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How we rank

Four criteria decide the order, weighted in this sequence. Every one of them comes from something we measured or something the operator publishes.

Last updated 16 September 2026 · Written by Ruth Kellaway, payments editor

1. Approval speed, measured

The heaviest weighting, because it is the part the operator controls. We record how long the site took to approve each request, across at least three requests on different days including a weekend. Approval inside 30 minutes scores well. Anything sitting in manual review beyond 24 hours costs a site several places.

A site that approves automatically around the clock beats one quoting a shorter window in working days, every time.

2. Payment rails actually available

A cashier is only as quick as its fastest usable option, so we check which rails are open to a UK player rather than which appear in a global list. Credit cards are not usable for gambling here, so we weight open banking, Faster Payments, Skrill, Neteller and crypto, and note what is missing. A cashier offering debit card only drops down the list.

3. Limits and fees

We record the withdrawal minimum and the weekly and monthly ceilings in pounds, check whether the site passes on network or processing charges, and flag operators that split a larger balance into instalments without saying so upfront. A weekly cap of £2,000 turns a £10,000 win into a five-week wait, and no processing window changes that.

4. Friction in the terms

Reversal windows, pending periods, document rules requested only after a win, and clauses that let an operator pause a payout with no deadline attached. Vague wording counts against a site. A stated window in minutes counts for more than one stated in working days.

Offer value is the tie-breaker

Bonus size against its wagering requirement, expiry, maximum bet rule, game weighting and maximum win cap. This decides between two sites that are otherwise level. It is deliberately last, because a bonus is a reason your balance is locked, not a reason it moves faster.

What we do not do

We do not sell position, and no operator has paid for one. We do not rank on commission rate. We do not copy figures between sites. Every number on a page was either measured by us or read off that operator’s own pages on the date shown.

Where we could not verify something, we say “not published” or “not timed” rather than estimating. An empty cell is more useful than a confident guess.

When we re-check

Monthly as standard, and immediately when something material changes: a new pending period, a dropped payment method, a changed cap, or a reader telling us a payout behaved differently from what we published. Corrections go on the page with the date.

If you think something here is wrong, tell us. That is the fastest way it gets fixed.