Worldpay, now FIS, and First Data, now Fiserv, have placed winning bets on the current U.S. trend of many states legalizing sports betting. Worldpay and First Data have experience in sports gambling and are now riding the wave of sports gambling, including the wildly popular fantasy football leagues that will soon be kicking off as the upcoming college and pro seasons commence.
Fiserv and FIS will welcome the vertical market expertise that First Data and Worldpay bring to the table. We are seeing ground-breaking sports betting relationships, with pro sports leagues teaming up with casino companies—Major League Baseball with MGM and the National Football League with Caesar’s. Meanwhile ESPN provides wall-to-wall coverage of sports betting topics on its “Chalk” platform. What’s the over/under on how many more payments vendors and fintechs will be getting in on the action, too?
A PaymentsSource article, excerpted below, covers the topic further:
Both FIS and Fiserv hope to use acquired gaming technology from Worldpay and First Data, respectively, to navigate the complicated payment processing, risk and regulatory requirements of sports betting. Both of these deals closed in July, giving the combined companies free rein to move ahead with new strategies.
“If you own both legs of the stool for sports gambling, and can do issuing and the services off of the same platform, the value is tremendous,” said Joe Pappano, the senior vice president of gaming at Worldpay, now part of FIS.
Both Worldpay and First Data bring gambling processing businesses and experience to their new owners. Worldpay has been processing sports betting payments in the U.K. for years, where it was legalized much earlier; while First Data has offered a digital gaming payments platform for about five years.
“The legalization of online sports betting is bringing added diversity to the traditional brick and mortar world of gaming, first to the internet gaming side and more recently to the palm of our hands via mobile gaming experiences,” said George Connors, who oversees gaming solutions at First Data, now part of Fiserv.
Two of Fiserv’s services for gaming include an ACH warranty, which helps enable access to bank accounts for the casino guest and mitigate risks for gaming establishments accepting ACH payments. The company also offers digital disbursement capabilities, enabling clients to provide digital payouts to players in real time.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Service at Mercator Advisory Group
