Whether we’re experienced or inexperienced players of online casino, betting, and poker, we all have one thing in common. When we want to find a new site to play at, we turn to the almighty Google and simply ask what the best sites are. Hundreds and hundreds of results appear with so-called affiliate sites that are doing listings and recommending casinos, sports betting and poker platforms we shouldn’t miss out on.
These sites can be a blessing to use as they tell us about important factors that we ought to know about, including bonus terms, game selection, payment methods, customer support, and more.
However, they can also be a double-edged sword as many are not reliable for one reason or another, guiding you to a mediocre site that actually isn’t giving you the quality experience you deserve.
The Danger of Blindly Trusting Review Sites
The most dangerous thing about review sites is the mentality of the people who are running the sites. While information not being updated as it should is an issue on its own, what’s really concerning are the ethical values of the people. Do they want what’s best for us as visitors or do they only care about what’s in their best interest?
This comes down to the business model that all affiliate sites are using. They are affiliated with the gambling sites they promote, which means they either make money from just having them exposed or make money by their visitors signing up and playing at the gambling sites through them.
This is dangerous because if the affiliate site only cares about making money, they will list the sites that make them the most. Whichever sites offer them the best deals. Thus, you may see mediocre casinos, bookies and poker platforms being promoted as top-quality, 5-star ranked sites. Sites that objectively no one should play at considering the vast choices we as players have these days.
How Do You Know If a Review Site Is Reliable?
For the untrained eye, it is not easy. However, as weird as it may seem, there are in fact sites that review the review sites. An example is gambling affiliate review which goes through the trustworthiness of the affiliate sites and gives you a short briefing on what they have to offer
At the affiliate sites, you can also get a hunch of their trustworthiness by simply paying attention to things such as grammar, use of paragraphs, and overall quality of the site. Don’t just look at the brand listings. Scroll down a bit and take a few minutes of your time to read. If what you read is of questionable quality, the site probably doesn’t care too much about the listings either.
Another thing to look out for at the sites is if all brands on the listings have the same ranking. If you find a list with 10 sites and all of them are ranked a top score, it probably isn’t true. It might be, but even if sites are good, you can usually rank them better as they still have their differences. Just putting a top score on all of them could be a sign of laziness or a desperate scream that you should click on them.
