paste did not address the OP’s concern at all :rofl:

Here I was thinking I was getting special treatment when I recently got a “bonus abuse” message to mark 13 years on the site.

You guys are probably reacting like:

As far as I’m personally concerned, hedging is no different to taking a cashout if it’s available.
I can’t recall an instance when a player had his account closed for hedging.
I think the issue would generally be if you were reverse betting in order to complete bonus rollover,
in other words betting on both sides of a line.
I’m not sure if the TOS state differently, and if so, then obviously that is what you need to go with.

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