Stable payment structure for iGaming and payment aggregators

Stable payment processing is one of the first things that define quality of payment system for high-risk industries, including iGaming. The ability to maintain a working schedule 24/7 without weekends and holidays is literally the bare minimum for any payment provider entering this market. For businesses, it's not just about relying on third-party partners and expecting them to cover all needs, but also about actively participating in development of their own payment structures and ensuring their operability.

In this direction, diversification is often the best choice, meaning the integration of several different payment systems to strengthen the overall processing. What benefits can integration of several payment providers bring to your business? Let's explore this today.

Why integrate several payment systems

Not putting all your eggs in one basket may sound old-fashioned, but it remains relevant for many things in our lives. In payment processing for gambling, you need to have a backup before the current structure cracks. This happens quite often from market to market, given its high-risk nature.

Thus, the main advantages of integrating different payment systems are:

• Possibility to save on fees: It might sound counterintuitive: more providers means more expenses. And this can be true. Multiple providers can lead to a set of expenses and additional fees. But this is only the case if you connect them chaotically and without a clear plan. Here we talk not about quantity but quality. Therefore, if you connect necessary and optimal payment system options for your business, manage them correctly, and distribute payments across them, you can significantly save and optimize your costs.
• Increased stability of payment acceptance through multiple channels: It's no secret that payment systems in high-risk industries can experience difficulties in maintaining 24/7 operation and may have periods of complete downtime. This does not always indicate a poor level of service from the payment system; sometimes it's hard to avoid these issues due to market constraints. To ensure that such downtimes do not affect you as a merchant, you can connect several payment channels that together will achieve uninterrupted operation.
• Independence from external factors: This can also be one of the advantages when connecting several payment providers. Many markets often experience periods of reduced payment processing quality, providers replace each other, and new, stronger players emerge. To navigate these changes confidently, you need to stay informed and move ahead of events.
• Financial freedom: This will be expressed in the ability to manage your financial flows: plan payouts, expenses on fees. Being a client of only one payment system, you will depend on the pricing conditions it provides. If they become less favorable for you, it's better to have a backup option. Additionally, you will accumulate different balances and minimize the risk of all your funds being blocked if such a situation arises.
• Adaptability of your system: This is achieved through the combination of good providers in different areas. Often the same payment system cannot work worldwide, providing all possible methods. In some places, provider has a stronger presence, in others, less so. To neutralize these disadvantages and maximize the advantages, connecting several providers is the best option.

Payment system aggregators: pros and cons

Having considered all the advantages of connecting a set of PSPs (Payment Service Providers), one can naturally think about connecting a payment aggregator. After all, its task is to combine the best payment methods and provide them to merchants. In an attempt to reduce technical load on their own team, many businesses look for a payment system aggregator that can provide a set of ready-made integrations with a range of necessary payment methods. The benefits of this approach are sufficient: one complex integration, with minor adjustments for each new payment method, can cover a range of needs at once. Aggregators also often develop their own cascading and stable routing, thus closing the processing needs completely.

However, working with a payment aggregator can have several drawbacks. Among them:

• Dependence on one processing partner: The advantages of aggregation also form its main disadvantage — this is precisely the all eggs in one basket. If your entire system relies on one aggregator, you may find yourself extremely dependent on its technical capabilities and workload. In the event of aggregator being disconnected, you will also stay without option to accept payments. To neutralize this disadvantage, you shall work with several aggregators or overlay them on your own system. However, this option is only available to large businesses, while small projects sometimes may strongly feel the disadvantages of payment aggregators.
• Inflexibility of pricing offers: If payment aggregator is a full-fledged turnkey solution and provides you not only with a technical gateway but also with all payment methods at once, it may add a markup to the fees of the payment systems. The level of such markup depends solely on this aggregator, and sometimes it’s difficult to get a discount, as this markup often forms main income of the payment aggregator.
• Lack of payment diversification: Working with one large aggregator also means the inability to fully diversify your flows, as often payouts to merchants are made from one common wallet. This is also worth considering.

Taking into account both pros and cons of working with payment aggregator, we can say that decision about working with such a partner should only be made after a detailed individual analysis. Aggregation is an excellent method to save on development, analytics, and market research. It is also an opportunity to gain someone’s experience in one place and the best practices that will allow you to grow your business in the shortest time. Since payment system industry is constantly growing and developing, the best way to keep up is to partner with those develop and test new approaches. However, such a concentration of knowledge and technologies comes with low adaptability and technical dependence.

Despite all this, we at Monoup believe that working with aggregators is a good option, but we suggest to spend enough time choosing a future partner. In this case, you will get the maximum benefit from cooperation and avoid possible disadvantages or minimize them.