A bookmaker outside our guide surrendered its licence last month and closed to UK customers with balances still on account. We have followed what happened to those balances, because it is the question readers ask most often about operator risk and the answer depends on a single line in the terms that almost nobody reads.
That line is the customer-funds protection rating. Every licensed operator must say whether customer balances are held separately from operating funds and at what level: basic, medium or high. At basic protection the funds are segregated but not protected on insolvency; at medium they are held in a trust or insurance arrangement; at high they are legally ring-fenced. The operator in question held medium protection, and balances were returned within six weeks through the arrangement.
Every operator in our guide states its rating in the licensing section of its review, and the security score is marked down at basic. Two of the fifteen hold high protection, ten hold medium and three hold basic. It is a duller figure than a welcome offer and a far more important one, and it is the first thing we check when an operator enters the guide.
