The sports betting and gaming sector has been growing in popularity worldwide and a major trend in recent years has been the rise of online betting and gaming. In the United States – a market which began to liberalise following the repeal of federal legislation in 2018 – sports betters are nearly three times more likely to place their bets online rather than in person. This shift to online betting is not confined to the United States, as the global online gambling industry reached a market size of 63.53 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and is expected to grow to over 184 billion U.S. dollars by 2032.  

Flutter Entertainment has emerged as the world’s largest online sports betting and gaming operator in this segment. With fluctuating peak transaction windows, set across multiple countries, all within a highly competitive industry, Flutter’s need to process high volumes of payment transactions (deposits and withdrawals) means that a reliable payments platform is critical to the business. 

In this interview between Marc Cregan, Senior Business Development and Strategy Manager (Payments), UK and Ireland, Flutter Entertainment and Mangala Martinus, Managing Director, Payments Consulting Network and Merchant Advisory, we look at the payments challenges in the industry; strategies and technologies deployed by Flutter to optimise payments and the customer experience; the innovation roadmap; and key criteria to consider when assessing payment service providers.  

MM: Please provide a high-level overview of your business 

MC: Flutter is the world’s largest online sports betting and gaming company, with four divisions covering the USA, UK and Ireland, Australia and International, which covers markets across the rest of the world. Within these divisions, Flutter operates a range of leading consumer brands including FanDuel and PokerStars in the US; Paddy Power, Sky Betting and Gaming, Betfair and tombola in the UK and Ireland; Sportsbet in Australia; and Sisal Junglee Games, Adjarabet, Max Bet with International, alongside the operation of PokerStars and the Betfair Exchange in markets around the world.  

MM: What does your role entail and what are your objectives? 

MC: I oversee the Business Development and Strategy for the UK and Ireland – covering Paddy Power, Sky Betting and Gaming, Betfair, and tombola. My role includes identifying the latest in payments technology and innovation, setting the payments roadmap, finding the appropriate partners (i.e. running RFPs, negotiating contracts), working with technology and product teams at Flutter to implement new solutions, and managing the long-term relationships with the chosen partners. 

MM: What are the key payments challenges for the business and how have you sought to address these? 

MC: In the gaming industry the two biggest challenges are speed and friction. 

If you aren’t instantly crediting customer accounts when they deposit to place a bet, they will likely move to a competitor. Just as important in betting is the quick withdrawal of funds as customers expect these to be instant. With the implementation of Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, and open banking, around 94% of customers are now getting their withdrawals instantly. 

In the betting industry, when a customer is making a deposit, it is to place a bet immediately, so it is essential to reduce friction. Flutter has managed to reduce fraud rates by investing in fraud tooling to achieve a high Transaction Risk Analysis (TRA) value band exemption, so that transactions can happen frictionlessly without having to go through a 3DS authentication process. 

MM: What are the strategies/technologies deployed to optimise payments and the customer checkout experience? 

MC: We reviewed our payment flows a few years ago and decided to completely redesign them. As a result, the propensity for customers to contact us about payment issues halved and acceptance rates increased. We had already integrated Visa Direct, then integrated Mastercard Send and open banking to make instant payments widely available. 

We recently implemented network tokens on one brand (Betfair in Spain) and found that transaction success rates increased, so we expect to implement this more widely next year across more brands and countries. Importantly, this also resulted in a much better customer experience, for example, as the lost-stolen-expired journey for customers became seamless. 

We have built an in-house orchestration platform that is multi-gateway and multi-acquirer. However, we also use a third-party payments orchestration platform for testing, alternate payment methods, deploying different payment journeys, and in specific countries where it is needed, particularly when there is a lack of tech resources. 

MM: What new innovations or technologies do you see emerging in Europe? 

MC: Network Tokens and Orchestration seems to be top of everyone’s minds now and dominates the sessions at most Payments conferences. Looking a little further ahead, Visa flexible credential tokens, click-to-pay, the digital pound, and digital euro all look interesting. Personally, I’m really excited to see how far we can get with Biometrics and AI. 

MM: What are some of the key criteria you look at when assessing payment service providers? 

MC: The first question we always need to ask is are they willing to work with gambling merchants. We have very low fraud rates, but many PSPs unfortunately still put us in the high-risk category. 

Good knowledgeable product teams are important as well as a transparent 2-3 year product roadmap and a long-term vision that aligns with our plans. This enables us to build strong long-term relationships. 

MM: Flutter Entertainment has recently joined Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) and you are part of MAG’s Advisory Team for Europe. What value do you expect to get out of being part of MAG?  

MC: Being part of MAG allows us to bounce ideas of industry-leading colleagues in ecommerce, understand what innovations are on the horizon and influence the future of payments, including with schemes, regulators, and technology providers. 

Author: Mangala Martinus, Managing Director, Payments Consulting Network 

Mangala has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services and payments industries. He focuses on supporting clients with business strategy, payments optimisation, market expansion, and industry round tables. His clients include major financial institutions, retailers, e-commerce marketplaces, not-for-profits, ATM deployers, card schemes, and payment processors. 

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Payments Consulting Network is a media partner for the MAG Payments Summit Singapore 2024 from 13-15 November 2024. For more information on the summit and to register, please click here. 

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