What it takes for a platform to be featured
Before a platform enters testing at all, it must clear four non-negotiable gates. Placeholder copy expanding on each gate in a neutral, documentary register.
- Valid licence or registration with a recognised supervisor, verifiable in a public register.
- Segregated customer funds or an equivalent documented protection arrangement.
- Published terms and fee schedule that we can quote verbatim in our reviews.
- Working limit-setting and self-exclusion tools available to every account holder.
No pay-to-play
Operators cannot pay to be listed, cannot pay for a higher position, and are not shown drafts before publication. Placeholder sentence on how commercial and editorial teams are separated.
Our step-by-step rating process
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Register and verify a real account
Placeholder: we sign up as an ordinary user, complete identity checks and time every stage.
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Deposit our own funds
Placeholder: a standard test budget is deposited with the platform's most common payment method.
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Trade across three market categories
Placeholder: identical test orders in sports, politics and economics markets; spreads and fills are logged.
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Test support, limits and tools
Placeholder: support contacted with real questions; deposit limits and self-exclusion configured and confirmed.
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Withdraw everything
Placeholder: a full withdrawal is requested and timed against the operator's stated window.
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Score, fact-check, publish
Placeholder: the reviewer scores the scorecard; a second reviewer re-checks every figure before publication.
Regulation & trust
Licence status, fund segregation, dispute process.
30%Fees & pricing
Trading fees, fees on winnings, measured spreads.
25%Markets & liquidity
Category depth and real order-book volume.
25%Usability & payments
Apps, deposits, verified withdrawal times.
20%Security, regulation and trust
The heaviest-weighted criterion. Placeholder paragraphs describing what we verify: the supervising authority and licence reference, where customer funds are held, how outcome disputes are resolved, account-security features such as two-factor authentication, and the operator's complaint history.
Placeholder note: we re-check register entries at every quarterly re-test and after any reported licence change. A platform that loses its licence is removed the same day we confirm it.
Markets, liquidity and trading experience
Placeholder explanation of how category breadth is counted, how order-book depth is sampled on the five most-traded markets during one fixed week, and how we judge the clarity of the order ticket — price, implied probability and depth shown before confirmation.
| Check | How we measure it | Counts toward |
|---|---|---|
| Category breadth | Markets listed per category on a fixed date | Markets & liquidity |
| Spread sampling | Best bid/ask logged on five markets, one week | Markets & liquidity |
| Order execution | Identical test orders, fill quality recorded | Markets & liquidity |
| Interface clarity | Reviewer protocol with a fixed checklist | Usability & payments |
Welcome offers and promotions
Offers are scored on transparency, not size. Placeholder copy: a modest offer with clear conditions outscores a large headline number with restrictive small print. We read the full published terms, register fresh test accounts when an offer changes, and quote conditions verbatim in our offer directory.
Payments, fees and money handling
Placeholder description: we deposit and withdraw real funds with each supported method, record the time from request to arrival, and compare every charge against the published schedule. Undisclosed fees are treated as a serious finding and flagged in the review.
- Deposit methods, minimums and crediting times — tested, not copied from marketing.
- Withdrawal speed measured end to end, including identity-check delays.
- Fee schedule cross-checked line by line against what our account was charged.
Customer care
Placeholder method note: we contact support through every advertised channel with a beginner question, a payments question and a responsible-gambling question, and grade response time, accuracy and tone. Channels, hours and our measured response times appear in each review.
Mobile apps
Placeholder method note: reviews cover the iOS, Android and web versions separately where they differ — onboarding, order ticket usability, price alerts, accessibility settings and feature parity with desktop. Screenshots in reviews come from our own test accounts.
Onboarding
Placeholder: registration and verification completed on-device.
Order ticket
Placeholder: price, probability and fees visible before confirming.
Safer-play tools
Placeholder: limits and self-exclusion reachable within the app.
What happens when a platform isn't up to scratch
Placeholder policy statement: platforms that fail a gate criterion are not listed at all; platforms that score poorly are listed with their low score and a clear explanation, because a documented warning is more useful to readers than silence. Scores are re-assessed quarterly and after any major fee or rule change.
Corrections
Found an error in a review? Reports go through our contact page and are handled under the corrections policy in our editorial guidelines.
A high score is not a recommendation to trade
Our ratings compare platforms; they say nothing about whether event trading is right for you. Real money is at risk on every platform listed, however well it scores.