One Person, Every Casino's Rules in One Place
I'm Valerii Zalivkin, and I built GambleGrade by myself. The clauses that cost players money are buried in the middle of terms nobody actually reads, so I collect each operator's rules, work through them clause by clause, quote the exact wording behind every flag, and publish the formula that turns it all into a single score. Both parts are transparent: the casino's own words, and the maths behind them.
Who Runs This
Valerii Zalivkin
I built GambleGrade to put every online casino's rules in one place, across all 37 markets it covers. Casino terms are long, change without notice, and bury the costly clauses in the middle - so they get collected here, read clause by clause, quoted and dated, and you see them before the money rather than after.
- 2024Started buildingBegan work on GambleGrade with the mission of gathering all casino rules in one location and working through them clause by clause.
- 2024Formula publishedFinalized and released the six-pillar scoring formula in advance of computing the first score, ensuring the method was transparent from day one.
- 2025Pipelines builtDeveloped the scraping, terms analysis, scoring algorithms, and versioning infrastructure that operate the platform independently.
- 202637 markets liveWent live in August 2026 across all 37 markets concurrently, with each market's rules examined according to its own setting.
The Rules First, The Ranking After
- Rankings driven by which operator pays the most
- Scores backed by unnamed sources or unverifiable claims
- One generic template repackaged for each region
- Ratings shift when partnership money does
- Affiliate deals buried deep in fine print
- No methodology disclosed, no formula weights published
- Outdated content recycled without re-checking facts
- Scores calculated by a published formula anyone can verify
- Every input is concrete and disclosed in full
- 37 markets, each with its own regulatory and payment ruleset
- Ratings recalculate when the underlying data shifts
- Affiliate partnerships listed openly - they do not affect position
- Six pillars of assessment, with documented weights
- Terms-of-service pages re-analysed and all ratings re-scored monthly
Independence
Affiliate income covers hosting and the cost of running scrapers. The income has no access to the ranking code. A separation built into architecture, not just into promises.
Transparency
Methodology is public. Data sources are named. Formula weights are written down. A score does not go live unless I can walk backward through every step that produced it.
Data-First
I set the weights once. The scoring engine runs from there without me in the loop. No manual override exists. My opinion of a casino has zero influence on where it ranks.
From Finding a Casino to Publishing Its Rating
I design and maintain the scoring formula. Automated systems handle the daily hunt for new operators, data collection, scoring calculations, and publication. Every month, the entire catalogue gets re-scored using fresh terms-of-service data.
Spotting New Casinos & Checking Their Licenses
Crawlers search for new operators across 37 markets every day. When a brand appears, I verify its license against the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland and other official records, check the corporate setup, and look for any sanctions or revoked credentials. Only operators with valid, current licenses make it into the catalogue.
Pulling Data at Scale
Scripts gather information from regulator APIs, public filings, payment processor records, and game studio databases. Thousands of data points are collected automatically - no manual typing of bonus terms, no hand-entered figures, no outdated snapshots.
Running the Scoring Formula
Raw data is cleaned and fed into the formula, which rates each casino across six areas: trust & licensing, bonus fairness, payout speed, payment options, user experience & mobile, and player reviews. The formula generates the ranking. I never adjust a score by hand, and no business arrangement can alter the order.
Checking the Numbers & Writing It Up
I work through unusual results, verify edge cases manually, and write explanations showing what the data actually reveals. My role is to make sense of the numbers - not to change them.
Publishing & Keeping Watch
Once the monthly re-scoring cycle completes, the updated ratings go live. Monitoring systems watch for license changes or shifts in payout performance and flag anything worth a closer look.
Six commitments built into the score
These principles are embedded in the formula. Nothing overrides them.
Position is determined by data, never by money
Casinos cannot purchase placement. The platform runs on affiliate revenue, but the ranking itself comes purely from the formula - financial arrangements have zero influence on position.
The algorithm decides, I do not
I set the weights and select the data sources once. After that point, the scoring engine operates without intervention - no manual adjustments, no exceptions, no override buttons.
Built for the person funding the deposit
Every weight, every predatory term flagged, every feature on this site exists because it helps someone choose a casino more carefully - not because a casino operator requested it.
All methodology is visible and testable
The scoring logic is documented publicly. Data sources are named. Each calculation step is published. Anyone with the same inputs can reproduce any casino's rating.
Every rating recalculates monthly
Outdated scores mislead players. A scraper re-evaluates each casino's rating once per month against current licensing, recent payout test data, and the latest terms snapshot.
Errors and fixes live in the open
When a rating is incorrect or the scraper encounters a failure, I log both the error and the correction in a public changelog. Reader reports are tracked the same way.
Why Affiliate Revenue Never Changes a Casino's Score
How the infrastructure and day-to-day process keep casino ratings independent of the revenue stream that funds GambleGrade.
I run this platform on my own, and there's no sales team lobbying for ranking bumps. The scoring system draws exclusively from the rating dataset - affiliate records sit in a completely separate database that the formula can't touch.
Every casino goes through the same six pillars with identical weighting. Trust & licensing, bonus fairness, payout speed, payment methods, mobile experience, user feedback - the inputs and thresholds stay the same for all brands, whether I earn a commission from them or not.
When you click certain links, I receive a referral fee - that's always disclosed right where the link is. Whether a casino pays affiliate commission only determines if I earn from it; it doesn't shift their rating or change where they sit in the catalogue.
Casinos can submit factual updates - a new regulator licence, an extra payment option, corrected branding. I check each one by hand before it enters the system. Rating adjustments and ranking changes can't be requested, negotiated, or bought.
Six pillars. One public formula. Scores that stay honest.
I rate every casino across six areas using fixed weightings and verifiable data. The full breakdown - exact calculation steps, what each flag means, where the data comes from - is published on the methodology page so you can run through any score yourself.
Trust & License
Regulator jurisdiction, operator history, automated review of terms-of-service pages for dodgy clauses, live support response times.
Payout Speed
Real withdrawal times pulled from transaction data - same-day payouts rank higher than multi-day delays.
Fair Bonuses
Actual bonus value after you factor in wagering friction, cashout caps, and unfavourable term restrictions.
Player Reviews
Feedback collected from Trustpilot, AskGamblers, public forums, and other spaces where players share honest accounts.
Payment Options
Range of deposit and withdrawal methods - cards, e-wallets, bank transfers, cryptocurrencies - plus minimum stakes and maximum cashout rules.
Site Performance & Mobile
Load times, menu layout, mobile experience, and whether the platform stays reliable when traffic picks up.