PAYNEARME
Assessing the payments landscape
Leighton Webb, VP and GM of online sports betting and iGaming at PayNearMe, provides an insight into what players are looking for in their payment experience.
GIO: What are players looking for in terms of payment options, security, and deposits and withdrawals? Leighton Webb: First and foremost, players are looking for speed, ease, and familiarity. This is why having the right mix of tender types in your cashier is critical. Players are looking for those familiar payment options that they already use in their day-to-day life; they don’t want to have to download a new app or spend time manually entering bank account or card information. The more the process is streamlined for them, the better.
Trust is vital within the payments landscape, especially for those new to online gaming. If a player feels uncomfortable sharing specific payment information within a gaming app or site, they won’t hesitate to abandon the process altogether. Players trust payment methods that they already use and that their bank accounts or cards may already be linked to, such as PayPal or Venmo.
When it comes to deposits, players want to see a successful payment made on the first try. According to our research, 17% of players who experienced a declined deposit payment left the app or site they were on and never returned. This is huge. For operators, decreasing your frequency of declines by offering deposit types that are more likely to be successful for players is key. It’s also important to tailor messaging so that if a player does experience a decline, they’re told why and they’re offered an alternative payment method. Operators should do everything they can to keep players from abandoning the payment flow.
For withdrawals, the number one factor for
player satisfaction is speed. In our research, 40% of players stated that it took more than a day to receive funds for an online gaming payout. 49% went on to say that they would play and withdraw more often if they had access to their preferred payout methods. So not only will the speed of the payout keep players coming back to your platform, but the methods offered will get them to play more frequently.
GIO: How can businesses provide players with the best possible experience in such a competitive industry? LW: We like to say that the entire player experience should be “pixel perfect”. At the
10 MAY 2023 GIO
preferred payment method from our survey was PayPal, with 64% of players stating its importance. Venmo was also a preferred payment method for 48% of survey respondents. So those classic methods like Visa and Mastercard still hold their own in the space, and they’re actually more frequently used than any of the digital payment options, despite any stats about player preferences. This could be attributed to the fact that e-wallet options aren’t available as frequently as those traditional payment types. That being said, cards can be subject to higher decline rates than some of the newer digital payment types. We already know that declines are a player deterrent, so it’s something to consider. If an operator does choose to accept credit cards, they’ll want to partner with a payment processor that’s familiar with gaming transactions and has experience with compliance, risk, and fraud within the gaming space.
first sign of a hiccup or glitch, players— especially new ones—can become leery of the entire process. Giving them that streamlined, seamless experience is how operators differentiate themselves. And as I mentioned before, there’s the matter of choice; players want to have the choice of payment types. 32% of players said they would make larger deposits more often if they had access to preferred payment types. That’s a significant number. Operators will see higher customer loyalty and higher player acquisition just by optimizing that mix of tender types.
GIO: How popular are classic payment methods like Visa and Mastercard compared to e-wallets and crypto payments? LW: Traditional cards are still a frequent and popular payment method for online gaming, with 63% of surveyed players saying that debit card payment options were important to them, along with 57% stating that credit cards were preferred. To put that in perspective, the most
GIO: What is the future of crypto payments? LW: The future of crypto remains to be seen. Macro conditions need to improve and regulations need to be ironed out before players and regulators are comfortable with crypto (specifically Bitcoin) being used in sports betting and iGaming.
GIO: The industry is constantly evolving, what do you expect to see in the payments landscape within the next five years? How can businesses stay up to date? LW: We expect to see more focus on improving operating margins, and payments is one key aspect in doing so. Gone are the days of acquiring new players no matter the cost. Instead, you’ll notice the operators who are able to find a path to profitability begin to pull ahead from those who don’t in the competitive market. Optimising payment margins is critical, and reducing acquisition cost while maximizing the lifetime value of players is the recipe to optimizing margins. In addition, scalability is key during online gaming’s rapid growth period. In 2023, operators will need to take a close look at which platforms will allow them to get to market quickly within new territories, with all major tender types.
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