Tom Hill, head of sports betting and igaming at digital identity solutions provider Prove, explains how stakeholders can simultaneously smooth the path for new users to sign up to a service and ensure they protect against fraud.
As the number of online sports betting and igaming options continues to grow, consumer expectations are at an all-time high when it comes to fast and easy digital experiences. Every second and field counts when you’re trying to get new users to sign up for your platform instead of the competition’s. At the same time, companies need to protect their “front door” against account opening fraud and duplicate account bonus abuse. Ultimately, companies that can balance speed with security will enjoy a competitive edge in this rapidly expanding market.
Speed
Despite committing massive marketing dollars to drive new player sign-ups via brand campaigns and performance marketing, potential customers arrive at the sign-up page only to abandon the process more than half of the time. In fact, digital sports betting and igaming have one of the highest drop-off rates of any registration flow in any industry, despite offering hefty new-player bonuses.
This has been witnessed in mature markets like the UK, and it is, unfortunately, being repeated in the USA by product teams using similar registration techniques. The reason for the high drop-off rates? Lengthy and tedious onboarding flows that require too much time to fill out. Fortunately, there are better solutions that can accelerate onboarding and reduce onboarding abandonment.
Prove Pre-Fill, for example, leverages phone-centric iIdentity and cryptographic authentication to auto-fill forms using verified information and expedite the registration process for the vast majority of “good” or legitimate igaming customers. This solution has been well-vetted and already delivers documented results, including 35% less onboarding abandonment, in some of the most regulated industries including the US’s largest banks, insurance companies, healthcare organizations, and fintechs.
Security
In addition to accelerating onboarding, it’s critical to authenticate users in order to prevent promotion abuse and other forms of fraud. Prove Pre-Fill leverages a unique “PRO” methodology that consists of three distinct factors:
1.Possession answers the question: Is this customer in possession of the phone (and more importantly, the phone number)? Knowing that someone is in possession of a phone at the precise moment of a potential transaction helps ensure the stated customer is indeed on the other end of an interaction, regardless of the transaction channel. Without this crucial check, companies are vulnerable to multiple types of identity fraud.
2. Reputation answers the question: Are there risky changes or suspicious behaviors associated with the phone number? Phone numbers are a unique and powerful identification tool. Phone numbers have a litany of attributes that can be assessed in real-time, including specific activities that can indicate elevated risk. Compare a burner phone, a phone that underwent a SIM swap, a brand new phone number, and a mobile phone. These all fall on different parts of the risk spectrum, with actions taken by the phone number affecting the reputation, allowing companies to flag this phone or phone number for potential risk.
3. Ownership answers the question: Whose phone number is this? It is essential to associate the phone number with the person correctly. Otherwise, the wrong person may be verified or associated with someone’s phone number, allowing for account takeover or duplicate account sign-ups. Prove tracks ownership changes in real-time.
The data is only pre-filled when all three factors are validated, preventing fraudsters from using stolen identity information to create accounts.
This phone-centric approach can identify when duplicate account sign-ups are attempted, a common occurrence given the attractive bonuses offered by sports betting operators in the race to acquire new players.
Conclusion
Prove’s innovative onboarding approach is a natural fit for the digital sports betting industry which must balance speed with security. By making onboarding simple and fast, digital gaming operators will see a greater return on marketing dollars, leading to valuable revenue boosts and an edge on the competition. For more information about how sports betting companies can leverage Pre-Fill technology to accelerate onboarding while mitigating fraud, visit prove.com.
Tom Hill is speaking at this week’s SBC Summit North America as part of the Suppliers Panel: innovations, fraud, identity checks & AML on Wednesday 13 July at 5:00pm ET. Visit Prove at booth #507 to find out how to meet regulatory 2FA requirements and address proxy betting, all without impacting the player experience.