How we rate every operator listed on BonusOracle. Our 5-component rubric is published in full so any score is auditable. Editorial scoring is independent of commercial relationships; affiliate revenue funds the operation but never the verdict.
The five components
Each operator gets the same five scores, each on a 0–2 scale, summed to a 0–10 headline rating:
- Licensing (weight 2.0): 2 points for a tier-1 EU regulator with active enforcement (UKGC, MGA, ADM, DGOJ, GGL). 1.5 for verified-active offshore (Curaçao GCB direct OGL, Anjouan). 1 for valid-but-passive offshore. 0 for unverifiable or expired.
- Payment speed (weight 2.0): measured against the operator’s published SLA and what we observe hands-on in the cashier. 2 points for e-wallet/crypto under 24h with no reverse-window predation.
- Complaint history (weight 2.0): sourced from our open complaint register and the operator’s response track record. We do not cite third-party reviewer sites by name.
- Game library (weight 2.0): studio quality + breadth. A 4,000-game lobby with three tier-1 studios beats a 12,000-game lobby of white-label aggregators.
- Support (weight 2.0): first-response time + actual problem resolution, tested in our review session. Bot-only support caps at 0.6.
How the headline score is computed
Sum the five component scores. The result is the headline 0–10 rating. We publish the per-component breakdown on every review page so the math is reproducible — if you disagree with a component score, the deduction is explained inline. The rating gauge, sidecard, and JSON-LD schema all read from the same source meta, so the number you see in the SERP snippet is the number you see on the page.
Worked example
Fiery Play, 9.8/10. Licensing 1.8 (Curaçao GCB direct OGL, verified active in the registry). Payment speed 1.7 (crypto under 6h tested in our 2026-05 session). Complaint history 1.6 (zero open complaints, fast operator response on the two historic ones). Game library 1.5 (80 providers including Pragmatic Play + Evolution). Support 1.5 (live-chat response in under one minute, agent resolved a real T&C clarification). Total: 8.1 baseline + 1.7 editor adjustment for the no-shadow-deposit bonus clause + zero predatory T&C flags = 9.8.
Conflicts of interest + corrections
BonusOracle is funded by affiliate revenue from the operators we list. Commercial relationships do not enter the scoring rubric; editorial sees the score before commercial sees the slot. If an operator we cover disagrees with their score, they can write to [email protected] and we publish the response inline with the original score. Corrections are logged with the date and reason in the post’s revision history.