The future of payments

ta Mishchenko, director of product development at ECommPay, outlines the advancements and trends shaping the payments sector

Payment technology trends in i-gaming
The payment industry is constantly changing, growing, developing, and adapting to best suit the needs of its diverse clientele. Merchants working within different industries have individual requirements and specifications unique to their sphere of business. Experienced payment providers and processing centres monitor the trends within each client industry, attending events, conferences and exhibitions to intimately familiarise themselves with any relevant information.

ECommPay is attending ICE Totally Gaming as an exhibitor for the second year running, having developed a number of products, services and technologies specifically targeting profit maximisation for i-gaming clients worldwide. Here we highlight a few of the most pertinent developments and advancements within the payments industry for the benefit of i-gaming merchants.

Technology and innovation trends for electronic payments in 2016
Companies operating within the electronic payments industry consistently push the boundaries of existing technologies, services and solutions, striving to develop highly advanced payment tools and to innovate the existing options. New, original start-ups, groundbreaking implementation of technological solutions, financial innovation for the payment services industry, and alternative payment methods (including the e-Wallet, mobile payments and more) have come to define the pioneering mindset of an industry seeking to provide high-quality, stateof-the-art payment solutions for the i-gaming industry. Regular maintenance and development of payment tools and processes guarantees an increased level of safety and risk management, improving the service quality more generally.

Blockchain technology takes the world by storm
I-gaming merchants have demonstrated considerable enthusiasm for the increasingly popular blockchain technology, eager to entice new gaming customers with diverse payment options. The advantage of this technology is predicated on its very nature – there is no single data centre to produce and control currency, to exert influence on its value, affect the amount of coins in circulation, to block transactions and/or accounts etc. The operational power and management is exclusively in the hands of blockchain currency users – there is no risk of having an account frozen, payments cancelled, or transactions prohibited – all of which appeals to gaming customers.

Bitcoin, one of the most well-known examples of blockchain cryptocurrencies, exemplifies the lack of a global consensus in regards to this revolutionary technology. Governments, as well as established financial and legal institutions, face difficulties in regulating bitcoin and similar services, in part due to the fact that use of cryptocurrencies tends to be completely anonymous.

In spite of this, blockchain technology has produced a new payment instrument, which promises high demand in the near future. Already, a growing number of financial service providers are considering how to incorporate the increasingly popular blockchain technology into the services they provide to clients.

Simplifying the payment process and user identification methods
The trends identified in the sphere of electronic payments echo the desires of i-gaming merchants, demonstrating a significant shift towards combining and balancing between security and convenience.

Alternative payment services are on the rise, boosted by the long-term financial crisis, which affected a number of countries. The difficult economic situation encouraged and facilitated the development and growth of innovation, seeking to optimise the cost of payment services to appeal to a broader audience of customers.

Subscribers to gaming websites, as well as more casual gamers, now have access to advanced payment systems, which combine efficiency and convenience across a number of platforms. The most striking examples demonstrating the simplification of payment are the payment systems Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, which can read bankcard details using only a smartphone (having linked the two previously).

Soon, many payment services will no longer require the standard identification code and will instead progress to identifying users with the help of voice recognition, a fingerprint or a photograph. No longer will a password be necessary to remember – the user themselves will become the password.

The future is here The growth and development of the payment industry continues to gain speed as more and more market players are involved in the development of new technologies and as regulatory institutions make greater compromises for the sake of user convenience than was ever thought possible. The i-gaming industry will massively benefit from the abundance of ingenious new payment methods, systems and services. Gaming customers worldwide are experiencing a shift to simpler, more convenient payment functionalities, and i-gaming merchants are ideally positioned to make a huge profit from satisfied consumers.

Nikita Mishchenko joined the online payments industry in 2008. Working on behalf of the largest payment provider operating within the Russian Federation at the time, Nikita engaged in risk management as well as the design and development of antifraud systems for a period of three years.

The last five years have been spent acting as Director of Product Development at international payment processor ECommPay. One of Nikita’s main achievements at the company is his development of the proprietary processing solutions offered to clients.

This article originally appeared in Gambling Insider's weekly digital newsletter, GI Friday, in January 2016