We found that tons of casino review sites out there score and rate iGaming websites in various ways. This can be pretty confusing for a player or even frustrating. So we've came up with the idea to create an objective and transparent classification (methodology) that reviewers can adhere to in order to present an unbiased assessment (if properly utilized).
Casino Classification Components
Casino classification rates brands' performance as Outstanding, Very good, Good, Medium, Mediocre and Poor based on the Aggregate Score earned by 5 components on a 100 point-scale.
Casino classification by compound score legend:
- 50 or less is poor
- 51 to 60 is mediocre
- 61 to 70 is medium
- 71 to 80 is good
- 81 to 90 is very good
- 91 to 100 is outstanding
5 components to Casino Classification:
- Licensing & Trustworthiness
- Welcome bonus
- Casino games
- Casino Banking
- Players Engagement
Each classification component has several factors, each of them are assessed separately on a 100 points scale, total score by component being an average of all factors.
Factors to Casino Classification, by component
Licensing & Trustworthiness
- License power
- Complaints and Dispute Resolution Procedure
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Body Power
- Responsible Gaming Policy
Welcome bonus
- Estimated bonus value to player
- Bonus wagering terms
- Free Spins availability
- Bonus Terms & Conditions
Casino games
- Software suppliers
- Composition of the lobby
- Number of casino games
Casino Banking
- Deposits and Withdrawals methods
- Deposits and Withdrawals Terms & Conditions
Players Engagement
- Visits to New Deposits
- Registrations to New Deposits
Aggregate score is a numeric average of scores by all 5 components.
Why these components exactly?
Licensing & Trustworthiness
A notion of online casino 'Trust', 'Safety' or being 'legit' has always been in th focus of players' attention.
We assess Trustworthiness using 4 factors:
- the power of casino License (licensor);
- the breakdown of internal regulations and the Complaints and Dispute Resolution procedures of (if such arise);
- availability of an Alternative Dispute Resolution body and its reputation (if the alternative dispute resolution body is specified);
- the breakdown of Responsible Gaming Policy as it relates to the level of protection available to players.
Apart from the factors above, we seek to expand the list of issues we consider. One of possible developements we may introduce in the future is casino RTP audit by specialized agencies. If this or other factors are added, all scores will be re-calculated.
Welcome bonus
Welcome bonus may significantly affect players intention to engage with a casino. Assessment of all aspects to a casino's sign-up offer is vital as the full bonus information is not always available in one place, not to mention it is not always clear.
Note: we only assess 1st deposit bonus. If the casino brand has multi-tier welcome package, we stick to the first deposit bonus review, overall attractiveness of casino promotion is addressed inter alia by Players Engagement component (see below).
Our assessors evaluate Welcome bonus using 4 factors:
- the value of a sign-up bonus offer as a percentage of free money to a min deposit. It may include a match deposit bonus as well as free money / free spins: for the sake of calculation where free spins are involved, we take them for a value of a minimal bet per spin;
- the Bonus wagering requirements;
- the Free Spins availability;
- the overall Bonus Terms & Conditions including the list of games restricted from play when wagering, deposit methods restrictions, etc.
Casino games
Our assessors evaluate the spectrum of online slots and other casino games by the following criteria:
- Software suppliers: number of software providers as well as availability of some of the most popular of them;
- Composition of the lobby: comfort of use of lobby, availability of demo play modes without registration as well as disclosure of games settings and chances;
- Overall Number of casino games: self evident.
Casino Banking
The assessors check and score the banking aspects of online casino with a focus to:
- Deposits and Withdrawals methods: number of payment providers and their adequacy to Ireland;
- Deposits and Withdrawals Terms & Conditions: minimum amount of deposit and withdrawal; withdrawal limit per a period of time; withdrawal pending time.
Players Engagement
Players engagement is a 5th and the newest component to our classification. It is intended to cover the limitations of assessing the welcome bonus (solely) on a casino's overall performance. Fair enough, welcome bonus is only a part of numerous promotions that casinos run daily. Yet, in most cases we are unable to track and analyze the ever-changing corpus of promotions and incentives that casinos use. To that end, we introduce Players Engagement component that is calculated automatically on the basis of our data from casino affiliate software. It operates two factors:
- Visits to New Deposits ratio, and
- Registrations to New Deposits.
The best performing casino brand gets 100 points, second one -- 99 and so on. Players Engagement score is calculated as a an average of the scores of these 2 factors.