First impressions matter, and most people will form an opinion of your company within 30 seconds of their initial interaction. These early perceptions have the potential to make or break your business; they can create (or destroy) trust in the brand and determine if people will continue to use your platform.
With an increasing number of states now permitting and regulating sports betting, Identity verification (IDV) has become a key component of the registration process, as it helps to ensure people are who they claim to be and are of legal age to place bets. Automating this process can greatly improve the player experience by streamlining registration, reducing risk, and building trust.
Bringing IDV into the 2020s
With traditional verification methods, players are required to submit copies of their identification documents which are then reviewed by staff to confirm their authenticity. This process is time-consuming and may require multiple back-and-forth interactions between the player and the sportsbook operator, creating friction and a poor experience for the person. By automating ID verification with a quality solution, sports betting platforms can instantly verify a player’s identity using a variety of data sources, including government-issued ID documents and public records.
Ergonomic image capture gives sportsbooks the ability to capture high-quality images of IDs in a way that is easy and convenient for players. This tech is also able to automatically pre-fill certain fields on sign-up flows based on the information contained within a person’s ID, thereby speeding up the registration process and reducing the risk of errors. On the operator’s side, advanced image capture technology accurately reads and extracts information from IDs—even if they are damaged or faded—without the need for manual review.
(Not so) risky business
Having covered the improvement in experience for both the player and the operator, let’s turn our attention to risk management. By implementing an automated IDV solution and accurately verifying the identity of players, sportsbooks can ensure that they are not allowing underage or otherwise ineligible individuals to place bets. Automated IDV thereby helps sportsbooks comply with the laws and regulations governing the industry.
The situation created is ultimately a winning one for all parties involved: the risk of fraudulent activity drops, protecting the operator from liability, and the player is protected against identity theft and other forms of fraud. Trust is built and sustained, which is critical for customer retention and overall satisfaction.
Trust and fairness for the win
There are a variety of other ways a high-quality ID verification solution can cultivate trust between a player and a sports betting platform. For one thing, IDV tech should be capable of providing customer-facing interfaces in a variety of languages, as well as be able to read and extract information from identification documents in multiple languages. This feature is particularly useful for sportsbooks operating in multiple countries that need to support players whose native language is something other than English.
Perhaps most crucially of all, your IDV provider must be dedicated to eliminating bias in their products. Developers at AI-based identity verification companies must train their technology on diverse and representative training data, incorporate ethical principles in algorithm design and development, and regularly monitor and evaluate the performance and impact of the algorithms they build.
Players are the lifeblood of the business
Overall, automating ID verification can greatly improve the player experience of sportsbooks by streamlining the registration process, reducing the risk of fraud, and helping simplify regulatory compliance. By adopting this technology, sports betting companies demonstrate that they prioritize their players, thus setting themselves up for success in what is rapidly becoming a highly competitive industry.
About the post:
Image is generative AI-created. Prompt: Cyberpunk hamster. Program: DALL-E.
About the author:
Garrett Freehling has 8 years of experience working in technology. He is passionate about solutions for everyday problems and is constantly looking for the latest and greatest in the industry. Garrett’s background is in payments, customer experience, automation, and data management.
