Our rating method
This page explains how operators and products are assessed on icreekside.com, so that you can hold any article on this site to the same standard. Assessments are based on published terms, licence information and publicly available sources. Where a claim cannot be traced back to one of those, it does not belong in a review.
What we look at
Each assessment works through the following criteria. You can check any article against this list and see whether the point was addressed, or whether the information was unavailable.
- Licence and regulatory status. Which authority is named, which entity holds the licence, and whether that information is stated publicly by the operator or the regulator.
- Terms and conditions. Whether the general terms are easy to find, readable, and consistent with what is advertised on promotional pages.
- Bonus and promotion terms. Wagering requirements, qualifying deposits, excluded games, maximum conversion limits and any stake restrictions, as published.
- Payments. Listed deposit and withdrawal methods, stated minimums and maximums, fees disclosed in the terms, and whether verification requirements are described before a withdrawal is requested.
- Account verification. What documents are asked for, and at which stage of the account lifecycle the operator says they are needed.
- Game and product range. Which categories are offered and which studios or suppliers are named.
- Responsible gambling tools. Whether deposit limits, loss limits, session reminders, time-outs and self-exclusion are offered, and where they sit in the account settings.
- Complaints and dispute routes. Which internal complaints process is described, and whether an external dispute body or regulator is named.
- Clarity of communication. Whether key restrictions appear next to the offer they apply to, rather than only deep in the terms.
- Consistency over time. Whether published terms have changed in ways that affect the points above, and whether our page still matches the current version.
What we do not do
We do not test games for fairness ourselves; that is the work of accredited testing laboratories. We do not measure payout percentages, inspect random number generators, or audit an operator’s internal systems. Where fairness certification is relevant, we report what the operator or the laboratory has published and leave the technical conclusion to them.
Commercial relationships
Some links on this site may earn us a commission. A commercial relationship with an operator does not change its assessment. The criteria above are applied in the same order and in the same way regardless of whether such a relationship exists.
Corrections
Terms change, and pages can fall behind. If something on this site no longer matches an operator’s published terms or licence information, tell us what you have found and point to the source, and we will review the page against it.