Have you thought about operator benefits of shared due diligence and an open payment API. Do you know it could strengthen your KYC?

Gambling regulators in Europe have been piling the pressure on operators to prevent ‘gambling-related harm to customers and the public’. They enforce this through tough new fines and new rights for online gamblers to ‘self-exclude’ using one website.

Although UK gamblers will soon have the ability to opt out from all online betting using Gamstop; operators don’t have the option to opt out of regulatory compliance.

Recent high profile penalties, including a record fine of £7.8m, demonstrate that the Gambling Commission is taking social responsibility (as well as failures to prevent money-laundering) very seriously. Operators that fail to comply with regulations risk fines, and significant reputational damage, revenue loss and potential license loss.

Ahead of Betting of Football 2018, where no doubt the subject of fines, penalties and the threat of revoked licenses will be a “popular” topic, I explore whether compliance could actually be an enabler rather than a barrier to business.

Reputations and the Betting on Football Industry

Recent fines and penalties have certainly attracted a lot of media attention. Punters too have become more aware of social responsibility issues around betting and how operators behave. Although we don’t currently know whether the impact of fines has had a negative effect on new customer sign ups, we can surmise that it is not the case that ‘any publicity is good publicity’. Instead it focuses unwanted attention on an industry that already has many challenges and complexities to manage.

Therefore, isn’t it time to look at gambling regulations from a different angle? Why not explore whether compliance can offer a competitive advantage and a way to improve brand reputation and the image of the industry as a whole?

Qualities such as transparency and integrity are good things to shout about. So if complying with the regulator results in more transparency and integrity, let’s talk about it and use it to build trust with regulators, customers and operators alike. Compliance should not just be about avoiding fines.

Next Gen E-Wallet Means You Really Know Your Customers

Know your customer (KYC) checks are a pain point in the online registration and deposit process. Customers expect to be able to sign up for an account, deposit their funds and start playing or placing bets straightaway. Any additional steps in the process, such as verifying ID etc., can result in customers giving up and not following through with the transaction process.

However, gambling operators can potentially tap into data that can support KYC checks, which is readily available through a payment provider’s open API, if that open API is really open to the operator. Payment providers may have access to meaningful and complementary data that can help build a smoother sign up process and support operators with the validation of customer data for online gambling or gaming accounts. They’re also regulated and have to perform their own due diligence before processing transactions. Naturally, any data that is shared must be shared in a way that complies with data protection laws. But perhaps this an opportunity to explore?

Would it be feasible to work with payment providers in this way, and thereby increase transparency and integrity?

Here at MuchBetter we believe that payment APIs and the companies behind them should not be a barrier to your goals to create integrity and trust with regulators and customers. Instead we are proactively supporting operators by sharing data we have consent to do so and that enable them to have more confidence in the transactions processed on their behalf.

We advocate making data available to operators to support due diligence policies, and we can do this via our open API. Our philosophy is to share assets – including data – with operators that enable all parties to be successful. Whether that’s to increase conversion and revenue, or to avoid fines and compliance headaches.

I will be at Betting on Football 2018 next week with other members of the MuchBetter team. If you would like to meet up I would welcome the opportunity to get your thoughts on how important support from payment provider is to operators, and how we can work together to increase integrity in the industry. Please get in touch to arrange a meeting.