How we work

01Starting point: what a review here actually relies on

There are two ways to review a slot. One is based on anecdotes from a session: what happened when the writer played for an hour, how often the bonus hit, how big the largest win was. The other is based on verifiable material: the provider's own specifications and the feature descriptions as they appear in our catalog data.

We work according to the other model, and we say it plainly because it changes how you should read us. One hour with a game says almost nothing statistically. If a writer says the bonus "hit often", they have described 300 spins out of a mathematical model built for millions. We'd rather tell you how the model is set up than what happened by chance one afternoon.

The consequence is that you won't find personal session accounts on this site. No narrative about what happened on a given afternoon, no tally of how often a writer triggered the bonus round. If you do come across that kind of thing in a text here, it's an error and we'd like to be informed.

02Step 1: the figures are locked first

Before a word is written about a game, we collect the factual fields: provider, release date, reel structure, number of win ways or paylines, RTP, volatility level, maximum win expressed in times stake, and whether a bonus buy exists. The source is our catalog data, which comes from providers' published data sheets. We have not opened the games' information screens ourselves — where the catalog source is silent, we state that.

If a field is not stated, we write that it is not stated. We don't guess, we don't round up to the nicer number, and we don't borrow a figure from a previous edition of the same game series because it seems likely. A missing disclosure is information in itself: a game where the ceiling for the maximum win is not shown tells you something about how transparent the provider is.

03Step 2: read the feature list as a description, not a promise

The next step is the mechanics. We go through what the features do, how they’re triggered according to the description, and how they interact with each other. Multipliers that are added behave differently than multipliers that are multiplied. A wild that only lands on three reels is a different thing than a wild that can land anywhere. Four free spins with a growing multiplier are not the same product as fifteen free spins with a fixed multiplier.

Here we try to translate marketing language into something usable. Providers love grand words about their own features. Our task is to write what actually happens on the reels, and how often it can happen according to the description. When something cannot be inferred from the available material, we state that it cannot be inferred.

04Step 3: read the casinos' terms, not the banner

When we refer to a casino, the bonus terms carry the assessment. We look at the wagering requirement and whether it's applied to the bonus alone or to deposit plus bonus. We look at the maximum stake while a bonus requirement runs, at the time limit, at the cap on what a bonus can pay out, and at which games actually count.

Added to that are the practical matters: which payment methods exist, what is stated about withdrawal times, how verification is described, and which licence the operator declares. We only reproduce what actually appears in the terms. If a figure is not provided, it is marked not provided — we do not fill gaps with industry averages.

05Step 4: players' own experiences

Terms state what a casino has promised. They do not tell how the operator behaves when a payout is large, or when an account needs to be verified. Therefore we read publicly available player reviews and complaints and note patterns – not individual cases.

One single angry review says nothing. Thirty reviews over a year, all about the same delayed verification process, on the other hand, say something. We record such things as a pattern with caveats, not as a verdict, and we never present a complaint as an established fact.

06How the character is created

The rating on a game page falls between 5.5 and 9.0 and is an overall assessment, not a calculation with fixed weights. Four things weigh most: the payout percentage compared with the provider's other catalog, the relationship between volatility and the cap on the maximum win, whether the bonus round adds anything beyond extra free spins, and whether the game stands out from the many other Olympus titles.

We don't give all games 8.0. A catalog in which everything is rated as good is a catalog with no value. When we give a low rating, the reasoning is in the text so you can disagree on an informed basis.

07What we explicitly do not do

We don't claim to have played through the titles, and we present no photographic evidence from our own play sessions as proof of anything. We do not record how many rounds it took for a bonus to trigger. We do not invent licence numbers, company names or addresses for operators. We don't promise winnings, strategies or systems, and we don't write that a game 'must' pay out.

Finally, we don't recommend a casino because the commission is high. We have no problem making money from the site, but the order matters: the review first, the business afterwards.