How to Increase Player Conversion with a Better Payment Experience

Player acquisition costs for online gaming and sports betting are expensive, and with recent calls for legislation to eliminate new player bonus offers, operators are going to need to place greater emphasis on perfecting the deposit experience in order to convert newcomers into paying customers. 

Accomplishing this sounds fairly easy, but payment transactions—especially for new players—can be riddled with hurdles such as card declines, ACH failures and input errors. These hurdles can cause online betting newcomers to quickly bail on the process if they don’t feel comfortable. According to our 2022 research, 17% of players who experience card declines will leave the site or app and never return. So how can operators minimize the costly hurdles in the payment experience in order to convert more players? 

Diversify the Payment Methods Offered

One of the most effective ways to avoid declines is to offer a variety of trusted and familiar payment options. If players had access to preferred deposit types, 32% of players reported that they would make larger deposits more often. When players have access to payment types they’re comfortable with, the chances of a decline are going to decrease. It’s going to improve the player’s overall experience and build trust in your brand when they associate your platform with simple and secure payments.

In addition, a clunky deposit process with multi-step verification, page timeouts or redirects creates opportunities for failure. Even if a decline wasn’t going to occur, the customer may get so frustrated with the process that they abandon their efforts midway. 

Use Detailed Error Messaging

It’s frustrating for a customer to go through a deposit process just to have it result in a decline, but even worse when the reason for the decline isn’t explained to them.

When an operator can provide a reason for the error, the player has a chance to correct the problem during their next attempt, or avoid using this payment method in the future. List out the reason, whether it’s a deposit from an unsupported bank, insufficient funds in the account, miskeying the card number, using an expired card, etc. Consider using this text to prompt them into trying one of the reliable deposit types listed above to reinforce this strategy. 

Enable Elegant Retries or “Second Chance” Deposits

In the event that a player’s first payment fails with no discernable user error, operators should make the second attempt as frictionless as possible. When a player selects a new payment method, try to retain the player’s personal details, deposit amounts, and any other information so that they don’t have to enter it again.

In a perfect world, the payment platform would automatically give a prompt that offers another payment method and transfer all previously entered details to the new method. For instance, “Would you prefer to make this deposit with PayPal?” – then take them directly to that deposit screen, with the deposit amount pre-filled.

Keep Them Coming Back with Lightning-Fast Payouts

Maybe you’ve perfected the deposit flow—congratulations! But the payment experience doesn’t end there. 40% of players noted that it took longer than a day for them to receive payouts from their gaming or betting platform. In addition, 49% responded that they’d play more and withdraw more if they had access to their preferred withdrawal methods.

If a brick-and-mortar casino wouldn’t tell a player, “Sorry, come back tomorrow” to collect their winnings, online gaming platforms shouldn’t either. Same-day payouts are a must, and operators can offer these with options such as push to debit, PayPal, Venmo, and MoneyLine’s Cardless Cash at ATM feature. The payout process is the last impression a player will have of a gaming site or app, and operators should work to ensure it isn’t their last ever impression. 

Give Your Players a Better Experience

The bettors surveyed in PayNearMe’s research reported that the payment experience was the single most important factor when choosing a betting site or app. 

With the MoneyLine platform, both the deposit and payout processes are streamlined to be quick and easy for frequent and new bettors alike. With a single platform making your payments a breeze, bettors will be far more likely to make a successful deposit—and return again in the future. 

To learn more or to request a personalized demo: https://home.paynearme.com/moneyline/