How we rate

Transparency is extremely important, and so we do our best to be as transparent as possible about how we conduct our reviews. 

This post explains how we review and elaborate on the why and how.

Over the years we have tested many casinos to write reviews for my customers. Reviewing and testing an online casino or sportsbook site is very time-consuming work.

I must confess that I have not personally tested and played at all the brands that I have written about on this website. This is because I’m not a UK resident hence I can’t create an account myself. Instead, besides my own experience, I also rely on publicly available information from other reputable sources.

What makes our reviews different from those you find at other (affiliate) casino websites is that we also focus on the companies behind the brands and their sustainability practices.

All the information comes either from publicly available sources or from our own thorough and verifiable research.

When we use information that comes from a non-public source, we verify the information and determine its credibility before using it. If for the sake of privacy or any other reason, we cannot disclose information, we will always explain why. 

Most of the information comes from:

• Annual (sustainability) reports 
• Public announcements (press releases, interviews)
• PR/marketing (social media, sponsoring, collaborations (charity/events)
• Our favourite online gambling websites

We do our best to write reviews that are both factual and unbiased. We do not seek to name and shame anyone, but neither do we avoid any topics or findings that we think are relevant. 

As we work to lead by example, all of our business decisions are aimed at achieving the sustainable development goals– and we base our review methodology on the same principles that we apply to ourself: the GRI and B Corp standards for sustainability reporting. 

What makes one casino “better” than the other?

We want to help you find not only the best sportsbook and casino websites to place your bets, but to do so in the most sustainable and ethical way possible so that you can place your bets in the most sustainable way possible.

We rate casinos in two ways and, based on the results, we came up with my “Better World Recommendation” ranking. 

Casino brand reviews

First, we conduct a regular casino review. This includes:

• The variety of games offered by a casino such as which game verticals and which game providers
• User account-related topics such as the creation and verification of accounts and payments 
• A casino’s reputation regarding business practices, security, privacy and customer service. 

Sustainability review

Second, we conduct a “Sustainability Reviews.” we look not only at typical “green” aspects of a brand such as environmental impact, but also their social responsibilities and governance. These three perspectives make up the ESG framework.

For example: a casino that offers a carbon-neutral website gets more points than one that does not.

Or another example: we give a higher rating to a casino that applies social policies that benefit not only their own employees, but all individuals directly and indirectly involved, than to a casino that fails to recognize such policies. It comes down to ethics.

These ethical policies are what B Corp and GRI standards are about.

Transparency is always the starting point for our review of a casino or sportsbook operator. We want to better understand their corporate priorities– whether or not they provide information free for all to see and that they are “putting their money where their mouth is”. 

The verdict

For the reviews we use a 5-Star scale.

• 1 – Very Bad – Stay Away!
• 2 – Bad – Are you sure you want to go here?
• 3 – Acceptable – we think you deserve better.
• 4 – Good – Nice choice! Go have fun!
• 5 – Excellent – This is all you can wish for!

We strive to update our reviews every 6 months, although, for the foreseeable future, we will probably not manage this due to the amount of work involved and the limited time and resources that are available.

Step by step

Creating these reviews using this methodology takes some time. The process is similar to that of conducting a GRI and B Corp audit. I am working whenever I have time available to complement the information in order to offer you all the details you might possibly consider.

We work towards these goals in 3 steps. 

Tier 1 review

These reviews, both casino and sportsbook reviews as operators’ sustainability and ESG reviews will consist of a short review with listing basic information such as:

• Licenses
• Product verticals e.g games and providers
• Payment methods and payouts
• Bonuses
• Customer service
• Player experience

We also create a short company profile with data such as:

• Company name, holdings, sister companies and brands, to get an idea of the size of the business
• Where the companies(s) is/are based, especially relevant with regards to where they pay their taxes
• If the company is privately owned or publicly traded. The latter implies that they need to publicly report annually on performance which already makes it more transparent.

Tier 2 review

During the second step, we go into more depth. The casino reviews will be updated with more detailed information. 

The Sustainability Review will look at the parent company (as they generally determine the policy for all their brands) and aims to answer 4 questions:

1. How transparent is the company?
2. Does it have an ESG strategy?
3. Has the company been sanctioned and/or faced controversies?
4. Does the company have any 3rd party rating? We specifically look at Glassdoor, CSRhub and awards won. With regards to Glassdoor, we only take into account the score if there is a significant amount of reviews.

All data is acquired through literature and research. We also use data from CSRhub.

When we have collected our data we accordingly give points as follows:

Transparency:

• 0 = no public data on company, nor owners, nor performance 
• 1 = owners are known but hardly anything else
• 2 = owners are known and company website gives some info on sustainability or ESG topics
• 3 = annual report, NO ESG report, 
• 4 = annual report & ESG report, NO reporting standard
• 5 = annual report, ESG report and GRI standard

ESG strategy

• 0 = not even any mention of ESG, sustainability or ethics
• 1 = no plan
• 2 = vague plan
• 3 = a plan with some formulated targets
• 4 = plan to net zero
• 5 = Science-based targets initiative(SBTi) with clear goals, UNSDG define, roadmap to net positive. NO offsetting 

Sanctions: anything related to AML, consumer protection & responsible gaming, ethical marketing 

• 0 = multiple offences / breaches on multiple categories 
• 1 = multiple offence
• 2 = only 1 offence
• 3 = no sanction in last year
• 4 = no sanctions in last 2 years
• 5 = no sanctions in last 3 years

3rd party ratings

• 0 = negative ratings, 0 awards
• 1 = neutral rating, 0 awards
• 2 = neutral rating, some awards or positive rating
• 3 = multiple positive ratings
• 4 = multiple positive rating and some awards 
• 5 = above average score on Glassdoor and CSRhub, multiple awards

Tier 3 review

Tier 3 includes empirical research that consists of interviewing and surveying various stakeholders. 

Part of this is the interviews and conversation that we have with key people in the industry in our podcast ‘the Gamble’.

Besides the knowledge we get from conversations with people in the industry, we also count on the visitors to the site and players to share their experiences with us. 

Improving our review framework

Reviewing and comparing ESG strategy and performance is not easy. Especially because there currently is no widely adopted reporting standard and companies differ in many ways such as do they operate online or landbased or both, or which types of products and services they offer (casino. sportsbook, bingo, poker, etc). Our current method is simplistic but over time, as we acquire more knowledge, experience and resources, we aim to improve our method and review framework. We also plan to establish partnerships and jointly develop an industry standard.

Beyond the operators

The online gambling industry, also known as the iGaming industry, consists of many stakeholders. Besides the casino and sportsbook operators, there are many more companies and organisations involved such as software providers, payment providers, licensing bodies, and regulatory institutions, as well as organisations performing audits, legal and financial services and more. 

In the future, we also want to review these stakeholders and review the sustainability and ethics of their business practices. The goal is to make online gambling more transparent and thereby help to make the transition to a sustainable global society. 

If you have any comments or questions regarding the reviews or anything else that you find on my website, we will be more than happy to hear from you. Please see my contact page for how you can reach me.