The implementation of the Anti-Money-Laundering Directives (AMLD) has made changes to the transaction limits of prepaid cards necessary in all EU countries. With the "my paysafecard" account solution, paysafecard has already been providing the right answer to this for a long time. The reorganisation of the iGaming market in Germany currently even shows that the new due diligence rules do not prevent users from continuing to pay with paysafecard once they have registered for the “my paysafecard” account. After just a few weeks, the transaction volumes were back at the old level and have continued to develop positively since then.

The new Inter-State Treaty on iGaming, which the German federal states signed up to in the summer of 2020, has been announced to come into force in Germany from 1 July 2021. This puts online gambling in Germany on a legally uniform basis for the whole country for the first time. In future, every provider will be able to apply for a German iGaming licence if they operate a website with the .de extension and meet the new requirements. The latter include a deposit limit of EUR 1,000 per player per month and a blacklist for players who are at risk of gambling addiction. The deposit limit should also apply across platforms and be checked by the authorities.

Best Case: Germany

As part of the announcement of these innovations, paysafecard in Germany already took the step towards paysafecard payment using a registered "my paysafecard" account for all betting and iGaming providers in mid-October 2020. Users can now only pay on the merchants' websites with this well-established eCash account solution. "At first we naturally asked ourselves whether our customers would be willing to make the switch or whether we would see major drops in transaction volumes," admits Veronika Missbichler, Vice President Partner Operations & Customer Experience, paysafecard, openly: "But ultimately we were only able to see a slight dent in the charts for two or three weeks, after which we were able to return to the values before the switch.

On the one hand, Missbichler attributes this to the change in consumer behaviour. "We have now built up a very loyal customer base in the eCash sector. These customers have long been used to registering in the online gambling sector and know that these identification processes will also be extended to payment services as part of the constantly evolving EU regulations. These people understand very well that we offer an independent payment system that requires neither an account nor a credit card and which therefore remains very private.

Greatly simplified registration process

On the other hand, the paysafecard programmers have greatly simplified the registration process for "my paysafecard" over the past few months: "With the standard account, you only need to enter your name, address, telephone number and email address," explains Radu Grama, Head of Consumer Products at paysafecard: "The account can then be topped up using the "Add Credit" button with a 16-digit code that can be bought at one of the paysafecard sales outlets or online in an ePIN shop. To pay at the merchant's, all you have to do is enter your user name and password."

The limits for this in Germany are currently EUR 50 per transaction and a maximum of EUR 500 for all transactions and top-ups per month. In order to increase these limits, a large number of users of gambling sites are now switching to an "Unlimited" account and go through a full due diligence process (FDD). "We have invested a lot of time specifically to make this process much smoother," says Grama.

25 percent better conversion rates

With success: the conversion rate has increased by a quarter since the introduction of the new procedure. All users need to do is scan an official document, such as a passport or driver's licence, and take a selfie. Working with a specialist in KYC processes made the last point in particular much more user-friendly. Once the scans and selfie have been uploaded and the account has been activated, users can carry out an unlimited number of transactions. The limit for single transactions increases to even EUR 1,000. "The whole thing only takes a few minutes and we have received almost exclusively positive feedback so far," says Veronika Missbichler. 

But it is not only the simple process that is responsible for the high number of users; features such as "Payout" are also a major factor in the switch to "my paysafecard". If merchants integrate the Payout API on their pages and it will be activated for them in the Merchant Service Center (MSC), winnings from games or bets can be credited directly to a "my paysafecard" account with almost no delay. "We know from a recent survey by the Paysafe Group in the United States that this is particularly important to gamblers. 37 percent of those surveyed for the "All the ways Players pay" study stated that fast payouts were the decisive factor for them in choosing a betting provider.”

She therefore has no doubts about the success of the introduction of "my paysafecard" as the only payment platform for customers of iGaming merchants in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands this year. "Experience from Germany clearly shows that our users only need a few weeks to become familiar with it. After that, the transaction volume quickly picks up again."

Would you like to find out more about Payout and the advantages for my paysafecard customers? Contact your Key Account Manager or use the contact for here.