Cross border payments for iGaming. How to handle?
With development of global markets and overall trend to be connected, global demand has shifted towards mandatory acceptance of cross-border payments.
Can you imagine an e-commerce website that does not accept international Visa/Mastercard payments? Neither can we.
Effectively operating and truly leveraging advantage of the internet to "always be connected with the world" would not be possible in such a case. When it comes to iGaming services, we can prove that they need this technology the most. Industry has grown over many years, but it saw a significant surge after 2020 with the onset of the pandemic and continues to grow in same pace.
The matter of online gambling is providing a player with access to their favorite game or slots immediately, from home, work and at any time. This has led to players wanting such access from any country. And for operators, this is more than beneficial. Cross-border payments include transfers where the participants are in different countries. This is very common today, as business is not ready to open a branch in every country where it operates. Some would have to open an office literally everywhere. So, what is the benefit of being online?
However, despite the undeniable advantages of international payments, we have also felt their downsides — high fees for cross-border transactions, long processing periods, and complex management process. Therefore, you need to use effective payment solutions and structures or entire process can become very cumbersome.
In this article, we will discuss the strategies we recommend for optimizing payment gateways and improving cross-border payments for your users. As a small disclaimer, these are basic approaches, in our opinion. We will cover more advanced topics later on within the pages of Mono Talks.
Support for multiple currencies
Opening the list of recommendations is, of course, with the integration of required currencies. Firstly, supporting multiple currencies based on your target markets will clearly show your users that you were expecting them and that everything on the site is well prepared. Secondly, we can confidently say that Polish user will look for PLN, and someone from Germany will for EUR, and neither will want to overpay for currency conversions. The fact that your website supports only US dollars will tell them only that you did not care about the local experience of your clients and preferred your own convenience over theirs. Sounds not customer oriented, right?
Supporting various currencies, such as exotic Asian or African denominations, may require you to work with local payment providers. This increases the workload and requires more technologies along with constant exchange operations, but overall, it can even be more advantageous. Since local payment systems often provide more favorable fees and rates, you can not only provide a good experience for your users, but also save money. We know that payment processing is a significant expense for high-risk businesses, and reducing it is always a priority.
Localized payment methods
The second strategy for improving cross-border payments is proper localization of payment methods for specific countries. iGaming websites that support local payments cannot do so by just adding a couple of local wallets to their website. Payment methods need to be carefully selected and properly integrated into your product.
The payment process, when dealing with different providers, can look different, which in turn confuses payers. Main task of the iGaming operator is to eliminate any differences and, being an international business, to provide a localized experience. In other words, a user visiting your site should not immediately understand that you are not local. On the contrary, they should feel at home.
Achieving this is possible only through good analytics and testing, as well as a deep understanding of the market where you plan to operate. Such analytics can take weeks, if not months, but with Monoup, you can do it twice as fast and several times more effectively. Contact us for help in localizing your brands.
Partnering with experts
As we always say choosing the right partners is a key. Setting up payment solutions, especially for cross-border payments, requires partnerships with stable financial institutions. Choosing a payment provider should not be based solely on advertising or reputation (which is also important) but also on a range of technical and infrastructural characteristics.
We cannot fail to mention our own contribution to this matter, as we are available for consultations on creating global payment strategies. The services you can receive from us include, but are not limited to:
- Creating an account in payment system, full compliance, and opening accounts;
- Recommendations for reliable payment providers;
- Identifying opportunities in the existing payment infrastructure that you may have overlooked over time;
- Improving the approval ratio of your payment system, which is always relevant.
All of this will be a good start for your business journey or a bright next level. We are ready to help not only startups but also existing projects to review or improve their operations. Relying on yourself is always right, but seeking support from industry specialists is not shameful — it is effective.
Ensuring data security and compliance with regulatory requirements
Finally, security of data and information used in global payment strategies will matter for building trust with users and other financial institutions. Compliance with PCI-DSS is no longer something extraordinary but a standard practice, which is reassuring. Understanding which parts of the online payment process may be poorly protected and pose risks will give you a chance to prevent these risks before they even arise.
We recommend asking your payment aggregator a set of questions:
- How are payments data stored?
- Do they collect KYC, or can someone gain access to the system?
- Are advanced encryption measures available for transactional data?
Make sure you have reviewed the gateway's API documentation and understand level of processing and security quality it can provide. Data theft is not uncommon in the modern world, and in the case of payments, it can cause even greater damage.
In conclusion
In summary, we emphasize once again that localizing payments in international business will help you operate smoothly. Although at first glance, this may seem like a huge amount of work, including finding local payment systems, numerous integrations, accounting work, and organizational aspects, in the end, it yields truly good results. This result can be measured by the number of satisfied regular users, significant savings on PSP fees and international transfers, and finally, a better understanding of operational market.
Being in your own small environment, you can miss a lot, but interacting with different representatives of international business can make you stay informed. If you are interested in different markets and potentially ready to expand them further, then establishing cross-border operations is essential and very important for you. Another way to stay informed is to read Mono Talks, as we constantly publish not only original content but also news. Our news is not overloaded with everything under the sun; it comes out less frequently than typical news portals, but it contains only interesting and relevant events. If you are tired of the meaningless flow of information and want to know only what is important, this is a place for you.
