eCOGRA

What the company does

eCOGRA was established in 2003 as an industry initiative at a time when there was almost no statutory regulation of online gambling, and its seal was intended to give players a way of distinguishing operators that submitted to independent review. It later became an accredited testing laboratory working to regulators' technical standards.

Its published return-to-player reports are the part of its work most visible to players: an audit that states the actual payout percentage recorded over a period, as distinct from the theoretical figure in the paytable. The two differ over short periods and converge over long ones, which is the single most useful thing a player can understand about the numbers.

The organisation's history is a reminder that parts of the online gambling rulebook were written by the industry before governments took an interest, and that some of today's statutory requirements began as voluntary seals.

Where this sits in the supply chain

Independent laboratories that test games, random number generators and platforms against each jurisdiction's technical standard. No licensed market accepts a game into service without a certificate from one of them.

All companies filed under testing and certification