With SBC Summit North America just around the corner, Leighton Webb, PayNearMe’s VP of iGaming and Sports Betting, discussed the opportunities available via the company’s new MoneyLine product, how operators are seeking to expand their omnichannel offering, and how SBC Summit North America can help PayNearMe.
Specifically, Webb touches on the ‘packed agenda’ and how new product innovations can provide PayNearMe with an opportunity to connect with new clients to provide payment technology solutions.
SBC: What makes SBC Summit North America stand out as an event?
LW: SBC North America is a great event offering an agenda packed with content addressing the most relevant topics in sports betting right now. We look forward to gathering with operators, partners and other industry professionals for discussions.
There are so many exciting things happening in the US sports betting and igaming market right now, and I have no doubt these conversations will deliver some exciting and innovative ideas for both operators and bettors.
SBC: What would you highlight as the biggest opportunity in the US gaming industry over the next couple of years?
LW: One of the biggest opportunities is the continuing legalization of OSB in igaming throughout the US. Out of the “big 4” states of NY, CA, TX and FL, only NY offers OSB. CA could be next depending on the outcome of the referendum on this year’s ballot. NY is also considering igaming which would be a huge market and opportunity for the industry as a whole.
We are also seeing product innovation around data insights to improve player conversion to reduce acquisition costs and increase the lifetime value of players. I believe we will start to see more sophisticated player insights on the payments experience similar to what we see marketing teams utilize to drive engagement.
SBC: What industry innovation will capture the most attention in the next 12 months?
LW: We’ll continue to see a push by many operators to deliver on an omnichannel strategy, especially for those that expand their brands to brick-and-mortar locations – whether that be existing casino operators and sports lounges or even restaurants.
The omnichannel experience today is fairly disjointed which causes confusion for players and limits the ability of the operator to drive real brand value by engaging with customers at any touch-point. This opens the door for us to take our cash at a retail product and extend it to other physical locations to connect the digital app with the physical location.
We will also see innovation from early-stage start-ups on new forms of gameplay that will continue to take shape as the market matures and moves from the early adopter to casual player. Product innovation and new forms of gameplay will shift the competitive landscape in some ways (as it has prior in all other industries) so look for some new companies to emerge. PayNearMe will continue to innovate alongside these new companies to offer seamless and frictionless payment experiences to their users.
SBC: What core challenges do you help solve for your customers/partners?
LW: The payments ecosystem in the online betting space is fragmented and complex. Operators often rely on an array of point solutions, each solving a specific challenge but falling short on offering a connected, seamless experience. This makes it cumbersome for large operators to innovate while making it difficult for up-and-coming operators to get to market quickly.
MoneyLine, powered by PayNearMe, makes the payment experience easy for operators and players—all in a single, powerful platform. It solves the complexities of end-to-end money movement, seamlessly combining capabilities for gateway, deposits, payouts, cashiering, cash-at-cage, analytics and financial operations.
Operators can provide their players with a frictionless payments experience while getting to market quickly and reducing the total cost of payments. For both new and established operators, MoneyLine is the most efficient way to take advantage of all that a next-gen payments provider has to offer in a single, scalable platform.
Here are the key challenges we help solve for operators:
Solving for tech debt: The MoneyLine platform gives operators a way to consolidate major deposit and withdrawal types into a single platform. Doing so eliminates the need to manage multiple integrations, allowing operators to simplify payment management and reconciliation as well as reduce technical overhead. It also provides a way to quickly add new tender types without going through a lengthy evaluation, selection and implementation process in the future.
Getting to market fast: Whether you are a new entrant, or an existing operator launching in new states, it’s important to be able to get to market fast. MoneyLine offers everything needed to deploy payments quickly, freeing up operators to focus on other launch priorities.
Innovation as a differentiator: To stand out in a crowded market, operators must ensure their payment platform offers all major payment options for deposits and payouts, all in a consistent, easy-to-use experience. MoneyLine provides a way to offer major tender types, and create a best-in-class payment experience for players with unique features such as the ability to withdraw funds in cash at participating ATMs.
Future-proofing the payments roadmap: Continuing to evolve by offering modern deposit options (such as PayPal and Venmo) to the cashier is a must. But many operators simply don’t have the bandwidth, scale, or direct integrations to do so. With MoneyLine, operators can connect to an existing ecosystem that allows them to quickly add new tender types without developing multiple direct relationships with different payment vendors.
In short, MoneyLine offers all the capabilities operators need to offer an exceptional payment experience.
SBC: Who have you especially enjoyed working with over the past year (partner/client)?
LW: One partner I really enjoyed working with over the past year is Pin4. In October 2021, PayNearMe announced the partnership to deliver an exciting new and unique way for players to get access to their winnings faster. Using the Pin4 technology, we brought our Cardless Cash at ATM feature to market which is a new withdrawal type, available to players only from PayNearMe.
SBC: What are you hoping to learn from the conference at SBC Summit North America?
LW: I look forward to seeing what new products and features operators are planning and how these innovations are shaping the industry. With product innovation comes new opportunities around how we enable the payments experience and how PayNearMe can help. We also look forward to discussing new challenges operators face and how PayNearMe’s technology and the MoneyLIne platform can help solve them.