In an industry driven by celebrity endorsements, glitzy games and catchy advertising, it may be the least sexy aspect of iGaming but when it comes to building customer loyalty it’s speed and ease of payout–“Show Me The Money!”–that trumps all indicators.
That, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the top take-away from the annual online payments report just issued by payments pathfinders, Paysafe, who handle a “mere” US$140 billion (£111.98bn) in gaming transactions a year.
Global bettors “demand payment choice, speed, and security in play” emphasise U.S.-listed Paysafe in this year’s ‘All the Way Players Pay’ report.
Winning Experience
“You go up to the counter and get your cash back quickly. It’s incredibly important.
“It’s not rocket science. Players will go to operators who give them their cash back fastest,” stressed Rory.
“Over half of all calls of complaint, for example, are about money, quite simply, players are demanding: ‘Where’s my money!’”
First launched in 2019, this latest Paysafe report was conducted by Sapio Research, who online-interviewed 4,300 sports bettors in six U.S. states (Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee), Canada’s Ontario province and Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Spain and the U.K.
Outlawed
With regulated sports betting booming in the region, this is the first time that LatAm has been featured in the ‘All the Ways Players Pay’ report.
“Globally, quick and easy payouts are the top factor in sportsbook selection, [while] positive payment experience makes 82 percent of global online sports bettors stay to continue wagering with sportsbooks,” reveals the report.
“If a player has a bad payment experience they will leave the brand,” Nick Say, Paysafe’s North America Senior PR Manager, told iGamingFuture.
In the regions surveyed, debit cards–while outlawed as a form of gambling payment in the U.K. and a number of U.S. states–remain the top payment choice; at 42 percent.
Around the world, credit cards are preferred by almost a quarter of all sports gamblers, and in France, at 39 percent, it remains the top payment method of choice.
Skrill
Nevertheless, so-called APMs (Alternative Payment Methods), like digital wallets, are challenging the supremacy of traditional banking and credit cards, particularly in newly-regulated Argentina and the relatively fresh markets of New York and Florida states in the U.S.
Players’ desire for diverse payment preferences demonstrates the importance of operators maximizing payment options, such as Paysafe’s Skrill, a gambling version of PayPal.
Added Zak Cutler, President of Global Gaming at Paysafe: “Payments are crucial for player acquisition and retention in every single market, but there can be no one-size-fits-all approach.
“Operators will only maximize conversions and minimize churn if they localize their cashiers and respond to player demand for an exhaustive range of payment options that balance transactional speed with security.”
Paysafe’s 2025 report can be downloaded here: https://www.paysafe.com/en/all-the-ways-players-pay/
