Our review methodology

• We earn affiliate commissions from some platforms when you sign up through our links, and we say so on every page where it applies.
• We do not accept payment, free upgrades, or any other incentive in exchange for a rating or a verdict.
• Ratings come from six fixed criteria with set weights. How much a platform pays us is not one of them.
• The welcome bonus is left out of the score too. A generous bonus on a weak platform still gets a weak rating.
• Every review is based on a real account we opened and paid for ourselves.

When you open an account through a link marked as sponsored, the platform may pay RakeBase a commission. That is how the site is funded. It costs you nothing extra, and in most cases the same link is what unlocks the welcome bonus for you.

So yes, we have a financial relationship with some of the platforms we review. We say so in the open, next to the button on the page where it applies, and not only down in the footer. The full detail is on our affiliate disclosure page.

Paying us gets a platform a tracked link and nothing else. We do not accept:

• Payment or incentives of any kind for a higher rating or a softer verdict.
• Payment to remove, delay, or water down criticism.
• Any editorial control over what goes into a review.
• Sponsored placements dressed up as independent ratings.

One point is worth spelling out. A few regulated partners ask to check promotional claims and disclosures for compliance before we publish. That check keeps factual and regulatory statements correct. It has no bearing on our ratings, our verdicts, or our criticism, and no partner can block a review.

Every platform we review is tested with a real account that we open and fund with our own money. We go through the whole signup flow ourselves: identity checks, depositing, claiming the bonus if there is one, placing trades or bets, and then withdrawing.

The screenshots in a review are ours, taken from our own accounts. We do not use press kits or stock images to show how a platform works.

Some of the platforms we cover are ones we have used personally for years, not accounts spun up for a single review. Where that is the case, the review says so.

We check welcome bonuses separately from the testing above. Before a bonus goes on the site we confirm it is live and that the code works, and we re-check it on a schedule so the terms on the page match the terms you actually see when you sign up.

Every rating on RakeBase is scored out of 5 from six fixed criteria. We score each one from 1 to 5, combine them using the weights below, and round the result to one decimal.

Fees and pricing looks at trading fees and spreads on prediction markets, the house edge and any rakeback on casinos, plus withdrawal costs, currency conversion, and inactivity fees, all measured against direct competitors. Safety and regulation looks at who regulates the platform, what happens to your money if it fails, and whether customer funds are kept separate from the company’s own. The other four criteria, platform and usability, product and market range, deposits and withdrawals, and support, come from our own use of the account.

Two things are left out of the score on purpose: the size of the welcome bonus, and whether the platform pays us anything. A platform we have no deal with can outscore one that pays us, and several do.

We re-check platforms we have already reviewed on an ongoing basis. If fees go up, a regulator steps in, or the product gets worse, we lower the score and update the review. The verified date on each review is the date of its most recent check.

If something in a review is wrong or out of date, email contact@rakebase.com. We fix confirmed errors quickly and note any material change in the review itself.