BetRivers ID and Passport Verification Guide

Choose a document the KYC team will actually accept

Start with a government-issued photo ID. BetRivers asks for one of a short, specific list, and picking the strongest one saves you a resubmission later.

Accepted primary documents include:

• Passport — the single most reliable choice. It carries a photo, full name, date of birth and a machine-readable zone, so reviewers rarely bounce it.
• Driver's licence — accepted when both the front and the back are legible. A provincial licence works fine for Canadian players.
• Provincial or national ID card — a photo identity card issued by a government body.

Whatever you upload has to be valid, not expired, and it must show the same name you registered with. If your account says "Michael" and your passport reads "Mike", expect a query. The KYC review at BetRivers typically clears in 24-48 hours, occasionally stretching to three business days when documents need a second look. Alongside photo ID, the team also asks for proof of address issued within the last 90 days, and sometimes confirmation of the payment method you used to deposit. That address document is a separate step covered in detail on our proof of address page.

Why so much scrutiny? The AGCO licence obliges BetRivers to run these checks under anti-money-laundering and player-protection rules. Confirming your identity, your age and the ownership of your funding method protects the account from takeover and keeps underage play off the platform. It is the same procedure a bank runs when you open an account, applied once to your profile. Verify once, and future withdrawals move without a repeat of the whole process.

A practical tip: complete verification early, right after you register, rather than waiting until you want to cash out. Documents sitting approved on your file mean nothing stands between a winning session and your bank account.

Photograph your ID so it clears the first time

Most rejections have nothing to do with fraud. They come down to a blurry corner or a thumb over the expiry date. A clean photo is half the battle, and it takes about a minute to get right.

Here is the sequence that works:

1. Lay the document flat on a dark, plain surface. A wooden table or a sheet of dark card kills glare and makes the edges pop.
2. Use daylight or soft room light. Avoid direct lamps and overhead spots that bounce off laminated cards.
3. Hold the camera parallel to the document, not at an angle. All four corners must sit inside the frame.
4. Check the crucial fields before you shoot: full name, date of birth, document number, expiry date and photo must all be sharp.
5. For a driver's licence, capture the front and the back as two separate images.
6. Zoom in on the preview. If you cannot read the small print, neither can the reviewer.

Send the original photo file. Screenshots compress the image and strip metadata, which is why they get flagged. Formats like JPG or PNG under a few megabytes upload cleanly through the account portal. Once submitted, you can track status in your account or ask live chat, which runs 24/7.

A steady hand matters more than an expensive camera. Prop your phone against a stack of books if you need to, so the lens sits still and square above the document. If your first shot shows the slightest reflection creeping across the hologram, move the card two inches and take another. Ten seconds now beats a full day of waiting on a rejected upload.

Compare passport, ID card and driving licence at a glance

Not every document carries the same weight. The table below shows how the three main options stack up, so you can decide which to reach for.

A passport verifies who you are but never your address, so plan on a utility bill or bank statement to cover that half of the check. A driver's licence sometimes lists an address, though the review team may still ask for a dated document within the last 90 days. When in doubt, a passport plus a recent bank statement is the cleanest pairing.

Avoid the ID photo mistakes that trigger a rejection

Rejections cost time, not money. Knowing the usual culprits lets you sidestep them before you hit upload.

These are the errors reviewers see most:

• Cropped edges. A corner cut off by the frame invalidates the whole image. Reviewers need the complete border.
• Glare across the photo or hologram. Reflective laminate hides the very details being checked.
• Fingers over the text. Covering the expiry date or document number forces a resubmission.
• Expired documents. An out-of-date passport or licence is treated as no ID at all.
• Name mismatch. The name on the document must match your BetRivers account and, importantly, your deposit method.
• Only one side of a two-sided card. Send both the front and the back for licences and ID cards.
• Editing or filters. Any retouching, even auto-enhance, can read as tampering. Submit the raw file.

One more point worth flagging: the payment method matters. BetRivers checks that the card or account you deposited with belongs to you, which is why the name on your ID and the name on your funding source have to line up. If a check comes back declined, our page on verification rejected reasons breaks down each cause and the fix. You can review deposit and payout options anytime under all payment methods, and if you are still setting up your account, the 200% deposit bonus carries its own C$750 + 200 FS welcome offer worth reading before your first deposit.

Verification FAQ