iGaming Business magazine iGB 111 July/Aug | Page 121

Payments
dynamic areas of technology, and the pace of change and innovation
continues to pick up speed.
Operators are constantly having to manage their own payment
ecosystem, dealing with regulation, fraud and chargebacks, scheme
changes and a wide network of suppliers. In addition to this, the
growing demand for new payment methods shows no sign of
relenting, nor does the challenge of keeping up with the competition.
As a result, many operators may find themselves trapped in a
never-ending cycle, balancing ‘business as usual’ tasks and the need
for innovation.
Highlighting payments performance
One area where there should be more focus is payment performance.
Every operator’s payment infrastructure differs. It is important they
have a thorough understanding of each specific component of their
payments process and how it is currently performing. This will
allow them to work with their providers to navigate the complexity
of payment processing. The objective is simple: to identify specific,
tangible areas for improvement.
It’s very much like the ‘marginal gains’ philosophy that has been
deployed by many successful sports teams over recent years, where
making small improvements in multiple areas results in a significant
advantage overall.
behaviour. By utilising this data in this way, it becomes easier to
efficiently manage and reject potentially fraudulent transactions,
while at the same time maintaining, allowing and optimising the
right level of deposits to be captured.
Data-driven decisions can deliver significant improvements
across the entire payments economy, not just in terms of increasing
acceptance but also in improving the customer payment experience.
All of this ultimately leads to higher revenues and better margins.
Future-proof performance
Given the pace of change and innovation within the gambling
sector, as well as within payments, the focus on payments
performance needs to be ongoing. In fact, it needs to be the lens
through which operators approach all payments decisions.
“Data-driven decisions can deliver
significant improvements across
the entire payments economy,
not just in terms of increasing acceptance
but also in improving
the customer payment experience”
Performance starts and ends with data
Driving payments performance is all about identifying and
utilising meaningful data, analysing that data, benchmarking it,
and then implementing a strategic plan to improve and optimise
the process.
The type of data across the payment landscape is wide ranging,
covering all aspects such as issuer responses or extended decline
information, gateway configuration or transaction type flagging,
acquirer set-up, currency usage or preferred local payment method
process flow and responses.
Another example of an area where data and insight is beneficial
is fraud prevention and management. Operators can analyse data
to accurately identify root causes of fraud and predict patterns of
Nobody can say for certain how gambling or payments will evolve
over the next five to ten years. To future-proof their payments
ecosystem and operations as a whole, then, it’s essential that
operators establish an agile payments set-up which can adapt to
new technologies and enable them to embrace new opportunities.
In practice, this means regular reviews of new payment
methods and regulatory requirements, emerging technologies,
cryptocurrencies and wider consumer trends. It’s about having an
open mindset and an appetite to model and plan for future scenarios.
When implementing a strategy for continued success and efficiency,
it is important to include an element of longer-term planning to
remain on the front foot and stay ahead of the game.
iGamingBusiness | Issue 111 | July/August 2018
119