SBR Review Rating Guide

[Hogie2010]

Hello all, long time reader, first time poster.

Since the BetonSports debacle I’ve been using the SBR Rating Guide as my new bible. I now only play A,B,C rated books. I still get calls and emails from D and F rated books and I politely tell them I only play A,B,C books from the SBR RG. They tell me that to get a good rating on that list you have to pay the owners of SBR $$$ and that I shouldn’t put much into the rating guide. Now I know a lot of low rated books would say something like this but I would like some comments on books paying to get a better rating. Is there any truth to these statements?

Hogie2010

[bigboydan]

first off, welcome to the sbrforum Hogie2010

as far as rating go. i don't have anything to do with them at all, so i can't really give an opinion on this subject. but i will say this though, all the books you see at the top of the page all are top notch books and pay on demand.

[Sean]

Is there any truth to these statements?

No. And any book that tells you that knows better ... many of the lower rated shops contact SBR on a regular basis attempting to negotiate a better grade and they all get the same basic answer: "Stop screwing players."

[pags11]

SBR does have business relationships with many of these books, but I feel they are very objective with their ratings...some books might be getting A+ when they deserve an A or A- because of this, but they wouldn't put a C book up into the A category just because of that business relationship...be confident in SBR's rating system as I know they are tweaking it with each month it exists...

[Patrick McIrish]

I still get calls and emails from D and F rated books and I politely tell them I only play A,B,C books from the SBR RG. They tell me that to get a good rating on that list you have to pay the owners of SBR $$$ and that I shouldn’t put much into the rating guide. Now I know a lot of low rated books would say something like this but I would like some comments on books paying to get a better rating. Is there any truth to these statements?

Hogie2010

I'll let John answer the part about whether or not it's ever happened before, I don't know about that, only he does. But what I do know is there is no better forum model than this one. SBR is allowed to make money but not solely at the expense of the players. They are still able to call a spade a spade like in the BOS fiasco that gave several of the forums a black eye yet still able to survive. EOG, RX, TOW and many others are so reliant on pure ad dollars they can not even pretend to be halfway objective on books. Just days after BOS stiffed some players the General was still out shilling tirelessly for them in the main forums, right in the face of not only the players getting stiffed but all of us. I guess once the ad money got involved he can't even fake that "player advocate" stuff any longer, he's there for the money and the money only. To be fair he's not the only one, sadly that's the way those other forums are forced to do business. EOG knew as well as anyone that BOS was a very very dangerous book for anyone to be playing at. In fact Shrink commented just month's before that his integrity meant too much for them to ever bring in either BetUS or BOS, yet in the end he was paying money out of his own pocket to help protect them and keep their banners flying high. RX came across just as poorly IMO.

Anyway not to get off the path but yes SBR is your best chance as a player new to the off-shore world. If you are ever going to hear the truth it will here, only time you can trust the other forums is when it's not an advertiser they are speaking about. And BTW you kind of answered your own question about books claiming they won't pay to get a better rating. If I was a D or an F rated book what would you say when confronted? Err... well that is because we won't pay for a rating, our integrity means too much to do that. Or would you say, yep they are right, we are a shit book and have earned that rating, can't believe anyone would ever send us a dollar! LOL.

[Dark Horse]

I don't even want to think what books would be getting away with without a watchdog organization as SBR. This is the closest thing you're going to find to a union in this field. And it's free!

If the high-rated books see an opportunity by advertising here, that is a win-win situation. Actually win-win-win: for SBR, the books, and for us. I have no questions whatsoever about SBR's integrity. Way too many people have been helped, way too much money paid out as a result.

[jjgold]

SBR is the only forum that does not take money to make the book look better than it is. RX , majorwager and EOG all take money and the highest bidders get lots of high marks from the forum owners regardless on how bad the book is. They are very bad places to visit and you will not get honest and accurate opinions on books.