The Weighting
Every bookmaker on this site is scored against five weighted criteria. The weights are published because a ranking whose method is secret is a ranking you cannot check.
- Pricing and margin, 30 per cent. We calculate the implied margin on a standard three way football market and a competitive handicap and compare it against a British benchmark. This carries the heaviest weight because margin is the only cost a punter pays on every single bet.
- Market and racing coverage, 25 per cent. Depth of markets inside a football fixture, and a seven course South East racing test run on an ordinary midweek card rather than during a festival.
- Payout speed and terms, 20 per cent. Time from withdrawal request to spendable money per method, the length of the reversible pending window, and any published withdrawal caps.
- Welcome terms as actually clearable, 15 per cent. Wagering multiple, minimum odds, maximum stake while a bonus is active and product weighting. Scored on the arithmetic, not the headline.
- Licensing and conduct, 10 per cent. A named and verifiable licence, stated ownership, terms that disclose limits, and whether support answers a hard question before a deposit is made.
How We Test
We open a real account, deposit a real balance and request a real withdrawal. Prices are recorded against a benchmark at the same moment rather than at different times of day, because a market moves and a comparison taken an hour apart is not a comparison.
Racing coverage is checked on a midweek afternoon. Any book can price up the Derby, and testing only festivals would tell a reader nothing about the other fifty weeks of the year.
Bonus terms are read in full and the turnover requirement is worked out in pounds rather than repeated as a multiple. Figures are dated on the page, and this market changes terms without notice.
Independence
Some outbound links to bookmakers are commercial and may earn us a commission. That relationship has no bearing on position or score. We rank books we earn nothing from above books we do when the testing says so, and the scoring weights above are applied identically to every operator.
None of the operators covered on this site has any editorial input, sees a review before publication, or can request a change to a score. We do not publish operator supplied copy.
We also do not claim that any bookmaker outside UK Gambling Commission regulation is "safe". They are licensed elsewhere, the protections are different, and we describe that difference plainly rather than softening it.