Every rating on this site comes from a real test, run through a fixed scoring system built from real market data. Nothing is estimated. Nothing is a guess.
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Why Our Math Is Built Around the Bonus
Not the lobby design. Not the loyalty program. The bonus. So across every product type we cover, we don't treat every category as equally important — we weight each one toward what actually brought you to that page.
81.7%
average share of every rating on this site that's the bonus itself, plus getting paid.
That's four specific things, repeated across every product type we build: how big the bonus actually is, how fast it actually pays out, how accessible the real terms are once you read past the headline, and how easy it is to turn a win into money in your hand. Sweepstakes casinos put the most weight there, 88.9%. Real-money casinos land at 87.0%. Even prediction markets, where traders care as much about market depth as the welcome offer, still put 69.2% of the score on the promo and getting paid.
Where the Weights Come From
These weights come from hands-on testing across dozens of real operators, not a guess. Banking & Security carries the heaviest weight in both of our live systems because a slow or blocked payout is the single most common way a player's trust in an operator breaks. The bonus categories carry the next-heaviest weight because that's the reason a reader came to the page in the first place.
Built Fresh for Every Product Type We Cover
A sweepstakes casino and a regulated real-money casino aren't the same product, so we never average one against the other. Each product type we rate — sweepstakes casinos, real-money casino apps, prediction markets — gets its own categories and its own weights, built around what actually matters to the player who's there.
Sweepstakes Casinos
| Category | Weight | What It Measures |
|---|---|---|
| No-Deposit Bonus Value | 1.25x | Free Gold Coins and Sweeps Coin at signup. |
| First-Purchase Bonus Value | 1.25x | What you receive your first time buying coins, vs. what you paid. |
| Bonus and Prize Rules | 1.25x | Playthrough and redemption minimums — the fine print. |
| Daily Bonus and Ongoing Perks | 0.75x | What keeps paying after day one. |
| Games | 0.75x | Library size, variety, exclusive titles. |
| Banking & Security | 1.5x — heaviest | How fast — and how — you actually get paid. |
Real-Money Online Casinos
| Category | Weight | What It Measures |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome Bonus Size | 0.5x | Headline dollar value of the welcome offer. |
| Bonus Speed | 0.75x | How fast the bonus itself disburses. |
| Bonus Flexibility | 1.5x — tied heaviest | Wagering requirement, deposit minimum, real restrictions. |
| Promos for Existing Users | 0.75x | Recurring promos, loyalty value, referrals. |
| Games | 0.75x | Library depth, RTP data. |
| Banking & Security | 1.5x — tied heaviest | Real payment methods, tested withdrawal speed. |
Prediction Markets
Three categories cover the promo itself — Welcome Promo Size, Promo Speed & Flexibility, and Ongoing Trading Incentives — 46.2% of the weight. The other three cover what a trader actually came for: real cost to trade and real market depth. Banking & Security is still the single heaviest category. The structure and weights below are locked for Bonus.com specifically; the pillar-level scoring math underneath them is still being built as real, first-hand operator testing comes in, so this product type doesn't have sample ratings yet the way our casino products do.
| Category | Weight | What It Measures |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome Promo Size | 1x | The welcome offer’s maximum stated dollar value. |
| Promo Speed & Flexibility | 1.25x | How accessible that credit really is, plus real trade-size and expiration restrictions. |
| Ongoing Trading Incentives | 0.75x | Every live ongoing offer type, from referrals to leaderboard payouts. |
| Liquidity | 1.25x | Real cost to enter and exit a position, tested on a busy and a quiet market. |
| Market Coverage | 0.75x | Breadth and depth across sports, politics, entertainment, and niche markets. |
| Banking & Security | 1.5x — heaviest | Deposit and withdrawal speed, methods, minimums, and security/terms transparency. |
Sample Ratings: How 10 Partners Scored
A look at the same math applied across real partners we cover.
Sweepstakes Casinos
Overall = Σ(score × weight) ÷ 6.75
| Operator | Overall | No-Deposit | First-Purchase | Bonus & Prize Rules | Daily Bonus | Games | Banking & Security |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McLuck | 4.40 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 4.2 | 5.0 | 3.9 | 4.2 |
| LoneStar | 4.26 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Hello Millions | 4.26 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 3.3 |
| FreeSpin | 4.17 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| MegaBonanza | 4.14 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 4.9 |
| Pulsz | 4.10 | 4.9 | 3.8 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 4.7 | 4.3 |
| Crown Coins | 4.03 | 4.7 | 3.2 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 3.5 |
| LuckyZino | 4.01 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| WOW Vegas | 3.97 | 4.4 | 3.2 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Stake.us | 3.94 | 4.8 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 4.1 |
Real-Money Online Casinos
Overall = Σ(score × weight) ÷ 5.75
| Operator | Overall | Welcome Bonus Size | Bonus Speed | Bonus Flexibility | Promos for Existing Users | Games | Banking & Security |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard Rock | 4.839 | 4.532 | 4.900 | 5.000 | 4.232 | 4.943 | 5.000 |
| Borgata | 4.745 | 4.177 | 5.000 | 4.686 | 4.278 | 4.948 | 5.000 |
| BetRivers | 4.631 | 4.177 | 4.900 | 4.680 | 4.750 | 4.513 | 4.596 |
| Hollywood | 4.624 | 4.177 | 4.900 | 5.000 | 4.100 | 4.667 | 4.500 |
| Fanatics | 4.501 | 4.532 | 4.900 | 4.714 | 4.600 | 3.769 | 4.393 |
| DraftKings | 4.492 | 3.995 | 3.000 | 4.823 | 4.226 | 4.905 | 5.000 |
| Party Casino | 4.477 | 3.354 | 5.000 | 4.015 | 4.319 | 4.740 | 5.000 |
| Caesars | 4.408 | 3.766 | 5.000 | 5.000 | 5.000 | 4.283 | 3.502 |
| Stardust | 4.348 | 3.562 | 4.900 | 4.266 | 4.186 | 3.538 | 4.903 |
| bet365 | 4.325 | 4.532 | 4.000 | 3.929 | 4.617 | 3.871 | 4.896 |
How We Test, Before We Score Anything
Every category exists because something was actually tested, not surveyed from a press release.
Real-Money Casinos
- Open a real account, in private browsing, never through our own affiliate link.
- Deposit real money, $20 minimum, and record the method, speed, and any friction.
- Play 30–60 minutes across slots, table games, and live dealer where available.
- Request a real withdrawal, even a small one, and time it, method and all.
- Contact support with a real question and record the channel, response time, and quality.
- Review every recurring promo, loyalty tier, and responsible-gaming tool actually live on the site.
Sweepstakes Casinos
- Claim the no-deposit bonus ourselves and log exactly what lands in the account, not what the banner promises.
- Make the first real purchase and record exactly what we get for it, including any fee the marketing says doesn't exist.
- Work through the actual prize rules and attempt a real redemption against the stated minimums.
- Stay logged in across multiple days to confirm the daily bonus actually resets on schedule.
- Play the games ourselves, counting titles and checking studio credits instead of trusting a lobby count.
- Request a real redemption and time it, along with every payment method the operator actually lets us use.
Beyond the Raw Math
Once the category math is done, we take one more look at the things that matter most to players. An operator that's well-rounded enough to excel in several of those areas at once earns a boost on top of its score. And because testing turns up the same handful of success stories and problems again and again, we hold a smaller, separate adjustment in reserve: a point for an outstandingly smooth moment in testing, and a point taken away for an obvious stumble.
Excellence Boost
A flat +0.5, capped at a perfect 5.0, for being strong in more than one specific way at once, not just one.
FreeSpin · Games
It's great to have a huge slot library. It's also great to have a deep live dealer floor. FreeSpin has both, nearly 2,000 slots and 95 live dealer tables, plus extras most sites skip entirely, like keno and video poker. That combination is what earns the Excellence Boost: it's not rewarding one strong number, it's rewarding a site built for players who want to try everything in one place, not just grind slots. That pushed an already strong library to a perfect 5.0/5.
Performance Point
A capped ±0.2, tied to one specific, verifiable thing found during testing. Not a combination of strengths like the Excellence Boost, just one.
+0.2 · BetMGM, Promos for Existing Users
BetMGM spelled out its real redemption math and tier thresholds in plain language, instead of leaving players to guess. That kind of clear disclosure is rare enough, and useful enough, that it earns a point of its own.
−0.2 · LuckyZino, First-Purchase Bonus Value
LuckyZino’s $9.99 tier was marketed as "no fees." When we actually completed the purchase, a real $0.40 fee showed up on the receipt. The marketing claim didn’t change what happened at checkout.
How Six Scores Become One Rating
We don't average the categories. We weight them.
Overall Rating = Σ(score × weight) ÷ total weight
Worked example (illustrative, sweepstakes casinos, total weight 6.75):
| Category | Score | Weight | Score × Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| No-Deposit Bonus Value | 4.6 | 1.25 | 5.75 |
| First-Purchase Bonus Value | 4.2 | 1.25 | 5.25 |
| Bonus and Prize Rules | 4.0 | 1.25 | 5.00 |
| Daily Bonus and Ongoing Perks | 3.8 | 0.75 | 2.85 |
| Games | 4.4 | 0.75 | 3.30 |
| Banking & Security | 4.5 | 1.5 | 6.75 |
| Total | 6.75 | 28.90 |
28.90 ÷ 6.75 = 4.28, which displays as 4.3/5. Real-money casinos run the same formula against their own weights, total 5.75.
What the Star Ratings Actually Mean
Anchored to the real market, not a gut feeling.
When one does appear, we're explicit about exactly why. A score that low is usually a sign of something dragging the operator toward shady or unregulated territory, not a quirky weak spot. A 2.6 in Banking & Security, for example, isn't a minor ding. It's a clear stay-away.
Editorial Independence
Bonus.com ratings come from our own testing and our own math, not from advertising or partnership agreements. Some operators featured on this site have affiliate relationships with us, and we may earn a commission if you sign up through a link here. That relationship never changes a score.
Please gamble responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. Call 1-800-GAMBLER if you have a gambling problem. 21+; all content herein is intended for audiences 21 years and older.
