Bit of a rant, but heaps of the stuff you read about bookmakers online feels completely useless now. Every mob gets called "fast payouts", "great promos", "easy to use" like yeah right... half the time you sign up and find the limits are stingy, the rollover is a pain, or they go missing the second you need support.
I reckon random forum posts from actual punters are worth more than those shiny rating pages with their 9.7 scores and all that rubbish. If I'm checking out a new bookie for AFL or NRL, I care way more about whether they mess you around on withdrawals, how rough they are with verification, whether multis get restricted fast, and if the odds are actually any good once the promo fluff is stripped off.
Curious what everyone else goes by when sussing out a new site. Do you trust any review pages at all, or just word of mouth and your own trial run with a small deposit? Chuck in the names of any places that were genuinely decent too... and the ones that were bloody hopeless.