Reconciliation and downtime: controlling the uncontrollable

Payments systems matter. Today’s online gaming industry is a global marketplace with gamers in all geographies, playing day and night with a vast array of different currencies. When gamers win, they receive a pay-out. If they don’t, the merchant keeps their fee. It may sound simple, but more often than not, payment processes are a rather more tangled and complicated web.

By its very nature, the gaming industry creates a high volume of payment transactions at a higher velocity than most, and, in order to effectively service all customers in all geographies 24/7, merchants in the sector often have to rely on multiple payments providers, banks and technologies to process all the transaction data involved.

This is challenging in itself, but if the transaction data from these various payment partners doesn’t match the amount in the merchant’s bank account, then there’s a problem. Ensuring that these numbers are matched whilst keeping an eye on customer service levels and maintaining maximum uptime across a complex global payments infrastructure is enough to keep any payments manager up at night.

For merchants operating in this space, every second a payments system is malfunctioning, it means a loss of customers, erosion of customer confidence and, crucially, reputational damage. It’s that black and white. A recent industry survey revealed payments system downtime to be the number one concern for merchants, with 31% of respondents experiencing a complete outage of their payments services in the last 12 months, and 73% of these outages lasting between 15 minutes and an hour. Every second the system is down it means lost customers and lost revenue.

Peaks and troughs

As all online betting service providers know, certain events trigger transaction surges. The Grand National, which sees over £200m in online bets each year, is a good example, with the number of transactions processed per second building throughout race day 2018 to peak at 118%. The World Cup is another timely example, with the volume of bets at the event having soared thanks to smartphone apps making wagering easier than ever before.

Peaks and troughs are part of the course but mean that your payments system must be robust enough to handle not just the volume, but also sudden spikes in velocity with zero downtime. Managing this with a vast network of payments providers around the world is a risky and resource-intensive process which eats away at revenue.

Reliable reconciliation

Unfortunately, downtime is not the only threat to revenue. Operators are also at risk of losing thousands of dollars in earnings through basic transaction mismatching, chargebacks and inaccurate data. Where multiple payment providers are involved, the art of payment matching, fee verification and, in particular, reconciliation, can get very messy, very quickly.

Successful reconciliation means that all revenues have been accounted for and matched across transactions between the platform and other payment partners, which includes things like payment methods, banks and other related service providers. Along with transactions, you need to make sure that the fees are being correctly charged, but while this might seem like an obvious point to make, it’s not quite so straightforward. Unforeseen circumstances arising from things like changing over to a new provider, hidden fees involved in the processing of a transaction in a particular part of the world, and even inconsistent reporting can have a business-defining impact on a merchant’s revenue.

Payment systems matter

In a market where there is zero tolerance for reporting inaccuracies, mismatching and unplanned downtime; where any delay in service sees players move to another provider to carry on playing; and where thousands of dollars are lost through inaccurate transaction reconciliation, gaming merchants must demand higher standards from their payments providers.

Effective reconciliation and maximum uptime are critical, particularly given that payments can no longer be considered just a commodity but a competitive differentiator. But while the complexity, inherent risks and sheer extent of the resources required to manually manage these processes might feel a bit like trying to control the uncontrollable, it doesn’t have to be.

By outsourcing matching and reconciliation to a provider that can automate these processes, it can be possible for operators to recover revenues, reduce the required human resources needed and support bookkeeping accuracy. Also, try to identify partners who are also capable of providing a global reporting overview of your various processing and exisiting partnerships and ensure that the fees you agreed in your contracts, are still the ones you are paying for.

From a downtime perspective, if a payments provider is claiming to offer a 99% uptime rate, think about the fact that this actually equals roughly seven hours of downtime on a monthly basis. Imagine if these seven hours were to happen during a betting peak. Look for one offering 99.99 percent instead.

While these might sound like simple and obvious steps, by making your payments system a priority, it’s possible for operators to grapple back control and generate real business value from their payments systems.

Yuval Ziv is chief operating officer and managing director of SafeCharge Bulgaria. He began working at SafeCharge in 2007 and is responsible for SafeCharge’s relations with acquiring banks, payment providers, and third-party suppliers. In addition, Ziv runs the group operations, account management, sales and business development. He also manages key projects and directs multicultural talented teams globally.