The review process for each and every operator featured
We take our jobs very seriously at Roger.com, and that means ensuring that every casino, slot site, bingo site and sports betting operator that we list meets high standards, in particular with regard to player safety, player funds, customer service and licensing.
Every listing that we feature on our platform undergoes a thorough independent review that includes, first and foremost, making sure that there is a reputable, licensed company behind the operation.
Our team of experts looks at each and every aspect of the operator, as detailed below, making sure that their focus is on: Trustworthiness, player fairness, transparency, great player experience and value for money.
Table of contents
Licensing & regulation
First and foremost, we check out the licensing of the operator. Where are they licensed? Which jurisdictions?
If we're promoting an operator to a UK audience, then they must be licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. If it's a Europe-wide audience, the Malta Gaming Authority (as well as regulatory bodies within Europe such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Italy and Germany).
If it's a worldwide audience, do they have a Curaçao or Anjouan licence? Different regulatory bodies impose varying degrees of stringency on operators. The UKGC, for example, is by far one of the most developed and stringent regulators at the moment.
🇺🇸🇨🇦 Regulatory bodies in North America are also starting to develop, so the same criteria apply to operators in these geos.
We will only ever promote licensed operators to visitors in their relevant jurisdictions, and if an operator is unlicensed, we will make it clear.
Game providers, choice and sports betting platform
Operators come in all shapes and sizes, and one of the criteria we look for when reviewing an operator is how many games they have on offer — how big is their game library? That goes for slots, classic casino, table games, live casino, game shows, mini games, scratch cards, lottery offerings, and of course sports betting.
The amount of choice doesn’t necessarily make for a better platform, but at the very least we look for the key categories: a great slots title offering from big-name, professional and licensed providers — and that goes for casino and table games, and in particular live casino.
When it comes to sports betting, we ask: what markets are available to bet on? How big is the choice of sports categories? How fair are the odds? How fast are the payouts?
Device compatibility
Now this is a pretty big one.
📱 Nowadays, well over 90% of people in the UK, in particular, are gambling and betting on their mobile phones, so it's absolutely paramount that the operator has a fully responsive website or app — and that means it needs to work equally well on mobile devices as well as desktop screens.
Functionality is important too. Does the site or platform break or glitch out on smaller screens? Can all games be played properly on a mobile device? Does the menu and navigation come undone on touch devices?
Offers & promotional games
One of the biggest pulls for new customers to a new platform is going to be the promotional game on offer when you sign up as a new player.
🙋♂️ Do they have one promotional game or multiple promotional games? Are they offering a deposit match that can be redeemed on any slot game or casino game of your choice?
This is really important to players these days, and there are definitely a number of key games that players are looking for, especially in the UK when it comes to finding promos.
Then, on top of this, you've got the minimum deposit and the wagering requirements to consider, as well as the bonus amount or the number of free spins. We take all of these into account when deciding what we would classify as a good offer.
Number of free spins
It's not always true that the more free spins, the better. In lots of cases, loads of free spins often come with higher wagering requirements or more complex withdrawal procedures. But we do take into account the size of the free spins bonus when we review an offer.
As well as this, is there a win cap or a particularly low bet max? These can often make a once attractive-looking offer all of a sudden not so attractive.
Deposit match amount
One of the better new player offers out there is the generous deposit match bonus. More often than not, this will be 100%, but what is it capped at in monetary terms?
👌 If you get yourself a 100% deposit match bonus up to £200 to spend on any slot with low wagering (or even no wagering), well, that's a cracking deal and well worth considering.
We tend to find that these deals aren't quite as common as the free spins hyrbid ones, and we do like to feature them when we come across them.
Wagering requirements
This is what makes or breaks a new player welcome offer as far as we're concerned. Although we do feature no deposit bonuses where you can get 5 free spins or even 20 free spins, they often come with ridiculously, and what we feel to be prohibitively, high wagering requirements — sometimes even up to 60x.
A fair wagering requirement in our mind is 0 up to 20x.
Anything above this is almost unjustifiably high and completely ruins the offer. In our view, if a casino, slots or betting platform is worth its weight, then there will be other ways of retaining you as a player and enticing you to come back, rather than locking you in with ridiculously high wagering requirements.
Payment & deposit methods
This is another big piece of criteria right here. What are the accepted payment methods of the platform, and what are the accepted payment methods of the new player welcome offer, as they often differ?
👉 A lot of the time, you'll find e-wallets, including PayPal, are excluded from welcome offers — although increasingly, they are being included.
Also, Apple Pay and Google Pay make buying anything ridiculously easy, so if we come across an operator that allows either of these, then this is a pretty big plus in our mind. You’ve also got the added security of keeping your payment details strictly to yourself.
Withdrawal timeframes
Gone are the days when an online casino operator would hold onto your funds as long as possible in the hope that you would return, play those funds, and end up losing them.
Thanks to the UK Gambling Commission getting much stricter on this type of thing, you can now expect withdrawals at UK-registered casinos to be anything from instant or a couple of hours, up to within 24 hours.
This is assuming you've got your KYC documents in place, you've uploaded ID and proof of address, and that kind of thing, before you attempt to make that big withdrawal. So, being positive about it — a big win will come in at some point — and you want everything in place when it does, so that you can cash out ASAP and give as little back to the casino as possible.
👍 We consider anything between instant and 24 hours to be a fast withdrawal, and anything above that not to be. There’s no reason, in this day and age, why it should take longer than a couple of days, in the very worst case, to get your hands on your money.
Customer service & support
Any company that shuns its responsibility and makes it difficult for a customer to get in touch with them is not playing straight. If you're offering a genuine service, things will go wrong, and customers will need to get in touch with you — So we rate the ability to get in touch with them and have a problem resolved quickly very highly.
We like to see live chat and email as a minimum. A phone number is fantastic if there’s one available, and an extensive FAQ section where all of the genuine questions are answered fully and accurately.
Final verdict
Every operator that we feature on Roger.com has to live up to our strict standards. They need to be fair, transparent, and they need to protect the player first and foremost.
Then they need to be functionally and technically sound, safe, secure, licensed, and regulated — and finally, they need to offer a tonne of really enticing games for the player.
The above criteria can be applied to online casinos, slot sites, sports betting sites, bingo sites, and any other kind of site that involves games of chance.
At the end of the day, Roger.com is here for the player, not the operator, and we will always endeavour to be as honest as possible with our reviews of operators, games, and offers that we list on this website.
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