WHERE IS THE PAYMENTS INDUSTRY HEADED?

Gaming America speaks to Christopher Justice (Pavilion Payments), John Skorick (MIDs), Anne Hay (PayNearMe), Victor Newsom (Everi) and Mandi Hart (Sightline).

ANNE HAY, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at PayNearMe

With more than 15 years’ experience in the payments industry, Anne Hay is focused on covering the consumer and business trends iGaming and sports betting operators can use to inform and guide their payment strategies.

JOHN SKORICK, Founder of MIDs

John Skorick founded global fintech, MIDs, and payments consulting company SpurLead. John is a payments expert who started in the industry in 1997 at the first IPSP, DMR. In 2000, John left DMR to join payments startup, Jettis, and eventually took over all client services and business development. In 2009 John launched SpurLead, a payments and risk management company which he still oversees today. John acquired the domain mids. com to launch his global payments service. MIDs offers card acquiring and APM’s for iGaming companies globally.

VICTOR NEWSOM, SVP Product Management, Payment Solutions for Everi

Victor Newsom is a FinTech and Gaming veteran who has held leadership positions for a wide range of companies engaged in acquiring and issuing, processing, US and International operations, and card-based, virtual, cryptocurrency, and mobile payments, as well as DeFi. Victor has consulted with US law enforcement, worked on payments legislation, advised on central bank policy in emerging markets, and FinTech-related intellectual property.

MANDI HART, Head of Product for Sightline Payments

W ith over 20 years’ experience in the gaming payments industry - including cash access, electronic check cashing, ATM, and kiosk solutions - Mandi Hart was instrumental in the company’s launches of cashless gaming technology at Resorts World Las Vegas and at Boyd Gaming properties in Nevada, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Her team also launched Sightline in sports betting states including Arizona and Wyoming. She has been on Sightline’s executive team for nearly a decade, serving as the Chief Client Solutions Officer before her current role. Prior to joining Sightline, she was the associate vice president of gaming business development at FIS.

CHRISTOPHER JUSTICE, CEO of Pavilion Payments

Christopher Justice’s 30-year career spans executive leadership roles with CenPOS, Ingenico, Merchant Link, First Data and Concord EFS. Christopher is an expert in the digital convergence of brick-and-mortar and e-commerce to deliver omnichannel consumer experiences. He joined Pavilion Payments, formerly Global Payments Gaming Solutions, in 2017 to lead its gaming division. Christopher has accelerated the organization’s mobile cashless funding, selfservice, iGaming, security, and risk initiatives to help gaming operators modernize their cash access infrastructure, improve guest experience across resorts and capture new business. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Gaming Association and a member of iDEA.

Anne Hay: We like to say that the entire player experience should be “pixel perfect.” At the first sign of a hiccup or glitch, players –especially new ones –can become leery of the entire process. Giving them that streamlined, seamless experience and offering the right mix of tender types is what will win over players and keep them coming back. Players want to have a choice of payment types they’re already using in day-to-day life, and when those specific payment types are already integrated into their betting app, players are more likely to come back and bet more often. According to research we did last year, 32% of players said they would make larger deposits more often if they had access to preferred payment types. Operators will see higher customer loyalty and higher player acquisition just by optimizing their cashier’s mix of tender types.

Christopher Justice: While many payments providers and gaming institutions offer great loyalty programs for their patrons, the real key to patron loyalty is an outstanding core payments experience. It does not matter if you have a slick-looking user interface or exciting offerings, if the payment experience is cumbersome or unwieldy. If your payment system is frustrating to use, then patrons will simply take their business elsewhere. For example, VIP Preferred allows patrons to utilize online bank credentials for faster, easier enrollment, and the nearly 3 million VIP Preferred users across the US can quickly and easily move their funds across participating institutions after a one-time enrollment.