In his recent interview with Joe Foley of Focus Gaming News, CoinPayments CEO Sean Mackay discussed the increasing trend for crypto payments in online gaming. Sean provides the lowdown on why crypto payments are particularly suited to online gaming and why operators should not miss this great opportunity.
A must-see video for all operators looking to integrate crypto payments, the following is an extract of some of the key interview points:
Joe: When did CoinPayments start to see the online gaming space as an area of potential that you could provide payment solutions for?
Sean: When I first started at CoinPayments our main focus was the e-commerce space. Some were a little earlier to adopt crypto payments, like those on the technology side of things, web hosting, and VPNs. They had clients that were willing to pay in crypto, so they integrated us to be able to accept the crypto payments. The way it is structured is very much geared towards the gaming space, especially online gaming where players and casinos are in different countries around the world. Crypto is a borderless method of payment so it doesn’t matter where the casino’s bank is based, where the players bank is based or the kind of intermediaries in between that the payments have to pass through. It’s a much simpler method of transacting values so an ideal solution for the online gaming space.
Joe: What kind of questions have you been receiving from casino operators? Are there any repeating concerns about how to integrate crypto payments?
Sean: After speaking with some of the operators and the platforms at gaming conferences and as people pass through the booth, you really start to notice some trends. Some of the key ones in the gaming space are speed of deposits as they want players to be able to deposit crypto quickly, and for that deposit to confirm as quickly as possible so that they can release the funds onto the platform and allow the player to start gambling. The other one is volatility. They want to accept crypto payments but don’t want to have to hold on to the crypto and deal with the volatility as price swings can be pretty big from day to day. There’s a number of solutions for that. It’s just a matter of selecting the right fit for their solution for crypto payments.
Joe: Is Bitcoin still the coin that most customers are looking to use when making transactions at online casinos. Do you see a potential growth for more altcoins in the space?
Sean: Over the 10 years that CoinPayments has been processing crypto payments, we’ve noticed some interesting changes and trends along the way. From 2013 until about 2019, Bitcoin was the dominant payment method, probably accounting for about 80 per cent of our payment volume, but from 2019 we started seeing a shift over to stable coins and now Bitcoin represents 30 or 40 percent of our volume, whereas stable coins represent over 50 percent.
Joe: What would you recommend to operators who have not entered into crypto payments yet and are considering options on how to incorporate it?
Sean: It’s a great option for payment deposit methods for your players. Why wouldn’t you offer additional payment methods if you can? You should try to keep as many potential players there as possible. Crypto payments specifically are very well suited for online gaming for many reasons, some of which I mentioned. All payments and transactions are final and settled on the blockchain in minutes and there are no chargebacks which is a huge benefit. If you’re considering CoinPayments, we’re about to change our fees to zero percent for the first hundred thousand dollars so we’re excited about that and will be rolling it out soon.
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