PASPA is dead and sports gambling is legal.
In May of 2018 the United States Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Act (PASPA) of 1992, essentially legitimizing an industry that had long operated in the shadows. Once relegated to the Las Vegas Strip or your local horse track, sports gambling is now available at your fingertips and unsurprisingly, there is a lot of money at stake.
Over/Under
European and American brands are now in a race for market share in this multi-billion dollar industry that has already seen a significant uptick in growth. The once taboo subject of gambling is going directly to the mainstream, most recently in the form of a $9 million dollar PPV winner take all golf event between the world’s two most famous golfers, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Simply look to Disney to see the fading stigma as their subsidiary ESPN now gives live odds on almost every sporting event under the sun.
Like so much technology in recent years, the big play here is mobile. But while many providers have taken a theoretical approach how iGaming companies could leverage communication APIs and CPaaS, TeleSign can provide actual use cases.
Two-Team Parlay
It wasn’t too long ago that the next big thing wasn’t iGaming, but just ‘gaming.’ E-sports, competitive gaming, pro gaming, whatever you would like to call it, was an emergent industry as recent as last year. Due to the growth of eSports publishers such as Riot Games and Blizzard, the industry has exploded. When a market grows too fast with a lot of money on the line, there are obvious fraud concerns. Are accounts secure? Are the users who they say they are? With 20% of gamers experiencing fraud, 33% indicated that they were less likely to spend money with games online.
These gaming publishers worked with TeleSign to keep users safe from account takeovers, using something as simple as 2FA to make sure a person is who they say they are. Why wouldn’t it make sense then for iGaming to use this same path? After all, logging into an iGaming account is essentially the same as logging into your bank account or a mobile wallet. The security measures should reflect that. While the money in gaming is often ancillary (sponsorships, tournament winnings) iGaming is in a different boat in that they are dealing with cold hard cash.
Imagine the nightmare of dealing with a plethora of fraudulent sports bets made through a user’s account. The whole concept of gambling in the first place is that you take a risk in order to win a predetermined amount of money, what is not part of that contract though, is the risk of fraud. It is a company’s responsibility to take the steps necessary to protect their users, whether it be daily fantasy or a mobile sports book, ensuring secure transactions should be of paramount concern.
Let it Ride
The news isn’t all bad though, by implementing TeleSign products, iGaming companies can engage their users more frequently driving more activity which can lead to a healthier bottom line. Use TeleSign’s track record with the gaming industry, it’s a partnership that provides mutual benefit for all stakeholders involved. Users rest easy knowing their accounts are more secure, while TeleSign customers can have peace of mind that they are not one bad hack away from going out of business.
iGaming is inherently an industry based on risk reward, so the real question is, do you think it’s worth it to protect yourself? That’s a winning bet every time.
