Andrew Paton started playing poker in the early 2000s after being inspired by watching Late Night Poker, a UK-based poker show. Years later, he’s now a 3rd Line Poker Product Expert in our Malta office. This is a story of how one man’s passion turned into a career.
I played poker on and off for years until I found Unibet in 2016. I noticed several posters which caught my eye on a 2+2 poker forum, that suggested Unibet was a good site to play on. Intrigued, I created an account and started playing while reading the Official thread on 2+2. I was actually incredibly impressed with the way Unibet’s Head of Poker at the time made sure to respond to everyone's suggestions and requests nearly on a daily basis. The brand seemed very community-driven and player-focused to me.
Unibet’s poker forum ‘The Community’ launched that same year and that’s when I joined and became an active member. I started helping answer common questions in Unibet’s community forum and 2+2 at the same time, as I thought it was a good way to help the poker team use their time more effectively, instead of answering the same questions over and over. I also started providing bug reports and client feedback, as I wanted the product to be the best it could be so more players would join. This, in turn, would mean bigger tournaments and better prizes for me to potentially win.
During my first Unibet Open stop in Feb 2018 in London, I met the employee who was running the Unibet Community forum at the time, and that lead me to learn about the 3rd Line Poker Product expert role. Putting faces to online usernames really helped reinforce the family feel of Unibet players. Everyone in the group loved to play poker and used the Unibet poker client regularly; they seemed genuinely proud of being part of and representing it. Compared to some of the bigger sites, the Unibet community felt so much friendlier and personal.
At the start of 2019, a small group was set up with some regular customers to get direct feedback on features and promotions before they were made public. Being part of this group gave me even more access to the team and enabled me to continue to provide feedback that would hopefully shape the client and the overall product for the better.
When a vacancy for the 3rd Line Poker Product expert role was posted on the group and the opportunity to join the poker team came up, I immediately snapped it up! I didn’t expect much due to my lack of working experience in iGaming, but I crossed my fingers and sent the application through anyway.
I think what might have set me apart from the other candidates was my passion for the Unibet poker product. Previously as a customer, and now as a team member, making it the best place to play poker has always been my number one goal. I went through the complete Kindred recruitment process and as part of the second interview, I was required to suggest feedback on the Multi-Table Tournament lobby in the poker software. As an avid MTT player myself, it was always the thing I was the most passionate about, so the task was perfect for me! I was able to reference those community posts I’d made as a customer over the years.
I’m incredibly grateful to Kristoffer Bergvall, Head of Poker and the poker team for seeing the potential and passion in me and hiring someone who is just entering their iGaming career. My aim is to drive Unibet’s ‘By players, for players” ethos, by ensuring that every customer has the most enjoyable poker experience every time they log in. My top priority is ensuring the high level of customer support that I always received as a player, is continued and improved upon.
It’s an honour and a privilege to be part of the team I’ve always seen as the leader in providing a customer-focused poker experience. I’m delighted to be able to take my passion for poker to the next level while playing my part in providing the best poker experience to all the Unibet players.
