How we collect and verify rakeback data

Which sources we use

We use two kinds of sources. The first is the poker room itself: its promotions pages, VIP program pages, terms and conditions, rake tables and help center articles. The second is the public license register kept by each gambling regulator, which tells us whether a room holds a license in a given country or state.

We do not take figures from reviews, forums, affiliate pages or marketing materials published by third parties. If a rate appears only in such places, it does not appear here.

What happens to figures we cannot confirm

Some rooms publish only part of their program. A VIP page may list the top rakeback rate but show level thresholds only inside the poker client, or describe a reward currency without saying what it is worth in cash. In those cases we publish the parts the room confirms and leave the rest out.

We do not estimate, round up or fill gaps with typical values. A missing figure on a room page means the room has not published it in a form we can check.

How often data is checked

Each room carries a verification date, shown on its page, which is the day we last compared our data with the room's official pages. We recheck a room when it announces changes to its program, when a reader reports a discrepancy and on a regular schedule for every room we cover.

When a room closes or merges into another brand, we mark the page accordingly and point readers to the successor room where one exists.

How we decide whether a room is available in your country

A room is listed as available in a country when it holds a license from that country's regulator, or from the regulator of a US state or Canadian province where online poker is licensed. We check the license against the regulator's register and against the room's own list of accepted and restricted countries.

• A room is marked available when it is licensed locally and accepts players from that country.
• A room is marked restricted when it accepts players only in part of a country, such as specific US states.
• A room is marked unavailable when its terms exclude the country or it has no license where one is required.
• In the United States and Canada, rooms that accept players without a local license get a separate label so you can tell them apart from licensed rooms.

The language version you open sets a starting country, and the country selector at the top of the page changes it. Sign-up buttons appear only for rooms open to players in the selected country.

How the worked examples are calculated

Room pages and the guide include examples that turn a rakeback rate into a dollar amount. The inputs, such as the number of hands you play or the rake you pay in a month, are assumptions chosen to illustrate the math, and the page says so. The rakeback rate in each example comes from the room's data, and every step of the calculation is shown.

Examples on the site are calculated by the same function as the rakeback calculator, using the example's inputs and the room's confirmed rates. If you pay $500 in rake in a month at BetOnline Poker at the Bronze VIP level, that function returns 10% of the rake, or $50. We do not invent rake per hour or rake per 100 hands for a specific room. Where a room pays in points or a reward currency, we convert to cash only when the room publishes the exchange rate.

Rooms that cap rake or rewards in euros or pounds are shown in that currency without conversion.

Corrections

If you find a figure that does not match a room's current terms, write to us through the contact page and include the page and the section. We check the report against the room's official pages and update the data and the verification date if the figure has changed. Our about page explains what the site covers.