Open Banking for iGaming

Revolutionising player liquidity: Implementing seamless Open Banking for a leading UK iGaming group

BBD has designed and integrated a high-speed Instant Bank Transfer solution across a major gaming group’s 12 digital brands, leveraging Open Banking protocols to eliminate card fees and accelerate player pay-outs within the confines of rigorous regulatory compliance.

Objectives

• Modernise payment infrastructure: Provide a seamless method for users to move money between bank accounts and digital wallets without manual card entry or CVV requirements
• Operational cost reduction: Significantly lower transaction overheads by migrating traffic away from high-fee payment methods like credit cards and digital wallets
• Accelerate pay out velocity: Deliver player winnings in real-time, replacing the traditional 3-day waiting period associated with legacy card networks
• Regulatory compliance: Facilitate compliance by implementing fraud prevention checks, such as identity validation and account-usage monitoring
• Market alignment: Meet the rising consumer demand for open banking, which has become an expected means of payment in the UK
• Operational Efficiency: Proactively reduce the high volume of “payment status” and “method” queries hitting the client’s call centres

Benefits

• Immediate ROI: Massive operational savings achieved on Day 1 by bypassing traditional card interchange fees, as well as reduced support overhead as a result of decreased call centre traffic
• Frictionless UX: “Zero-form” journey utilising biometrics (Face ID / Fingerprint) for instant transaction approval
• Enhanced security: Reduced surface area for fraud as sensitive card details are never shared or stored on the platform
• Increased retention: Real-time withdrawal capabilities and empowering users with more control over where their money goes boosts player trust and long-term platform loyalty
• Scalability: A single “iGaming” tech stack implementation that serves 12 distinct brands simultaneously

Overview of the Solution

The client, a major player in the UK gaming sector, operates 12 distinct brands powered by a shared, centralised technical stack. Despite the massive scale of the group, the legacy payment experience remained heavily reliant on traditional card networks. BBD was commissioned to overhaul this approach by introducing Instant Bank Transfer powered by Open Banking.

The solution BBD developed acts as a high-performance orchestration layer. It allows players to link their bank accounts directly to their digital wallets. For the client, this eliminated the middleman, effectively saving millions in card-processing costs. While the architecture is built to transform manual data entry into a sleek, biometric-approved experience, it currently provides a robust back-end capable of handling high volumes of transactions with zero downtime across all 12 brands.

By conducting deep persona analysis, addressing the needs of both tech-savvy users seeking efficiency and cautious users seeking security, BBD built a solution that ensures players can deposit and withdraw funds with total confidence.

Approach

1. Data-driven UX discovery & persona mapping: BBD initiated the project by identifying core user personas to ensure the interface addressed both ends of the adoption spectrum
2. Cognitive load reduction & visual hierarchy: The gaming wallet is a “noisy” environment with multiple competing payment options. BBD conducted competitor benchmarking and usability testing to ensure Instant Bank Transfer stood out as the “recommended” method:
   1. Visual familiarity: Incorporated high-fidelity bank logos within the selection UI to build immediate trust and recognition
   2. Naming conventions: Tested various terminologies to find the clearest language that resonated with the UK market, ensuring users understood the benefit (Instant) and the mechanism (Bank transfer)
3. Cross-device continuity: Recognising that many players use desktop browsers but prefer their mobile banking apps for biometrics, BBD engineered a seamless QR-code handoff. Desktop users are presented with a secure, unique QR code that, when scanned, instantly opens their banking app on their mobile device for approval, automatically redirecting the desktop session upon completion
4. Complex integration & technical advisory: BBD managed a sophisticated architecture involving six distinct communication points per transaction between the core platform, third-party providers, and banking APIs. Beyond development, BBD provided educational support to the client’s internal teams, improving the overall quality of the core codebase, and streamlining the digital wallet’s internal logic.

Impact of BBD’s partnership

BBD delivered a high-impact solution that saw immediate uptake, directly improving the client’s bottom line. By navigating the complexities of a high-risk payment environment, BBD ensured that the “slick” user interface was backed by ironclad verification and validation processes. The partnership not only delivered a new revenue-saving feature but also modernised the client’s payment screens, reducing the steps required for all transaction types and enhancing the overall efficiency of the group’s digital wallet.

Beyond the code, BBD acted as a strategic partner in “Change Management,” helping the client navigate the transition from legacy card processing to a modern Open Banking model. By providing users with more accurate turnaround times and transparent withdrawal logic, the solution successfully deflected hundreds of potential support cases, protecting the client’s margins in a high-volume, low-margin environment.