How each rating is worked out

The rating leans hardest on an operator's regulatory status: whether a licence is held, what that licence obliges the operator to do, and whether a reader can check it directly on the public register. Everything else this page might touch on, from deposit and withdrawal terms to how bonus conditions are written, is weighted only once that regulatory picture is in place, because a claim about terms means little if the operator behind it cannot be verified. Where no licence is held with a recognised regulator, or where a claim rests only on what the operator itself says, the rating reflects that gap rather than assuming the best case. The weight profile below sets out how much each factor contributes, and it is applied the same way to every operator this site reviews.