About Faders
Faders is an independent casino review desk built around one question: when you actually click withdraw, how long does it take for the money to land? Everything else on the site, the rankings, the bonus notes, the market guides, flows from the answer to that.
What we do
We cover six European markets - Austria, Belgium (both NL and FR), Germany, France and Sweden - and we rank casinos inside each one. The ranking is not a list of logos we collected in an affiliate dashboard. Every brand on it has been signed up for, deposited into with our own money, played through to clear the bonus terms, and timed on the way out. If an operator quietly starts dragging its withdrawal queue, we catch it on the next sweep and the ranking shifts.
We also run a small newsroom that tracks the regulators that matter to our six markets: the GGL in Germany, the ANJ in France, the Kansspelcommissie in Belgium, Spelinspektionen in Sweden, and the Austrian gambling framework around Casinos Austria AG. Regulatory moves change which brands are worth playing and what their bonus terms can legally promise, so we treat the news desk as part of the ranking process rather than a side project.
How we score a casino
Four factors go into the Faders score, and they are weighted, not averaged. Payout speed is the heaviest. A site that pays the same day is ranked above a site that pays the next day, even if the second one has a better welcome offer. The second factor is the honesty of the bonus. We read the small print, look at the wagering requirement, flag game weightings that quietly exclude the slots you actually want to play, and note any max-bet-while-bonus-active clauses. The third is the game library breadth and provider mix. The fourth is site quality: cashier reliability, support responsiveness, verification friction, and whether a mobile browser session does what the desktop version does.
No operator buys a position. We earn affiliate commission when a reader signs up through one of our links, and that commission is how the lights stay on, but the ranking is decided before the commercial deal is negotiated, not after. If a brand pays well but tests badly, it drops. If a brand pays poorly on commission but tests brilliantly, it goes to the top.
The editors
Tobias Richter
Desks: Germany and Austria. Fifteen years inside regulated German-language gambling, first behind the counter in Vienna and Hamburg and then as a reviewer for the DACH operators that came out of the GlueStV 2021 licensing wave. Covers LUGAS, OASIS, Austrian GSpG context and the German-language offshore brands players actually use when the licensed side feels too tight.
Contact: tobias@faders.io
Gabriel Mercier
Desks: France and Belgium (FR). A decade across the regulated European gambling space, working between Paris, Brussels and Malta. Tests every ANJ-licensed operator we rank through Revolut and Qonto fiat rails, and covers the French-speaking offshore market with a mix of crypto and international cards. Reads the Commission des Jeux rulings so you do not have to.
Contact: gabriel@faders.io
Fleur Smit
Desk: Belgium (NL). Eleven years tracking the Kansspelcommissie framework, from the 2018 act through F1+ licensing and now the 2026 EPIS tightening. Every KSC-licensed operator shortlist is a real-euro deposit, a timed withdrawal and a plain reading of the bonus terms. Also edits the Dutch-language newsroom coverage.
Contact: fleur@faders.io
Alexander Ekström
Desk: Sweden. Eight years operator-side in Swedish online gambling, running compliance, support and bonus management for two Spelinspektionen licensees before switching to the review bench. Tests licensed and offshore brands on the same Trustly, Swish and open-banking rails Swedish players actually use, and keeps an eye on the SEK 5,000 deposit-cap debate.
Contact: alexander@faders.io
On independence
Every page on Faders that recommends a casino is, in some sense, commercial. We sign operators up to our affiliate programme, we track clicks, and we earn commission when a reader turns into a paying customer. That is how an independent review site funds itself without charging the reader. We are explicit about this on every page and we have an affiliate disclosure that spells out the mechanics.
What we do not do is let the commercial side set the ranking. The editorial team decides what is tested, what passes the test, and what the ranking looks like. The commercial team signs the affiliate deals with the brands the editorial team has already approved. The two conversations do not meet, and the editors do not know what the commercial rate is on any given brand until well after the review is published.
Get in touch
Readers with corrections, tips, operator complaints or questions about a specific review can reach the desks directly by email above, or go through the contact page. Operators with licensing questions, affiliate enquiries or a complaint about a published review should also go through the contact page so the right desk picks it up.
If gambling is no longer fun, step away and get help. See our responsible gambling page for the helplines and self-exclusion tools available in each of our six markets.