South Africans are a sports loving nation and, with greater mobile penetration as well as the Covid protocols, online sports betting is taking off in a big way. Ensuring secure, swift payments is a cornerstone of credible online betting and the immediacy and convenience of instant EFT are contributing to it becoming a valuable payment option in the industry - especially for those players looking for an alternative to the traditional card offerings.
According to the PwC Gambling Outlook Report for 2017-2021, GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue) for betting in South Africa is forecast to expand at an 8.1% CAGR to an estimated R7.5 billion in 2021 (up from R5.1 billion in 2016). This is likely to be higher in the wake of the lockdowns over the past two years, forcing more sports betters online.
“In the current pandemic environment we have seen a big move towards transacting online as people become more comfortable with working remotely. The same trend is occurring with online sports betting, and we have seen our customers are maximising the opportunity to bet anywhere and anytime,” explains William Reyneke, Director online gaming at Gbets, a division of Goldrush Gaming Group. “While the advancements in gaming technologies are helping create a credible environment, the advances in payment gateway technologies as well as online safety enhancements have also helped the consumer feel more comfortable transacting online. This has significantly boosted online sports betting participation.”
Looking to offer their patrons a wide choice of payment options, Gbets recently introduced SiD Secure EFT as an additional payment option. The results showed that the fast, secure option was a welcome addition.
“Our industry is driven by immediacy. Our customers are looking for fast, reliable and safe payment methods. In this regard, Instant EFT has certainly proved itself to be convenient and reliable. With SiD Secure EFT, we have found a fantastic instant payment channel that our customers are enthusiastically embracing, with many making the switch from other alternative payment methods,” says Reyneke.
According to Peter Harvey, MD at South Africa’s largest payment service provider, DPO South Africa, Instant EFT payment options are perfectly suited to the sports betting industry.
“This sector is very similar to the travel industry in that both are particularly sensitive to payment security, immediate user authentication, and speed. With SiD Secure EFT, funds are easy to reconcile for the company and this removes potentially lengthy delays when reference numbers are keyed in incorrectly using regular EFT. This lowers the operational risk for the sports betting company as well as giving players the ability to make use of a transactional account rather than a credit option. The response seen from Gbets is indicative of the interest we have seen from all of our online betting merchants,” Harvey explains.
Harvey says that on the back of significant interest, the SiD Secure EFT user base has shown solid growth over the last year with new merchant sign-ups increasing by 128% in the first half of 2021 when compared to the same period the previous year. SiD Secure EFT has also invested in a new platform.
“Our new platform is consistently delivering better speeds, performing 82% faster than before. The new interface offers a far superior user experience, lowering cart abandonment and delivering an overall checkout experience that is designed to boost customer experience. In addition to the technical improvements, the SiD Secure EFT service is now also available to customers of all of South Africa’s major processing banks. This increased performance and expanded footprint will benefit merchants, like Gbets, which are looking to make non-credit based online payments accessible to all South Africans,” Harvey concludes.
About DPO South Africa
PayGate and SiD Secure EFT are subsidiaries of the Pan-African DPO Group, a payment services provider (PSP) that offers businesses of all sizes instant access to simple, effective and secure online payment services.
Through a single integration, businesses can accept all major payment methods and currencies online and offline across the continent. DPO Group, now part of Network International, is a leading enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa, works with 60,000+ active merchants, including airlines, hotels, restaurants, travel agents, and eCommerce all over Africa.