Online poker and gambling site Bodog is no longer operating in the United States market and has rebranded as Bovada for Americans while its Bodog name will still remain the same for the rest of the world.

The new site especially built for the US players, Bovada.lv, has been launched on Dec. 14, at 11 a.m. EST. The website has the feel of a Las Vegas experience.

According to the latest poker news, it is only the name which has changed while the service will stay practically the same with the exception of a few tweaks. Therefore, in future when US players try to access the original Bodog site they will automatically be re-directed to the new Bovada.lv address, instead. Bovada.lv is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which operates out of Canada.

The decision for Bodog to leave the U.S. market was actually announced earlier this year. Morris Mohawk Gaming Groups, the licensee for Bodog in the United States since 2006, made the announcement in July that after 2012 the Bodog name would no longer be available. The MMGG will continue to operate the new site Bovada.lv, and offer a range of online gambling services, including online poker, horse racing, online casino and sports betting. The MMGG owns both the international Bodog operation and the Bovada.lv site.

This is the fourth time Bodog has decided to change its name, primarily as a result of the USA’s negative stance on online gambling and the DoJ’s authority to seize dot com domain names. The company’s past names have included newbodog.com, bodoglife.com, Bodog.com, and more recently Bodog.eu and now Bovada.lv, putting them out of reach of the DoJ. According to the latest news, the latest move will help satisfy the concerns of online gambling licensed countries where the Bodog brand operates, who may not have wanted to be associated with a brand name opposing the US government’s ban.