Core benefits from payment orchestration for iGaming

Managing payments can be quite challenging if your business operates in many countries and offers a variety of payment methods. Simplifying and automating these processes is a constant point for merchants in gaming and other industries. There are two main approaches to this: developing your own payment management system or collaborating with a third-party payment orchestration platform that takes care of everything.

But what is the main difference? And what is the nature of these payment orchestration platforms? Let's delve into this in today's article: we'll compare the approaches and highlight key nuances of each.

Why manage payments?

At the beginning of the article, we mentioned the necessity of "managing payments" and its importance in today's online business. This is not without reason. However, it may seem that such an approach unnecessarily complicates things and that connecting a payment system will be sufficient for successful operation. Although many managers in the gaming industry, which we work most actively with, think so, we tend to disagree and insist that payments require constant control and proper management.

Payment management is necessary not only at the initial stage when you haven't yet built a system for receiving payments and are looking for suitable providers. Once all payment systems have passed the integration stage and are actively accepting payments on the website, you will need a clear system for arranging payment systems, managing financial flows, routing, and cascading technology. All this will not only cover the necessary markets with payment systems but also do so most efficiently for the business, increasing payment approval ratio and reducing processing costs.

Previously, we have published articles on routing and cascading separately, where we examined each of these technologies and their main areas of use. We recommend checking them out to refresh your knowledge. Both of these technologies are part of a larger strategy for managing payment flows and technically perform the necessary modifications "on the fly." However, human involvement is essential here, and despite the high performance of these technologies, they require proper setup and constant monitoring. For this, a third-party aggregator can be used.

What is Aggregator or Payment Orchestration Platform?

An aggregator or payment orchestration platform is a set of technical tools and software designed to manage payment flow at the technical level. That is, thanks to the system settings, you can create necessary parameters for your processing and follow them in live traffic.

For example, using an orchestration system, you can set parameters for each payment system you work with. One may be stronger in the European region, while another better in Asia. At the same time, one payment system may perform differently from country to country or even by types of payment cards or issuing banks. If we are talking about card acquiring, such settings are indispensable, and here third-party software can be useful.

The main advantages of using a technical aggregator include:

• Strong technology and development backed by years of experience. If you approach the choice of a partner correctly, the chances of getting an experienced aggregator are quite high. This means you won't have to test much; most settings are already done, and you just need to add them to your website.
• Speed of integrations. Payment aggregators not only provide technical paths for processing but also often have many integrations with the necessary payment systems that you, as a merchant, can use immediately. This reduces the launch time and saves you from technical work if, for example, you don't have your own development team.
• Convenient ready-made admin panel. This can be a dealbreaker for many merchants, as convenience of managing payment systems plays a great role in daily routine. If switching payment systems or changing limits requires a significant set of complex manipulations, your adaptability and reaction to market storms can be very poor.

In simple terms, purchasing or renting a ready-made payment orchestration system is a good option if you are looking to save budget and get the maximum results with minimum effort. But the most important thing in this matter is to pay due attention to the choice of this aggregator and not make a mistake. The most popular way to collaborate with aggregators is renting or partnering having monthly fees or transaction fee for the aggregator's system. This allows you to test the provider at relatively low costs, understand if it suits your business, and change it, if necessary. At the same time, you will have access to all updates and new integrations that are conducted simultaneously and all system improvements.

Main feature of own payment software

In the world of constant competition, merchants often decide that developing their own payment aggregator for personal needs will be more beneficial than cooperating with a third-party provider and constantly depending on them. Despite the advantages of partnering with an aggregator, which we discussed earlier, there are also noticeable disadvantages. And the most significant of them is complete dependence on a third-party system at any given moment. During technical failures, DDoS attacks, or other internal infrastructure problems within the aggregator, merchants will be the first to feel the impact. Of course, one can say that own system can also be attacked and may temporarily fail.

That’s indeed true. But the main difference between own payment aggregation system and a purchased one is that the own system is always available and merchant has full control over it. This means that the situation can be reacted immediately, and all necessary access is granted to the merchant's in-house team. Thus, responsibility for smooth processing of payments on gaming website falls entirely on this gaming website itself.

So, weighing all the "pros" and "cons," how do you make a decision about developing your own aggregator?

Consider the following questions:

• Do you have a large volume of transactions, and are there difficulties in managing it at the moment? If so, what are they, and can they be resolved right now?
• Are you ready to operate another full-fledged business? After all, an aggregator, even if it is owned by another business, is a separate product. It will need a manager, product managers, a solid development and support team. Fitting all this into the existing business processes of gaming company is impossible, as it is a completely different direction.
• Do you have the potential to obtain the appropriate PCI DSS certificate and create a strong cybersecurity infrastructure? This is a separate area requiring special attention, as the system must be stable against external threats.
• Do you have competencies in developing similar products or quick access to competent people in this field?

Using a third-party system suit to small companies or startups that aim to test markets without complex development and large investments. And only at the stage of serious operation and solid audience coverage you may consider backing up the third-party system with your own and devote time to optimizing payment processes at a higher level.

Regardless of whether you choose to use an aggregator or develop payment processing software yourself, you will need an analytical component and an understanding of "how should payments work?" Monoup can help you with this — our consultants know exactly what difficulties you may encounter when setting up payments for startups and existing brands and will help you overcome them. Leave a request for a consultation in the contact form or drop us an email.