How can your payment gateway help your iGaming business take on the world?
If you want to maximise profits for your online casino or sportsbook, one of the best ways to do this is by widening your customer base to include new international markets. This will increase your pool of potential customers by bringing your platform to previously untapped territories.

However, it can be difficult to achieve global coverage. This is because different players around the world have different gambling and purchasing habits that you need to understand. If you approach international expansion with the wrong strategy, then you will very likely fail, and end up wasting lots of time and money.

One of the key ways to successfully create an international iGaming platform is by making sure you have the right currencies and payment methods as part of your payment portal. This will make it easy for international customers to make deposits and withdrawals, and stay engaged in your games.

To achieve this, you need to have the right payment gateways as part of your payment system. Carefully chosen payment gateways will make the international payment process fast, simple and stress-free for your customers who live in different parts of the world.

But how exactly do they do this?
Different payment gateways are specialized for certain international markets
Many payment gateways align with different countries and areas of the world, and as a result they create personalized geographical payment experiences for your customers. Personnel from payment gateway companies can offer expert advice on how best to build a localized payment platform for your desired customers.

For example, if your online casino wants to attract customers from Scandinavia, you should think about adding payment gateway software from a provider based in Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Finland. This is because they will know the payment habits and preferences of the customers that you are trying to attract, and they will ensure that the payment process is smooth and painless for your Scandinavian customers.
International payment gateways help you to handle transactions in different currencies
If you're a customer of an online casino and you are adding funds to your account, don't you want to be presented with payment information that's easy for you to understand? Or course you do - and this goes beyond just having payment pages in your own language. For true transparency, it is important to allow multi-currency transactions, so that your customers know exactly how much they are depositing and withdrawing.

One of the main reasons for cart abandonment is when the customers are faced with an amount of money that they don't understand. For example, if you are a customer from the United Kingdom and you are using a Czech website, you want to transact in pound sterling so that you have full transparency and understanding of the payments you are making. If you are asked to deposit 3000 Czech koruna, this is much more daunting than the same amount in British pounds, which is a little over £100.

Having payment gateways that help you to transact and settle in different currencies will mean that you make payments much easier and understandable for your international customer base. There will be less confusion, and your customers will feel at home on your website - overall, they will feel more confident in parting with their money.
Payment gateways can reduce your FX costs
Whenever your iGaming company accepts a credit card transaction, it pays a processing fee. On average, you will pay an additional 1% on each transaction if those transactions are considered 'cross border', meaning that the customer used a card issued in a different country or region from where the payment is processed. That extra fee is called the cross border interchange fee, and the 'borders' are defined by the different credit card networks and payment method providers.

Most payment gateways are configured to route their transactions to a bank in one card region. This works fine for an operator that only transacts with gamers in their own country, but the operator will be at a disadvantage if it wants to expand internationally, because of the FX fee.

The key is to localize the payment by processing card transactions in the region where the shopper's card was issued. This is achieved by integrating a number of different gateways into the payment system to localize payments in multiple regions.
Here are 3 essential benefits of using local payment methods in your payment portal:
  1. In many countries, the primary way of making online purchases and adding funds to an online gambling account is through local payment methods instead of regular credit or debit cards. To make the payment process as easy as possible for your target customers, you should offer their preferred way to pay.
  2. The transaction amount will be displayed in a format that is familiar to your customers, by speaking in their own language, and displaying and charging the amount in your customer's local currency. By showing the charges in your customer's local currency it prevents any ambiguity relating to the price of your goods or services. Having clear and concise prices in customer's local currencies reduces confusion and cart abandonment.
  3. If the credit card is processed through the local payment method and in your customer's local currency, they will not be charged additional international transaction fees by their card issuing bank. This will help to save your customers some money.
  4. Local payment methods use highly advanced security systems that protect your customers' data, and when a transaction is processed using one of these methods, liability rests with the local payment provider.
To find out how to create an international payments strategy that will catapult your iGaming business towards a larger customer base and greater profits, get in touch with the RedLab Gaming's team of software experts today