Successful bet funding has always been one of the chief hurdles for American gamblers who play at legitimate online casinos.
Despite these real-money betting sites being legal and safe to use, gambling laws like the UIGEA sometimes make traditional banking deposits a real headache.
While it doesn’t happen often, debit or credit card casino deposits can be declined by automated banking restrictions. To get around that, the best Internet casinos are always on the lookout for useful, reliable alternatives.
Bovada MatchPay – which launched just a couple of weeks ago – is the latest such forward-thinking move from America’s favorite betting site, and it’s arguably the most revolutionary casino banking method since online gambling sites started accepting Bitcoin several years ago.
To be clear, MatchPay is not a Bovada product – Bovada is simply the first reputable gambling operator to directly employ the trading platform.
So what exactly is MatchPay?
MatchPay is a third-party service that allows members of retail merchant sites – including legal online casinos – to buy and sell eligible account balances from and to other site members via a number of popular instant-pay person-to-person services:
- PayPal
- Venmo
- Cash App
- Zelle
With the exception of Zelle, USA players have never before been able to fund their accounts with these services.
This makes MatchPay a first-of-its-kind offering that expands the options for all online gamblers looking for fast, safe, easy, and fee-free ways to get their accounts topped off ASAP.
Note: In the case of Zelle, Bovada and its sister sites (Café Casino, Slots LV, and Ignition Casino) have long supported the service through plug-ins on their Cashier pages. However, Zelle is open to members of all legit online casinos via the Zelle-to-BTC exchange process at LocalBitcoins.com, though MatchPay’s Zelle implementation is very different.
MatchPay is a true gamechanger because of its support for the above payment methods, much the same way that QuickBit’s QB Direct service has changed the game for members of the sites that support that platform (i.e. Roaring 21, Casino Max, and Cherry Jackpot).
However, while QB Direct offers gamblers a fast, simple way to deposit with Litecoin without first going through the time-consuming rigmarole of buying cryptocurrency, MatchPay is not a crypto exchange. MatchPay transfers exclusively support fiat currencies.
This means that when you use MatchPay to fund your Bovada Casino account, you aren’t going to be eligible for the enhanced Bitcoin gambling bonuses or other crypto bonuses on offer, though standard casino bonuses are still in play.
Of course, that’s a small price to pay for being able to finally make online gambling deposits with PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle.
And like Bitcoin/crypto deposits, MatchPay allows for same-day payouts!
Previously, same-day payouts were the exclusive domain of crypto at the best online casinos, but MatchPay lets you sell some or all of your account balance to fellow members, any time.
That said, this is an automated process, so you won’t always be able to claim same-day withdrawals via MatchPay, but it is an option.
Other withdrawal methods take 2-5 days on average, so for many players who don’t exclusively gamble with crypto, MatchPay withdrawals are a positive boon.
Right now, Bovada Casino is the only trusted online betting site that supports the new MatchPay service, but more are sure to come on board in the near future. And when they do, the process for how to use MatchPay to fund your online gambling account will likely be identical to Bovada’s current implementation.
Here’s how MatchPay works:
- If you aren’t already a member, sign up at Bovada by checking out our 2020 Bovada Casino review and following the included links.
- During the sign-up process, be sure to enter your real credentials, including your full name, email address, and telephone number. Then, choose a username and password for your account.
- Once you’re at the casino deposit screen, select the MatchPay option. Existing members can skip steps one and two and choose MatchPay from the Bovada Cashier page directly.
- Here, you will be redirected to MatchPay’s site, where you must sign up to become a MatchPay Trader. (You can also do this from outside Bovada’s plug-in by going to the MatchPay.app website.)
- Enter your name, phone number, email address, a username, and a password.
- MatchPay will send you two codes: one to your phone and one to your email. You must verify your MatchPay account using these codes per the instructions provided.
- Once verified, you are now a MatchPay Trader, and you simply enter the amount of money you wish to deposit at Bovada. MatchPay will automatically find you a Bovada member that is also a MatchPay Trader, with whom you can make arrangements to transfer funds.
- Using PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle, just send the amount of money requested via these services to the Bovada MatchPay seller, who will release their balance into your Bovada betting account.
After this process completes, you are now ready to gamble!
While MatchPay is secure and backed by both the company’s guarantee and Bovada’s terms of service, it isn’t perfect. That is, it still constitutes an extra step. But that’s because there simply aren’t any online PayPal casinos, Venmo casinos, Cash App casinos, or casinos that accept Zelle directly.
However, MatchPay is absolutely the closest that USA online casino players are likely to get to being able to use these popular peer-to-peer payment platforms when funding their legal offshore gambling accounts, and that’s a very good thing.
Typically, the MatchPay process takes about 20 minutes start to finish, at least for deposits. Because of the pairing technology used by the service to match buyers and sellers, employing MatchPay as a seller can take a bit longer.
Still, same-day payouts are very much a possibility with MatchPay, and as with deposits, there are no added fees for selling through the service.
All in all, we’re very excited about MatchPay, and you should be too.
With Bitcoin support, QB Direct support, and now MatchPay support, the best online casinos just got even better!