LeoVegas launches industry first open banking payment method

Online gambling operator LeoVegas has just started rolling out payments via open banking under the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) of the EU, an industry first. 

The operator claimed that the move would result in safer and faster payments for its players and lower overhead transaction costs and reduced dependency on third-party payment providers for itself.  

One of the most important facets of PSD2 is open banking, as it includes payment players opening up and exchanging information with each other. This makes it possible to merge business models and build new payment ecosystems that provide better value for customers.

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) was introduced with the goal of modernizing Europe’s payment services sector, ultimately benefitting both businesses and consumers. The PSD2 also seeks to facilitate innovation in the EU’s digital payment industry specifically in payments itself and payment and consumer security.  It also seeks to improve and foster a fair playing field for payment providers, including those who support the gambling industry.   

More notably, the PSD2 has pushed for enhanced security in its payments by introducing new strict security requirements for electronic payments, particularly in payment initiation and processing. One of its requirements is a strict customer authentication and verification policy whenever an electronic payment transaction is initiated.  The PSD2 requires this from all of its participating payment service provers, including banks.  

LeoVegas chief executive officer, Gustaf Hagman, has commented on the company’s open banking payment launch.  Hagman has said that secure, seamless and fast payments are extremely important today and that the fact that the company is now able to directly integrate with a number of European banks under the PSD2 will help them provide a superior customer experience by security and speed.

Hagman went on to point out the positives of open banking saying that carrying out transactions via open banking is considerably more cost-effective compared to traditional means of digital payment methods.  He also went on to highlight that the inclusion of open banking and its drive for innovation has made the company see a high level of activity in the company’s product and technology development department. He went to say that the company is excited to find out how all of the innovations they deliver resonate with their customers.

Hagman also went on to highlight that LeoVegas is the first gambling operator to implement open banking as a payment method and also expressed his confidence in this payment solution saying that this will surely change the entire payments industry in the years to come.

LeoVegas has revealed that that the UK online casino is the first of the company’s many markets to have launched open banking payments in through the use of its proprietary technology. In the first several weeks of the rollout, the company’s customer data has revealed that 10 per cent of its new customers have chosen to initiate payments via open banking.  

LeoVegas is set to launch the open banking solution across its core markets in Europe in the next comings months.