How We Review Online Betting Sites - Detailed Explanation

Our sports betting review section is determined to be one of our four essential pillars in our business goal of BetMentor: Reviews, Bonuses, Guides, News. Our ultimate mission is to link our players to all brands in the sports betting industry and give an instant access solution for the question “Should I Deposit Into This Betting Site?”. We help users think like experts in just about any topic in the world of gambling. We will always be honest with our users and tell them the truth. If we think a brand is excellent, we'll tell users so. If it's not, we'll tell users that, too.

This article will detail our process of evaluating a sportsbook. In addition, it will help you better understand why we rate some betting sites higher than others. 

Stay with us, and you can make more intelligent, better, faster, and more informed decisions when choosing a betting site to play.

The Highlight of Our Review 

Our reviews discuss a different perspective than most reviews available on the internet. They are not significantly influenced by the betting site’s subjective factors such as website usability, game selections, promotions, and several other relevant aspects. Instead, we focus on what we consider the most important and the most impactful to a player's experience at a sportsbook, which is its solvency. 

Our solvency rating essentially describes how operators pay their players and how likely players are to withdraw their winnings without any obstacles, which are a fairly common problem for non-transparent sportsbooks with unfair rules or hidden terms or give various excuses to evade paying their players. 

As a result, betting sites that take an honest and transparent approach to payouts often have high ratings from our review team, while those that operate with the intent to trap users, of course, will be subject to more negative reviews. 

Factors Affecting Our Betting Site Ratings

As mentioned, the factors of promotions, navigability, odds, available markets, etc., are just secondary aspects when we look at a particular bookie. Below, we will elaborate on the critical factors including Estimated Revenue, Brand Monitor, Withdrawal Speed, and Responsible Gaming that our experts will consider before making any assessment.

Sports Betting Site's Estimated Revenue

Revenue is an important factor affecting the rating of a betting site. If the operators guarantee a large or steady turnover, these betting sites will be safe to bet as they will have no trouble paying out the big wins.

In contrast, bookmakers with low or unstable turnover will not be suitable for "big players," always ready to bet with large amounts of money. Of course, it's possible that the operators don't intend to commit debt evasion at first, but their cash flow may not be able to cover the big wins, forcing payouts to take a long time or possibly not be paid. That’s why we often deduct our rating points from those small revenue betting sites. 

Let's talk about how we get the data about sports betting revenues. To be honest,  it's not always easy to collect revenue data since not all companies proclaim their annual revenue reports. For example, it is easy to find out the revenue of Bet365 or Unibet as they are major sportsbook providers that have made their financial information public. Meanwhile, for most smaller betting sites, this information is not available.

Therefore, we had to use a fine-tuned internal formula to estimate revenue using the number of visitors (estimated by multiple methods) and the location of the visitors (since players from different countries have different betting habits). As a result, we can estimate the revenue of each platform, although not very accurate, but still enough to give an overview of the financial position of a particular betting site. 

Note: It’s worth noting that we only calculate estimated revenue for the last three years, which we think will be fairer for established brands. We designed it this way because betting sites open longer are generally safer. Meanwhile, for new betting sites, we will rate them as "Fresh Betting Sites." After three years, we will come back to update and give reviews on them. As is known, betting platforms launched less than three years old will be too early to accurately assess how they treat players.

Brand Monitor

Our referral monitoring tool collects mentions (in real-time) to the bookie from social networks, forums, newspapers, or review sites. For brand-impact comments, our review team scrutinizes and categorizes them before we decide to change the rating.

Note: It is too early to confirm the brand for the new betting sites because they have just launched. Hence, to be on the safe side, we will lower such sportsbook ratings until they develop or their quality becomes apparent.

How We Handled Complaints from Players?

We use the tool to filter and prioritize complaints related to payment methods and deposit or withdrawal speeds. These complaints are all carefully filtered and evaluated before ranking.

Note: Negative comments do not mean that the betting platform is a scam. Sometimes the disparaging words from some players are unwarranted, even if the sportsbook has done nothing unfair to them. That's why we review each review and report on online forums before deciding how much to affect (or not affect) a bookie's rating.

Moreover, we will review the reports and determine how the bookmakers have responded to and handled those complaints. If the allegations are not clearly addressed, we will promptly rank these betting platforms on the list of bookmakers with a bad reputation.

In addition, the speed of complaint resolution also reflects the operator's responsibility. Therefore, we will not hesitate to give a particular bookie a good rating when resolving complaints quickly, even if it is a serious matter.

We will also always consider every aspect from both sides. Therefore, the evaluations will not be based on feelings but always look at what the betting sites have done and their responsibility to the players.

Withdrawal Speed

Usually, most betting sites always say that the withdrawal process taking place at the platform is always quick and easy. However, the reality is not always like that.

According to the survey, 95% of players' feedback is pessimistic about the bookie delay in payment. Therefore, our tool collects payment feedback and, based on qualities, rates the sportsbooks' withdrawal speed. In addition, the betting sites rated "Fast Withdrawal" are platforms that we have spent money to verify.

Responsible Gaming

As always, responsible betting is our focus. That's why we strive to help gamblers get the most out of their leisure time by providing reminders to spot potential signs of gambling behavior.

Gambling addiction is never acceptable. Therefore, if you have any of the following signs, you should stop and reconsider your playing behavior:

Spend too much time playing: It's best to discipline yourself by setting a fixed time frame. You should only spend 1-2 hours/day on games of chance, not wholeheartedly for it;

Play more than what you have: Many players tend to play more than their initial budget. For example, you initially spend $100 to bet, the more you play, the deeper you sink, and you are willing to pay a larger amount;

Borrow money to continue betting: This is one of the reasons why the UKGC has issued a ban on the use of credit cards. Many bettors, after losing most of their assets, still try to borrow money to gamble, which can lead to a nasty debt trap;

Betting is becoming more critical than spending time with family and friends: Once addicted to gambling, players will not know when to stop and will spend most of their time betting. This will greatly affect the surrounding relationships;

Raise the stakes to get the excitement: This is one of the worrisome signs you need to look out for. Usually, players who lose will try to bet higher to debug lousy luck.

Above are a few severe signs that you need to be aware of. They are more severe than you think, so it is best to know when to stop.

To help these signs not develop and become ingrained in your mind, a reputable betting site will offer some measures such as:

Direct Link to Help Organization(s): This is a common form of partnership between betting platforms and organizations like Be Gamble Aware, GamCare, Gambling Commission, etc., to support players' gambling addiction;

Financial Limitations: You can install this mode directly or contact the support team. Limit your money will keep you from going over your budget and will automatically pause when you reach the limit;

Online Transaction History: Most betting platforms allow you to check your deposit history, which will help you calculate how much you spend to know the stop;

Self-Assessment: You can answer quizzes related to your gambling behavior, this will help organizations assess your gambling addiction signs, and you will receive advice or ways to handle;

Suspension Period: You can take a break from gambling and can spend time on your affairs;

Self-exclusion: If you can't control your behavior, you can quit gambling and focus on life;

Reality Check Reminder: This tool will help you remind yourself of the risks you face and stop if you have exceeded your limit.

How We Keep Our Reviews Up To Date

To ensure that the betting site data we provide is as accurate as possible, based on our liability statement, we must periodically go back to the bookmakers that we have reviewed and redo the whole process again to make sure our reviews are up to date. 

Honestly, it's not an easy task. Because we have thousands of sportsbooks needs updating every day. Therefore, to optimize our work efficiency, we will classify the sports betting sites we evaluate into specialized groups based on their rating score. 

When a player accesses our website, the list of top recommended sportsbooks will be introduced first. This list brings together the top ten betting sites with the highest solvency ratings and transparency. We understand that this list has the most direct influence on players' betting decisions. Therefore we prioritize updating this list to ensure all information is up to date.  

On the other hand, the list of low-ranked betting sites will also be updated but not that often like the top list. An immediate lift from the bad betting site list to a very good and recommended betting site list will not be likely to happen. However, there are chances that we might consider changing its rating gradually, such as a positive change in terms of its reputation or positive comments from players. Of course, we are never in a hurry to make quick decisions to avoid making false recommendations to our bettors.

The last group is the newly established betting sites. Because of their late entry into the online gambling market, we have not evaluated them most objectively based on the lack of accurate and censored information. Using our internal formula, we will be informed as soon as the sportsbook passes through their first 3-year test. After the given period of time, we will classify them into a reasonable group in our rating scale. 

Finally, we always welcome comments or suggestions from visitors about a specific bookmaker. That also helps us perfect our reviews with a more objective eye, adds user-friendliness to those reviews, and keeps our database as up-to-date as possible.

Why A Betting Site Can Have A Rating Downgrade after Being Reviewed

We realize that not all bookmakers guarantee fairness for many consecutive years. In a word, sometimes the rules will be amended, and then, they can cause unfairness to players even without these signs before. For example, once a sportsbook has changed the following T&Cs, we will downgrade its reputation:

High withdrawal fees: Usually, players will pay fees to transaction processors instead of operators. Therefore, when we detect that bookmakers have signs of charging extra withdrawal fees or offering high costs, we will issue a warning;

High monthly management fees: Reputable betting platforms will often deduct management fees (usually $5) for accounts that have been inactive for 12 consecutive months. Conversely, when operators try to remove the entire balance or charge high fees for accounts that are inactive for 180 days, they will be detrimental to the players;

High deposit limits: An ideal betting platform will have a minimum deposit of $5 - $10. Therefore, once we detect sports sites with higher top-up limits than usual, they will affect the rankings;

Low maximum withdrawal limits: Many betting sites have extremely low withdrawal limits, resulting in gamblers waiting months or even years before receiving their total winnings. We will then give the platform a bad reputation rating if it has a low max withdrawal limit than we consider fair;

Limit jackpot winnings: Regardless of why a sports site offers jackpot-winning limits, they are unfair to the player. However, we will still be lenient if the limits are set high enough. Conversely, if the limit is too low, we will reduce the platform's reputation rating;

Prohibit specific betting strategies when playing with bonuses: Some betting sites purposely ban players from playing more than a certain amount with bonus funds. For example, despite offering bonuses of up to $100, sports sites often limit the maximum bet to $5 each time to prevent players from using all their winnings;

Players are not allowed to withdraw the total amount from the account: When the platforms do not allow gamblers to withdraw the full balance, we will consider these rules extremely unfair. At this time, the ranking points of the betting site will be affected.

Also, suppose players submit complaints through our social channels, forums, and customer care system about transaction problems at the house. At this point, we'll start taking action by finding the root cause, then see if there's a solution from the operator. Finally, if there is a good reason or a technical error, the site's reputation rating will not be affected.

Furthermore, you certainly don't want to bet at a site with unprofessional or unhelpful staff. As a result, when betting sites are rated highly in every way, but the quality of support is not guaranteed, we will warn players, and at this point, their ratings will be affected.

Note: We will review each case separately as sometimes betting platforms have specific reasons to offer unfair T&Cs. For example, winning limits due to low turnover, high withdrawal fees to combat money laundering, etc. Therefore, when facing these cases, we will contact the operator to ensure we don't miss any good cause before doing anything unfair to their betting platform.

Why A Betting Site Can Get An Increase in Rating after Being Reviewed

Of course, besides lowering the reputation score for a betting site, sometimes there will be cases of increasing the score. Specifically, after giving low reputation ratings to a particular betting platform, we will definitely come back to see its performance to gauge if it has made any effort during operation.

If the bookie then receives positive reviews for the improvement effort or upgraded support service, we will certainly now consider increasing its rating score.

In addition, we've always appreciated organizations that support players with gambling addiction, so once the operator has land-based offices and works with organizations that fight gambling addiction, we'll applaud. Of course, after that, we wouldn't hesitate to give them higher ratings.

Another important thing is that even though the bookie does not have very diverse list of games, it receives prestigious annual awards for the quality of support service or games that are always transparent. So we will still rank it on the list of platforms with a good rating overall.

Moreover, when the bookie expands many branches, meaning that it has a good treatment for players so it can go further. At the same time, the interaction with Betmentor is noted positively. At this point, we will soon raise the ratings for the operators.

Conclusion

We want to emphasize that all information we provide is carefully selected and objective. Once again, we affirm that any comments we make are not biased towards any organization or operator. Above all, in addition to the efforts of the expert team, we are also very grateful for the contributions and evaluations from the players, who have helped us have an objective and more accurate view of what we are doing.

In a nutshell, we always want to accompany you on the path of finding your fortune. Therefore, you can trust us with peace of mind, and of course, if anything goes wrong, we'll be happy to hear from you.