Bodog ID and Passport Verification Guide

Which ID documents will Bodog actually accept?

Bodog keeps the list of accepted identity documents short. You need one government-issued item that carries your photo, your full name and your date of birth. For most Canadian players that means a passport or a provincial driver's licence, and either one satisfies the check on its own.

Here is what counts:

• Passport — the cleanest option. Photo, signature and machine-readable strip all sit on one page, so it tends to clear fastest.
• Driver's licence — a provincial or territorial licence works. Some reviews ask for both the front and the back, so shoot both sides.
• Provincial photo ID card — the non-driver card issued by your province is accepted where a licence would be.

Two things have to line up no matter which document you send. The name on it must match the name on your Bodog account letter for letter, and the document has to be valid, not expired. An expired passport is the single most common reason a first upload fails. Check the expiry date before you photograph anything.

What Bodog will not take: a student card, a work badge, a health card used as sole proof, or a photocopy so faint the details fade out. The account team reads security features that only appear on official government documents, and those features have to be visible in the image you send.

How do you photograph your ID so it passes?

A good photo is the whole game here. The review team is looking at a screen, not the physical card, so the file has to carry every detail they need. Lay the document flat on a plain, dark surface and shoot from directly above.

Follow these steps and most uploads clear on the first attempt:

1. Put the document on a solid single-colour surface. A wooden table or a dark cloth works. Avoid patterned backgrounds that blur the edges.
2. Use daylight or a bright room light, but keep the flash off. Flash bounces off the laminate and washes out the text.
3. Hold the phone parallel to the document so all four corners sit in frame. No angle, no tilt.
4. Fill the frame with the document, then leave a thin margin around it. Cropping into the edges gets it rejected.
5. Check the preview. Every field — name, date of birth, document number, expiry — should be sharp enough to read without squinting.
6. Save as JPG, PNG or PDF and keep the file under the size limit shown on the upload screen.

Colour is not optional. A black-and-white scan strips out the holograms and security marks the team checks, so a monochrome copy of a passport almost always bounces. If you are sending a driver's licence, photograph the front and the back as two separate files rather than trying to fit both into one shot.

One last tip. Take the photo, then open it full-size before you upload. If you have to zoom in to read your own birth date, the reviewer will too, and that is exactly the kind of file that gets sent back.

What mistakes get an ID photo rejected?

Most rejections come down to a handful of avoidable errors. None of them are complicated, but each one restarts that leg of the review and adds a day or two to your wait. Here are the ones that trip players up most often.

• Glare over the text. Flash or a ceiling light reflecting off the card surface hides the details underneath. Move to softer light and shoot again.
• A cut-off corner. A thumb over the edge or a crop that clips the border makes the document look tampered with. Show it whole.
• Blur. A rushed, shaky photo means the document number and expiry read as a smudge. Steady the phone or rest your elbows on the table.
• Name mismatch. A nickname on the account and a full legal name on the passport stalls the check. Fix your account details first if they do not match.
• Expired document. The team will not accept an ID past its valid-through date, no matter how clear the photo is.
• Black-and-white copy. Security features vanish in monochrome. Always send full colour.

There is a pattern to all of this. The reviewer needs to confirm you are a real person whose details match the account, and anything that hides a field or raises a question gets kicked back by default. When in doubt, send a cleaner photo rather than arguing the point over email. A fresh, well-lit shot resolves nearly every rejection in one go.

If a file does come back, read the reason before you re-upload. Bodog usually tells you which document failed and why, whether that is a mismatch, a blur, or an expired date. Fixing the exact issue the team flagged beats sending the same photo again and waiting another cycle. And if the details on your account are wrong rather than the photo, correct the account first, then upload. A photo that matches a corrected profile clears far quicker than a perfect image of the wrong name.

Passport, ID card or driving licence — which should you send?

All three are accepted, but they are not identical in how quickly they clear or what they demand of you. If you own more than one, this table helps you pick the fastest route.

The takeaway is simple. A passport is the least fuss because it is one page and self-contained. A licence or ID card asks for two shots and occasionally a clearer close-up of the back. Whichever you choose, remember that photo ID proves your identity, not your home address. That is a separate document. If Bodog also asks you to confirm where you live, our proof of address guide covers what qualifies and how recent it has to be.

Bodog ID verification — common questions answered