Anthony Medica, Business Development Manager at ECOMMPAY, writes for Payment Expert on the rapidly changing relationship between sports betting and the payment sector, as well as why efficient transaction flows are so crucial.
Payments in sports betting are evolving. To maintain a competitive edge, betting operators must stay on top of payment trends. As this is an industry in which transactions flow in both directions – from customer to merchant and from merchant to customer – businesses must ensure their e-payment platform accepts not only online payments, but can also issue mass payouts to various stakeholders.
Payment service providers must equip their operator clients with capabilities to facilitate payouts to the same payment methods used for incoming payments: alternative payment methods as well as cards. ECOMMPAY supports automated, mass payouts on its e-payments platform, ensuring successful transactions in whichever direction a sports betting client requires. Here’s our five-fold company guarantee:
Partnerships with Mastercard MoneySend and Visa Direct
In Europe, there is a small selection of Visa and Mastercard Principal Members. ECOMMPAY is one of the few. These partnerships ensure a fast, reliable service. To facilitate mass transfers to international payment system cards, Visa and Mastercard enable automated payouts on cards worldwide by deploying Visa Direct and Mastercard MoneySend.
International payment networks offer speed and global reach. Visa Direct, for example, is accessible in 200 countries across the globe, ensuring that issuers can quickly access funds to facilitate payouts to their customers. Once a transaction is approved, the payout must take no longer than 30 minutes.
Speed is not the only factor to consider. The payout must be conducted in the same currency as the card holder’s account.
Direct card acquirer ECOMMPAY offers mass payouts in local currencies. Operator clients can facilitate payouts to their customers in a single click. The speed, however, will depend on the capabilities of local banks.
Mass payouts to payment cards is a flexible solution. Intelligent routing and cascading enable payment service providers to configure the routes across which payments and payouts travel, reacting promptly to rectify any disruptions across payment channels in order to achieve a higher success rate.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that though this solution is particularly popular among sports betting operators, sports betting is far from the only industry in which mass payouts are required. This functionality can be adapted to meet the demands of e-learning, ride-sharing, insurance, cashback, affiliate services, advertising, freelancing, or any other industry in which transactions to and from merchant and consumer take place.
Hundreds of Alternative Payment Options
Payment cards can’t be the only payment method through which sports betting operators facilitate mass payouts. After all, a growing number of consumers prefer to pay – and to receive money – through alternative means.
E-wallets are one example of an alternative payment method popular among a large segment of the European consumer audience. Last year, e-wallets grew by 20% in Europe, accounting for $42 billion of the market share. Meanwhile, Visa and Mastercard transactions amounted to $35 billion in 2019.
The modern payment landscape is dominated by large corporations, known as big tech, and open APIs. Big tech companies have developed their own payment infrastructure to support online business. Mass payouts are part of the functionality they offer, and many platforms and payment gateways enable merchants to issue mass payouts to e-wallets as well as traditional payment cards.
For instance, the PayPal Mass Pay API provides automated payouts using one CSV file of up to 5,000 emails linked to PayPal accounts. All that remains for the payout issuer to do is define the amount and currency code. If desired, the transaction identifier and an optional message to the customer can be provided.
ECOMMPAY recently extended its capabilities by becoming the first payment service provider on the PayPal Commerce Platform, which supports bulk payouts.
To issue mass payouts to different payment systems in line with the required parameters, ECOMMPAY uses one CSV file. Alternative payment methods can also be added. ECOMMPAY offers more than 100 local payment methods worldwide, customising payment solutions in accordance with the most popular payment methods in the client’s regions of operation.
Automated Mass Payouts
System crashes during complex operations can cause significant delays. E-payments are no exception. Software and hardware errors are responsible for financial losses at best and reputational damage at worst. Payment service providers invest into system reliability to ensure an optimal level of service to their merchant clients.
ECOMMPAY’s continuous improvements have paid off, resulting in 99.99% system availability paired with a higher mass payout success rate. Monitoring the entire payout process carefully, ECOMMPAY strives to ensure system continuity even in cases of unforeseen errors on the side of external payment partners.
If such an event does occur, ECOMMPAY deploys the aforementioned cascading technologies. If a payout encounters an error due to a problem on the partner’s side, ECOMMPAY automatically sends the payout through a backup channel or an alternative method.
Depending on the client’s settings, various mechanisms can be used to ensure maximum conversion. The Payment Page sends an error message to users and suggests trying again. Otherwise, the specified merchant URL receives this alert through the Gate API.
Cascading ensures that merchants can retain their customer by providing excellent user experience while responding to failures or errors. Consequently, conversion increases.
ECOMMPAY’s cascading solution results in an acceptance rate of up to 95%.
Keeping E-Payments Secure
All payment transactions, including mass payouts, must be protected by an additional layer of security. ECOMMPAY’s security solution is the proprietary FraudStop risk management system, which is complemented by manual transaction monitoring.
This comprehensive solution detects unauthorised activity in the early stages, which enables the payment service provider to work collaboratively with its operator clients to negate the threat. The combination of automated and manual review ensures suspicious transactions are swiftly identified.
To achieve high conversion and reliable payouts on a global scale, merchants receiving high volumes of incoming traffic must ensure they have the necessary infrastructure in place. A combination of reputable partners, various payment methods, sophisticated technologies, and optimal security is key for sports betting operators looking to grow their business.
Secure. Reliable. Intelligent. Leverage ECOMMPAY’s solutions to facilitate secure, convenient mass payouts and ensure a high payment acceptance rate.
