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Abstract Aims Few investigations have been conducted to identify genetic determinants of common, polygenetic forms of heart failure (HF), and only a limited number of these genetic associations have been validated by multiple groups. Methods and results We performed a case–control study to further investigate the potential impact of 14 previously reported candidate genes on the risk of HF and specific HF sub‐types. We also performed an exploratory genome‐wide study. We included 799 patients with HF and 1529 controls. After adjusting for age, sex, and genetic ancestry, we found that the C allele of rs2234962 in BAG3 was associated with a decreased risk of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (odds ratio 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.25–0.68, P = 0.0005), consistent with a previous report. No association for the other primary variants or exploratory genome‐wide study was found. Conclusions Our findings provide independent replication for the association between a common coding variant (rs2234962) in BAG3 and the risk of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.