Gaming payout methods and eGaming Review Live 2009
Smarkets attended a fascinating presentation by Paul Davis from Counting House at eGaming Review Live last week. Paul talked about how there is a trend towards paperless banking in general life but online gaming is actually an exception. Counting House’s figures showed that electronic payouts were nine times higher than cheques by volume (from January to July 2009), but those cheques were actually worth 8 times more than the electronic payouts.
If gambling is frowned upon (or even illegal) then many punters will request large cheque payouts rather than electronic transfers. Cheques are easier to turn into cash without the accounting trail associated with bank transfers and cheques are a physical piece of paper, this makes bragging in front of your mates much more effective.
Another interesting slide Paul presented was this table which shows the percentage split of payouts:
| Country | Bank Transfers | Payments to Cards | Cheques | eWallets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 44.49 | 8.33 | 10.22 | 36.95 |
| Australia | 20.66 | 18.49 | 39.64 | 21.21 |
| Belgium | 15.20 | 16.86 | 11.27 | 56.67 |
| Canada | 34.93 | 12.46 | 45.34 | 7.26 |
| Denmark | 1.02 | 49.93 | 6.14 | 42.92 |
| France | 16.38 | 49.3 | 0.00 | 34.25 |
| Germany | 37.84 | 7.82 | 8.46 | 45.88 |
| Hungary | 2.67 | 39.75 | 1.95 | 55.63 |
| Mexico | 7.92 | 18.76 | 25.64 | 47.68 |
| Netherlands | 49.79 | 3.40 | 0.02 | 46.79 |
| New Zealand | 2.73 | 45.90 | 9.74 | 41.63 |
| Poland | 6.98 | 5.67 | 0.16 | 87.19 |
| Portugal | 16.11 | 3.28 | 28.38 | 42.23 |
| Russia | 9.59 | 26.15 | 0.14 | 64.12 |
| Sweden | 13.63 | 43.61 | 1.86 | 40.90 |
| UK | 26.74 | 52.82 | 6.44 | 14.00 |
| USA | 48.47 | 0.00 | 51.53 | 0.00 |
Payment wallets (such as Moneybookers and Neteller) are gaining ground in popularity in many markets. This an area Smarkets has been investigating and (if we can get the costs to the right level) it’ll be something we’ll be adding in future releases.
