How does our algorithm work?

Many sports betting review sites offer the user or visitor the opportunity to rate different bookmakers, and this is very good as it gives punters the opportunity to share experiences with other punters so they can make an informed decision as to whether a certain bookmaker is a good fit.

Although these ratings are a good start, the question is…….do they go far enough?

Most review sites in any business have review ratings from 1-5. We are sure you may have come across this on the internet before.

At BookmakerAdvisor we have taken this to a different level. In order to give a true value of a bookmakers website and offer, we need to look at each element in depth. For example website usability is an important factor for visitors to a sportsbook.

Let’s look at how BookmakerAdvisor does this, shall we?

In order to provide the user with a real rating of a sportsbook we have broken this down into 8 components, so at the very basic level we are looking at:

• Website
• Trust
• Odds quality
• Market coverage & selection of bets
• In play betting
• Bonuses and promotions
• Deposits and withdrawals
• Customer Service

Let’s use website as our example.

Now under website we break this down further by looking at both desktop and mobile. With more users betting “on the go” then mobile is probably more important.

We use something called “weighting” which tells us which is most important. Is it element A (desktop) or element B (mobile). So BookmakerAdvisor have built an algorithm that we use to analyse all the data that a user adds to an online sportsbook review. Our algorithm is like a little mad scientist working feverishly in the background as you add your views and opinions.

Let’s look at the website rating as an example of how the algorithm works.

So for example, desktop may have a weighting of 30% and mobile may have a rating of 70%. It means we give more importance to mobile as this is the device that most people are using, how do we know? Because this is what we see from our own website.

Now just because we say desktop is 30% does not mean that is it, oh no! We go much more in depth. We don’t want to confuse you, but we feel it is really important that you understand exactly how the algorithm works, because our end goal is to be the best independent sports betting review site on the web, and the only way to do that is by being fully transparent with our users.

So Website has three different areas to rate:

1. Design – How does it look? Is it easy on the eye or is it confusing

2. Usability – Is it easy to find the sport and more importantly the market you want to bet on, Is it easy to find a help and support link.

3. Functionality – Is it easy to place a bet? Is the bet slip easy to use or is it confusing? Do they have tools on the site like statistics, sports data and betting calculators?

We then go even further. So under design we would ask you the question, “Do you like the design?” and under usability we would ask you the question, “Do you find it easy to place a bet?”.

For you these are just a case of giving a yes or no answer or a rating of 1-5 in a simple one click interface, but in the background your information is being calculated by our algorithm and then giving a complete score for your whole review.

A review for you might take a couple of minutes, but in the long term it adds massive value for other users. The only way to get really informative and honest reviews is by doing it scientifically which is what our review engine does……..with your valuable input of course.

Now we have just touched on Website but we measure seven other very important factors when coming up with a review score.

Trusting an online sportsbook or the company behind it is important in making the decision to set up an account and deposit funds to that account. Some of the things we looked at and measure inside the algorithm are: company history, licenses they hold now or have held in the past and also when it is possible to find the data we look at the parent company financials and annual reports as well as any citations from the UK Gambling Commission and past complaints and reviews from users like yourself.

Not many punters actually take the time or in alot of cases have the knowledge of how to understand betting margins and how they affect your potential winnings. Our aim at Bookmaker Advisor is to educate and help you understand this important factor so you can make your betting pay in the
long run.

At BookmakerAdvisor we rate the odds by the margin a bookmaker makes on each sport.

For example bookmaker A may run their football betting at a 2% margin whilst bookmaker b might have a margin of 4%. In this instance bookmaker A is better to have a bet on football with as long as the odds that
are offered are competitive.

It is this sort of information our algorithm looks at to provide you with the right data to make the best decisions on whatever sport you are betting on.

In an increasingly competitive industry (sports betting) market coverage and selection of bets is very key. We look at this on a sport by sport basis so that you have a clear indication what are the best sports to bet on. Football of course has tens of thousands of markets and it is key to look at and understand which of these markets offer value (Odds quality) and which ones don’t.

Some bookmakers only offer standard bet types like singles, combination and multiple bets. Other sites may also offer bets like European and Asian Handicaps. By collecting data from reviewers like yourself, we can use our algorithm to give really good information on market depth by sport and which are the best bet types by sport.

When we are evaluating in-play betting, we look at a number of factors that are important:

Selection of In-play markets
Selection of In-Play bets
In play odds quality
In play live streaming and advanced statistics
A key part of live In-Play betting is having live data at hand so you can make quick decision. BetRadar are known to be the leader in providing live betting data to the sports betting industry and you can be sure if your bookmaker is using this service then your In-play stats are right on the ball. We look at this very important element in our review algorithm.

We actually do our own independent review of each bookmakers bonus offering (sign up bonus) as well as the promotions they offer by sport. Of course all bookmakers have generic offers but it is the specialist sport related promotions that we analyse and our new algorithm will help in showing even more data as we get more reviews to add to the existing ones.

We look at the amount of deposit & withdrawals options a company provide because in this day and age traditional card payments are not the only way in which players want to fund their accounts, e-wallets and pre paid cards are now mainstream and the ability for a sportsbook to offer these varied types of payment options is important.

We also look at the commissions and fees payable for deposit and withdrawal as well as the average withdrawal time for verified customers.

It does not matter what type of business your are in, top class customer service is critical and the same goes for the sports betting industry.

We look at and analyse a number of variables including:

1. Live Chat response time
2. Agent knowlegde on sports, markets and bet types
3. Does the sportsbook offer 24/7 support
4. Does it have a telephoen based customer service function (something becoming rarer these days)

The customer service can sometimes be the make or break in deciding which online bookmaker/s you choose to use.

Although we have our algorithm, this does not work unless we have input from you, the player.

The algorithm uses a number of criteria, weighting and different calculations when producing a final review score. But this score cannot be calculated unless there is input from players like yourself. In terms of odds then that is something we look at closely at BookmakerAdvisor, but all the other review measurements like website, trust, market coverage & selection of bets, In-play betting, bonuses and promotions, deposits and withdrawals and of course customer service, well they are things that need real human input.

It is these elements that help punters and players make informed decisions about the best bookmaker for them. We want your view to count, and help other punters.

We know that not all reviews are good, and unlike other sports betting review sites, BookmakerAdvisor wants only “real” informed reviews from real players who have used these bookmakers.

So if you add “website” to the above, you see we are measuring 8 different elements of a sports betting website and the total weight of all of these 8 elements is 100%.

Now we looked at “website” in detail but we have given that an overall weight in our algorithm of just 15%.

You might be thinking that website is the most important, and for you it could be.

We realise that where website might be the most important for you, odds might be the most important for one person, customer service might be the most important for another person. This is why we think our algorithm will provide really honest reviews.

Our expert team have spent many months analysing people visiting our review site. And we have used this data to build what we believe is the best and fairest review tool anywhere within the sports betting industry.

All that is left now is for you to help your fellow punters and leave reviews of the sportsbooks you use/have used and what you feel are the most important plusses and minuses.

We really welcome your input.