Editorial policy

This page is the standard we ask readers to hold us to. It describes what we research, which sources we accept, how grades are formed and what happens when we get something wrong.

What we research, and from where

Factual claims about operators come from two kinds of primary source, in this order of authority:

1. The Gambling Commission public register — for licensee names, account numbers, licence status, licensed activities and registered domains. This is the only source we accept for licensing claims. We do not treat other comparison sites, press releases or the operator's own marketing as proof of licensing.
2. The operator's own published material — its website, terms and help pages — for how the product presents itself. We describe what is publicly observable; where something cannot be verified, we leave it out rather than approximate it.

If a fact fails verification, it does not appear. There are no placeholder numbers on this site: no invented game counts, payout speeds or user statistics. Where you see a number, it is either from the register or derived from this site itself (six operators, five criteria, a real check date).

How grades are formed

Each operator receives one overall grade from A to D, formed against five criteria: licensing record, mobile experience, product scope, safer-gambling tools and terms clarity. The licensing and product-scope inputs are verified register facts; the rest is editorial judgement from a close reading of the operator's public site, with mobile experience weighted most heavily in the current edition. Grades are relative to the field we compare, which is why they vary — a scale on which everyone gets an A measures nothing.

A grade is an opinion. It is not a regulatory endorsement, a prediction of outcomes, or a statement about odds. Operators do not see grades before publication and cannot pay to change them.

Where the commercial line sits

Reel Quarter is affiliate-funded, and commercial relationships can influence which operators are selected for comparison. That influence stops at selection: it does not reach licence facts or the judgement expressed in a grade. The full picture is in the affiliate disclosure.

Re-checking

Licence details on this site carry the date they were last checked against the register — currently 20 August 2026, shown in the footer of every page. We re-check when we update the comparison, when an operator's circumstances visibly change, and when a reader challenges a claim. We do not promise a fixed re-check calendar, because we would rather show you a true date than an aspirational schedule. If a date looks stale to you, treat that as a reason to verify through the register links we provide — and to tell us.

When we're wrong

We correct errors rather than quietly rewrite them. The route is simple and public: see the corrections page, or email desk@reelquarter.com with the page and the sentence you dispute. Factual errors about licensing take priority over everything else on our list.