How We Are Funded
Reading CasinoReporters costs nothing, and there are no banner ads on it. The desk is paid for by referral fees from a share of the casinos we cover. Below: who receives that money, what triggers a payment, where the links sit, and the rules that stop the money from deciding what we publish.
Who gets paid
Referral fees are paid to Amberquay Digital DMCC, the publisher of CasinoReporters (Mazaya Business Avenue BB1, Cluster BB, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates). Reviewers are not paid per sign-up, and when they score a casino they do not see what, if anything, it pays.
When a fee is earned
We hold referral agreements with several online casinos and with the affiliate networks acting for them. A fee is owed to us only after three things happen in order: a click on one of our tracked links, a new registration, and a first deposit into that account. Agreements come in three common forms:
- Flat fee — a fixed sum for each referred player’s first deposit;
- Revenue share — a percentage of the operator’s net income from that player over an agreed period;
- Hybrid — a smaller flat fee combined with a smaller percentage.
Rates vary by operator and sit in commercial contracts, so we do not list them. Under a revenue share, a referred player’s losses raise the operator’s income and can raise ours — one more reason commercial terms are kept away from scoring.
What it costs you
No extra cost reaches the reader: fees come from the operator’s marketing budget. Signing up through our link gets you the same offer and terms as going to the casino directly. We never ask for card details, and deposits go to the operator, never to us.
How to spot an affiliate link
Tracked links pass through an address beginning casinoreporters.com/go/ on the way to the operator. They sit on the “Visit” and “Get bonus” buttons in ranking tables, on review pages, and on some casino names in bonus articles. Links to regulators, game studios, payment firms and help services are plain links that earn nothing.
A /go/ redirect places mozbiz_session and XSRF-TOKEN, two cookies on casinoreporters.com that last about 20 hours, so the redirect can complete and the referral can be counted. The operator receives a visit identifier, not your name or email address. More in our privacy policy.
Rules that keep the money out of the scores
- One published set of criteria and weights is used for every operator; whether a deal exists, and what it pays, is not among them.
- A casino whose licence we cannot verify stays out of the rankings at any fee.
- No operator can buy a table position, a higher score or the deletion of criticism, and we take no money for reviews.
- Confirmed reader reports of slow payouts or unfair treatment change the review and the score at the next check, paying partner or not.
- Some casinos we review have no deal with us at all; they are scored the same way and sit in the same tables.
Bonus figures and exclusive offers
Now and then an operator gives our readers a code or an offer that is not on its own homepage. We label these as exclusive and print the terms as the operator supplied them. An exclusive deal is a commercial arrangement like any other: it can make a review more useful, but it earns no extra points, and if its terms turn out worse than the standard offer we say so.
What we do not accept
We do not sell sponsored reviews, paid guest posts about casinos, or links dressed up as editorial. Gifts, free credit and hospitality from operators are declined. Test accounts are funded with our own money, and any winnings from testing are not counted as income from the operator.
The order of a table
Tables are sorted by score unless the page states another order — launch date for new casinos, say, or a filter for one payment method. An operator shown only to readers in certain provinces is limited by where it may lawfully take players, not by a commercial deal.
Your decision, your terms
A referral fee does not change which terms count: the operator’s. Before you register, read the bonus rules and cash-out limits, confirm the operator may serve your province, and stake only what you are prepared to lose. Our disclaimer and conditions of use apply alongside this page.
Changes and questions
When our income model changes, this page is rewritten and its date moves. Questions about commercial relationships: [email protected].