Interview with the CEO of UnionSlots: Why We Launched a UK Slot Review Platform in 2025

When UnionSlots entered the UK online market in April 2025, multiple people believed that this platform was destined to fail. After all, the slot industry seems oversaturated with providers, news outlets, and recommendation websites — who needs another one so late in the game?

However, UnionSlots surprised us all. By the end of 2025, they are flourishing, and the number of their online visitors keeps going up on a monthly basis. What secret approach are they using, and how did they get the courage to launch a slots review portal despite facing such fierce, intense competition?

Today, we’ll be talking to Edward Farnell, the CEO of UnionSlots. See what he has to say to get a deeper understanding of how slot reviews work when they are truly independent.

Q1: Why did you decide to launch UnionSlots in 2025?

That’s the question I’ll never tire of answering. One of the reasons we decided to launch the UnionSlots website was our desire to create the first transparent review platform in the UK that wouldn’t be compromised by endless nonsensical promos and promises that never lead anywhere. Open communication is everything, but if you look at other websites, you’ll see a whole bunch of problems.

Many of such sites claim they are independent, but then I have a question: if they really are, why are they hosting so many ads? And why so many of them clearly break the UK editorial standards? Someone oblivious might stumble upon one of such sites, see a recommendation that goes against every single British law, and follow it because they put their trust in the wrong platform.

I won’t say that every existing review website is misleading, but a lot of them are. Others provide just generic suggestions. They aren’t focused on the UK scene in particular, and that’s another issue we wanted to rectify.

The mission of UnionSlots is to remain a purely UK-based platform that posts transparent and independent views of our team. We cannot be bought or bribed; we truly, genuinely love slots and what they represent, and we’re excited to recommend the ones that impressed us most. Slot fans have to stick together; that’s why UnionSlots was born.

Q2: What kind of team stands behind UnionSlots? Are you comfortable with them?

See, that’s where a common misconception lies. Am I comfortable with my team? Yes, of course I am — otherwise, I wouldn’t be working with them. The more important question is, are they comfortable with me? I hope they are. That’s why I initiated a Monday coffee hour where we all meet and discuss what’s on our minds.

It’s not just about work: we discuss what concerns us, talk about what we did during the weekend, criticise the latest movies and brainstorm. We are friends and allies, not just colleagues, and I think if my team were uncomfortable with me, they would feel safe and open enough to say it.

We have a content specialist, our slot reviewer, a growth manager, a regulatory compliance expert, and a marketing specialist. For now, this is enough. We are a close-knit community, and we absolutely enjoy spending time with one another. Hopefully, our work reflects it.

Q3: What does UnionSlots offer to its readers?

Oh, that’s a great question. We offer much more than just real slot reviews. For one thing, we break our recommendations into different categories: for example, if you’re looking for the most popular slots in the UK, you’ll need to go to one page. If you’re interested in accessing the newest slots, we’ll direct you to another page. You can find them based on their specific features, too, so our content is structured to help everyone find exactly what they are looking for as quickly as possible.

We also deliver technical overviews, but we present them in simple words to make sure that even inexperienced visitors will get it. Let’s say you want to understand the most common slot features: you can do that by reading our explanations and seeing the examples we provide.

We review the most popular UK slot providers, too, because that’s something a lot of people want to know about. If you like a specific title, and then another one, and you find out that both of them came from the same provider, you’ll want to check out what else they offer for sure.

Q4: How do you choose which slots to recommend; is it a joint decision?

As I said earlier, we have our main slot reviewer who already tested over 1000 demo titles. If he gets too excited about one of the titles, and then our regulatory compliance expert sees that this title breaks the UKGC or ASA guidelines, obviously, we end up not recommending it. So, in a way, it’s a joint effort, but a larger part of the decisions is made by our reviewer. We can share our personal recs, he will go through them, and then he’ll come up with a top list.

Q5: Why is the UKGC and ASA compliance so central to your editorial approach?

Because compliance means safety, and safety is the most important thing in the world. Slots are meant to be fun, a way to distract and enjoy yourself. No one wants to get in trouble just for picking the wrong platform or seeing a bad ad.

UnionSlots believes that the UKGC and ASA are two immovable pillars of security. They provide boundaries to protect users from the potentially harmful influence of different platforms, so we wholeheartedly support them. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: our goal is to be genuinely helpful. That’s the only way to preserve our reputation — and we’re already quite popular in the circles of fellow slot lovers.

Q6: UnionSlots reviews slots, but without promotion. How does that work in practice?

It works so easily that I’m surprised that just a few platforms have tried this approach before us. Basically, you need to follow one single rule: describe what exists, not what it promises to deliver.

Think about it: there is no universal movie or book that the entire world would love. Even if billions of people are in love with something, there will always be somebody scoffing and criticising this thing. Because that’s what people are: we are different, we have different tastes.

If we post a review with a promo stating that this slot will change everyone’s life, and then it doesn’t happen, we’ll be liars. A disappointed user will never go back to UnionSlots — why would we encourage this kind of outcome? No, we stick to reviewing design, music, features, and providers, and we say exactly what we think.

Q7: How do you approach content standards differently from older slot review sites?

I think it’s all about intent and willingness to change. Older slot review sites were largely created to persuade the user to choose this or that product. They used emotional language and made selective emphasis while ignoring the less savoury facts — that’s manipulative, and it goes against the UK regulatory expectations.

There might be platforms that really want to be helpful to their users, but their content standards have grown outdated, and they either don’t realise it or have no desire to change it. I know it; I’ve seen it with my own eyes when I was doing market research.

UnionSlots differs from these models a lot. To us, slots are products that have to be examined, described, and put in a context. We don’t see them as something to advertise or encourage; this helps us to stand out from our potential competitors. UnionSlots provides clarity without influence.

Q8: What challenges is UnionSlots facing, and what are your plans for the future?

Let me think for a moment. Well, for now, I’d identify 3 key challenges. The first one is user expectations. Some people find our approach strange and unfamiliar: they’re so used to being influenced to choose specific slots that a milder, fact-based attitude throws them off. Others are sceptical about how transparent we really are, so they keep waiting for us to slip or something.

The second problem is the degree of emotion we can put into our reviews. We are people, we have our likes and dislikes, and sometimes our slot reviewer gets so excited that he uses way too many feelings when describing his experience. We need to remove them, but still find a way to keep the tone personal and genuine.

The third problem is, well, meeting the UKGC and ASA standards is great, but it’s also kind of hard! We need to do a lot of monitoring and internal training to make sure we don’t miss anything.

As for our future plans… we intend to keep focusing on quality over quantity. Our goal isn’t to review as many UK slots as possible; we want to be able to offer real value to our readers. Give us a year or two, and we might become the most trusted slot-review platform in the UK.

UnionSlots Setting New Standards

UnionSlots has already established itself as a fair and transparent platform that publishes honest reviews about different UK-legal slots. Edward Farnell took risks when he decided to launch this website in 2025, a year known for its cut-throat competition, but these risks paid off. Today, a lot of UK slot fans already recognise the name of UnionSlots and consult it whenever they’d like to discover new titles.

Fingers crossed that UnionSlots continues to follow its mission of delivering real opinions about various slots to its readers. The UK has some of the strictest regulations in the world; in an environment like this, compliance, ethics, and transparency can make all the difference.