Most casino affiliate sites publish a number out of ten and no explanation of where it came from. That number is often just the running order of who pays the most. We think a score you cannot audit is worthless, so this page publishes the entire rubric: what each component measures, what it is worth, and what a high or low mark actually means.

If you disagree with a score after reading this page, you will at least be able to say exactly which component you think we got wrong. That is the point.

The 100-point rubric #

The six components and their weights are fixed. We do not adjust weightings per operator, and we do not add a “special mention” component to lift a favourite.

Licensing and safety — 25 points

The largest single component, because everything else is irrelevant if the operator is not accountable to a regulator. We check the operator’s licence against the Gambling Commission’s public register of gambling businesses and record the account number and the licensed company name on the review. Those two things are often different from the brand on the website, and the licensed company is who you would actually be in dispute with.

An operator with no verifiable Gambling Commission licence scores zero here and is not listed at all. We do not review operators licensed only outside Great Britain for a British audience, because the consumer protections that make the rest of this rubric meaningful — mandatory dispute resolution, GAMSTOP integration, deposit limit tooling — do not apply.

Bonus fairness — 20 points

This is where players actually get hurt, and it is the section most affiliate sites skip. A headline bonus figure tells you almost nothing. The terms underneath it tell you everything, so we read them and quote them.

We look for five things: the wagering multiplier and whether it applies to the bonus alone or to deposit plus bonus; the maximum stake permitted while wagering; the expiry window; any cap on what you can withdraw from bonus winnings; and whether game weighting is stated clearly. An operator loses points for a high multiplier, and loses more for burying a low max-bet rule that voids winnings if you breach it by a pound.

Withdrawals — 20 points

We separate what an operator advertises from what its terms permit. A site advertising “withdrawals within 24 hours” whose terms reserve up to five working days is scored on the five days, because that is the promise that is enforceable. We also look at whether identity verification is requested at signup or only when you first try to withdraw. The second pattern is legal but it delays payouts at the worst moment.

Game library — 15 points

Provider count matters less than provider quality and whether demo play is available without depositing. Live dealer availability is counted, but a large library of near-identical slots does not lift this score much.

Support — 10 points

Channels offered, hours covered, and response time when we actually contact them with a real question about bonus terms. We record what we asked and how long the reply took.

Site experience — 10 points

Mobile usability and load speed, and specifically whether deposit limits, loss limits, reality checks, session timers and self-exclusion are easy to find inside the account. An operator that buries its safer-gambling tools three menus deep loses points here regardless of how polished the rest of the site is.

How we test #

1. Verify the licence. Look the operator up on the Gambling Commission public register, record the account number, the licensed company name and the status.
2. Read the terms in full. Not the promotional page — the terms and conditions attached to the offer. Record the wagering multiplier, what it applies to, max bet while wagering, expiry, withdrawal cap and game weighting.
3. Compare stated withdrawal times against the terms. Where they disagree, the terms win.
4. Contact support with a specific question about the bonus terms and record the response time and whether the answer was correct.
5. Check the account tooling for deposit limits, loss limits, reality checks, time-outs and self-exclusion.
6. Score each component against the rubric above and write the review, including the mandatory “Where it falls short” section.
7. Date-stamp it. Every review carries the date its terms were last checked.

When we cannot verify something #

If a figure cannot be confirmed against a primary source, we print “Not stated by operator” rather than an estimate, and the missing value costs the operator points under bonus fairness or withdrawals. We would rather show you a gap than fill it with a plausible-looking number, because a wrong wagering multiplier in a comparison table is exactly the kind of error that leaves someone with a balance they cannot withdraw.

This applies to us as much as to them. Where a review has an incomplete terms table, that is a statement about what the operator publishes and about what we have been able to confirm — not padding.

Commercial relationships and where scores come from #

We earn commission when a reader opens an account through some of our links. That relationship is disclosed on every page and explained in full in our affiliate disclosure.

The rubric is applied and the score is recorded before commercial terms are discussed with an operator. A better commission rate does not move a score, does not move a position in a toplist, and does not remove a criticism. If an operator asks us to soften a review as a condition of a deal, the answer is no and we will say so on the review.

Where a listing is a paid placement, it is labelled as a paid placement on the listing itself, not only in a policy page you would have to go looking for.

What gets an operator delisted #

Some things are not a scoring matter. An operator is removed from the site entirely if:

• its Gambling Commission licence lapses, is suspended or is revoked;
• it refuses withdrawals to verified accounts without a lawful basis, or uses identity checks as a delaying tactic;
• it markets to people who have self-excluded, or to under-18s;
• it changes bonus terms retrospectively on offers players have already opted into;
• it makes continued listing conditional on a better score.

Delisting is recorded on our corrections page with the reason, rather than the review quietly disappearing.

Reviewing our own reviews #

Bonus terms change frequently, so a review is a snapshot. Each one shows the date its terms were last checked, and we re-check listed operators on a rolling basis. If you find a figure on this site that no longer matches the operator’s live terms, tell us and we will correct it and log the correction.