Affiliate disclosure: how we earn
Most gambling review sites are paid a cut of what their readers lose. This one is not. Here is what AskTheBookie takes money for, and what no amount of money buys.
No affiliate deals, no revenue share
The usual business of a gambling review site is the affiliate deal. A book pays the site for every player it sends, often as a share of what that player loses, for as long as he keeps losing. The site makes the most money from the reader who does worst. I spent my working life on the book's side of that arrangement, and I know who it is built for.
AskTheBookie has none of it. No percentage of what any player deposits, bets or loses. No commission for a sign-up, a first deposit or a click. And no tracking on our links: a link to a company here is a plain link to its own address, and nobody is paid when you follow it.
I like it that way. A reviewer on a revenue share wants you at the book that holds your money longest, and he'll find nice things to say about it. We'd rather tell you to walk.
How the site earns
Three things, each with a fixed price, and none of them tied to what a player does after reading us.
| What | Who can buy it | What the fee buys |
|---|---|---|
| Verification and monitoring | Any company listed in the directory | An assessment of the company's business and site, and regular checks after it. It buys the checking, not the result: a company that fails gets no badge, and the review says what was found |
| Directory advertising | Verified companies only | A fixed period or package of placements in its own category, rotated evenly with the other advertisers there |
| Sponsored articles | Verified companies and qualified contributors | Publication of an article that passes our editing, on a fixed fee |
Advertising is marked Advertisement or Sponsored where it appears. A sponsored article says so at the top, and its paid links are marked as paid for search engines. Paying the fee does not guarantee an article is published: one that is not useful to readers, or makes claims it can't support, is turned down.
What money never buys
Being listed is free. Any company can submit its site, and whether it is listed depends on our listing requirements, not on a payment.
No fee of any kind buys:
- a review, or a kinder word in one;
- a higher rating, or a better place in a list;
- a fact taken out of a review, or a warning taken down;
- any say in how a review is written or scored. Advertisers and verified companies have no authority to edit a review or influence its score.
A company that advertises is reviewed by the same methodology, on the same factors, as one that never pays a cent. If its payouts slow, the review says they are slow. Advertisement or no advertisement.
That is the deal I'd want if I were the one reading. You can check it: every review lists its sources and the date its facts were checked, and our editorial independence policy and corrections say what happens when we slip.
Companies in the same network
Some of the companies in the directory belong to the same business network as AskTheBookie. Their reviews say so at the top, and the conflict-of-interest policy lists them.