Editorial policy
This page explains how The Playbook USA handles authorship, sourcing, corrections, commercial separation, market labeling, and current editorial ownership across live routes. It is a governance page, not a slogan page.
What this policy covers
Open methodologyAuthorship and scope
This policy explains how the site handles editorial responsibilities, sourcing, and correction logic across different page families.
Commercial separation
It explains how monetization is separated from page governance, correction handling, and route ownership.
Change control
It explains how updates, corrections, and challenges should work without pretending every route follows one universal SLA.
What content types we publish
| Page type | Primary job |
|---|---|
| Review pages | Operator fit, downside checks, cashier and verification context |
| Bonus pages | Terms, caps, route ownership, and anchor integrity |
| Category pages | Intent separation and comparison logic |
| State pages | Legal and local-market context |
| Process pages | Methodology, disclosure, corrections, and transparency |
| News pages | Time-sensitive coverage only when live reporting exists |
Standards by page type
Review page standard
Reviews need operator-specific fit, visible downside, and route discipline. They should not behave like bonus shells.
Bonus page standard
Bonus pages need wording restraint, route ownership clarity, and destination honesty when they hand traffic into review anchors.
Category page standard
Category pages need clear comparison logic and should not pretend to be operator pages or one-off legal explainers.
State page standard
State pages need precise legal and regulator framing. They should not become operator sales pages.
Market-label rules
Open state guidesRegulated
Use exact state and regulator wording. Avoid generic fallback claims that flatten local context.
Offshore
Avoid broad legality shortcuts, payment bravado, or payout certainty that the page cannot support.
Sweepstakes
Use sweepstakes-specific vocabulary and do not blur these routes into ordinary real-money casino copy.
Hybrid
Keep sportsbook, casino, payout, and market-context questions separated so one page does not overclaim across all of them.
Sourcing hierarchy
- Operator terms and live product screens when route wording depends on operator-controlled details.
- Official regulator and state sources when legal or market context is the real question.
- Direct testing notes and documented page checks where route-level evidence is visible.
- Public process pages for methodology, disclosure, and corrections.
- Internal editorial review when a route needs clarification, not slogan-level trust language.
Corrections and changes
Report an issueReaders can challenge a live claim
The strongest correction requests name the exact URL and the exact statement that looks wrong.
Corrections override convenience
If a route needs a factual or wording correction, the policy expectation is to fix it rather than defend a stale claim.
Changelog discipline matters
Meaningful changes should be reflected in changelog patterns where relevant instead of hidden behind generic freshness language.
Editorial decision rights
| Topic | Owned by | Escalates to |
|---|---|---|
| Review quality and downside visibility | Michael Johnson | Methodology / editorial policy |
| Query-match and terminology | Sarah Roberts | Editorial policy |
| Bonus wording and anchor governance | David Thompson | Editorial policy |
| Sportsbook crossover and market framing | Kevin Lee | Methodology / editorial policy |
Correction severity ladder
| Severity | Typical issue | Expected response |
|---|---|---|
| Low | Minor typo or formatting issue | Correction queue or direct page cleanup |
| Medium | Stale route, mislabeled support card, or broken anchor | Route-family correction and changelog when relevant |
| High | Wrong market label or material wording drift | Priority review by the owning editor role |
| Critical | Wrong legal shortcut, payout claim, or bonus claim that changes user decisions | Fast correction plus process review if the pattern is wider than one page |
AI and automation rules
Human editorial ownership stays visible
Tools may support drafting or QA, but current human ownership should remain visible on routes where it matters.
Rendered reality beats internal slogans
This policy does not use AI or automation as a reason to promise more than the page or route can prove.
Process routes stay inspectable
Methodology, disclosure, and team ownership should remain public so readers can audit the system, not just the prose.
Commercial separation
Open disclosureRankings are not inventory
Commercial relationships do not define the verdict, route job, or correction path of a page.
Disclosure has its own page
Affiliate disclosure explains monetization so this policy can focus on editorial governance instead of trust slogans.
Policy is not operator advertising
This page avoids using "independent" as a sales pitch and instead explains how commercial separation should work operationally.
When commercial convenience and accuracy conflict
Corrections beat conversion friction
If a route needs a factual correction, the correction should win even when the change is commercially inconvenient.
Operator changes beat cached page copy
When operator-controlled terms move, live page wording should yield instead of clinging to older claims.
Cleanup beats convenience
If a page drifts away from its route job, internal cleanup should override the temptation to keep a broader, more commercial shell.
Editorial responsibilities today
Open team hubMichael Johnson
Review standards, payouts, verification notes, and operator-level QA.
Current roleSarah Roberts
Research editing, terminology, query-match, and clarity control.
Current roleDavid Thompson
Promotions review, rollover wording, anchor governance, and disclosure restraint.
Current roleKevin Lee
Sportsbook crossover, market context, and payout-route framing.
Editorial examples by page family
Open live routes| Page | Page family | Why the example matters |
|---|---|---|
| /reviews/fanduel/ | Regulated review | Keeps casino-first onboarding visible while routing broader sportsbook comparison outward. |
| /reviews/stakeus/ | Sweepstakes review | Keeps sweepstakes vocabulary and avoids real-money or frozen legal-map drift. |
| /bonuses/no-deposit/ | Bonus page | Uses route ownership and safe review-anchor handoff instead of fake detail trees. |
| /states/ | State page family | Owns legal and local-market routing so those claims do not leak into sales-heavy routes. |
| /how-we-test/ | Process page | Explains evidence standards without pretending every route carries one testing model. |
How readers can challenge this policy
Name the exact URL
The most useful challenge starts with a route and a statement, not a general complaint about trust.
Show the mismatch
Explain what the page promises, what it proves, and what route or support page should have owned the question instead.
Use current process routes
Compare what you see here with how we test, affiliate disclosure, and the relevant live route before you send feedback.
Recent policy updates
Where to go next
Use the route that owns your actual question instead of forcing this policy page to act like an operator guide or a state guide.