no reviews There is no list of best operators, no review and no recommendation. The series' rule is that rankings are out of scope permanently. The only commercial element is the disclosed link.
Hold Desk / About
Figure 14
A single-topic desk, with its arithmetic shown
Hold Desk is one of a series of narrow reference sites, each explaining one mechanism of online gambling or betting in depth. This one is about the figures an operator reports about itself: what each one counts, what it is built from, and where the shares of it go.
Figure stub
- Sheet
- HD-58-15
- Subject
- About the project
- Type
- one topic, covered in depth
- Funding
- one disclosed affiliate link
gross winWhat was kept: everything staked minus everything returned to players
the holdThe gross win divided by turnover, measured over a period and a whole book of play
net revenueWhat survives the bonus line, and the definition a reader should check first
Direct answerThis site explains how a gambling operator's own published figures are built: turnover against gross win, the hold and why it is not a game's edge, the customer count and the revenue per customer, the cost of acquiring one, the bonus line, the mix, and the months a customer has to stay to repay their acquisition. It is funded by one disclosed affiliate link and rates no operator.
What this desk is
It is a reference page for one subject, written to be useful to a reader with a specific question: what a hold actually measures, why revenue per customer moves when the definition of active changes, or what an advertised bonus really costs. The approach is the same as the rest of the series. One topic per site, the mechanism first, the arithmetic shown, and no ranking of operators - because a ranking is a recommendation and this desk makes none.
How it is funded, stated plainly
The site carries one affiliate link, in the masthead and in the bands beside the copy on several pages, marked as sponsored and opening in a new tab. If a reader opens an account through it, the site may be paid, at no extra cost to the reader. That arrangement is disclosed here and on every page, and it is disclosed with the arithmetic: this desk's subject is money taken from players, so the reader is entitled to see exactly how the site itself is paid.
What it does not do
no ranking
no figures of ours
no real numbers No real company's revenue, hold or customer count is quoted. Every figure is labelled illustrative and comes from one sample business defined on the overview, so the arithmetic can be re-derived and checked.
no advice
information This is explanation, not legal, financial or gambling advice. It is not investment research, it is not a method for playing, and where a company's own reporting differs from a figure here, the reporting decides.
How the numbers were produced
- One sample business, defined once. £100,000,000 staked, £4,000,000 of gross win, 500,000 active customers, £55.00 to acquire one. Every other figure on the site is derived from those four.
- Every derivation is shown. The hold, the per-customer figures, the bonus cost, the mix and the payback month are all set out as arithmetic rather than stated as results.
- Definitions are preferred over headlines. Where two figures carry one name, the page says which is being used, because that confusion is the single most common error in this field.
- Nothing is asserted about a named operator. The desk describes mechanisms and declines to review, which is why no brand is named anywhere except the disclosed partner link.
The rest of the series
The other desks cover the rail a deposit travels on, the conditions a bonus carries, the maths inside a game, the exchange that prices a bet against a bet, the pool that pays a dividend on a race, the custody of a balance sitting in an account, the interface that frames a play, and the licensing, tax, identity and dispute machinery around all of them. Each is independent and each explains its own mechanism; they cross-link only where a reader's next question genuinely needs another page.