Have you ever come across a universal, all-purpose, versatile payment solution for businesses of all sizes and industries? I bet you have. Maybe you even went for a demo and spent an hour just to realize what it truly means:
- The solution’s pricing model makes processing your volumes too expensive.
- There’s plenty of complex, unintuitive functionality you’re unlikely to use.
- The necessary integrations aren’t there; bringing them live will take forever.
- Or even worse — it turns out they don’t work with high-risk business verticals.
At GR8 Tech, we’ve been there ourselves. We sifted through the market, trying to find a solution that works for us in a world of universal payment orchestration platforms designed to work for everyone. In the end, we solved it the hard way: by building our own iGaming payment processing system from scratch.
That’s the extreme route. But you don’t have to go all-in to reap the same benefits. In this article, I’ll reveal an alternative, faster way to enter the market and gain revenue.
Universal Payment Orchestrators Overview
Over the past decade, the number of businesspeople unaware of payment orchestration has shrunk as quickly as the number of new payment platforms has grown. According to Grand View Research, the market is expanding by 25% every year, projected to reach $6.52 billion in revenue by 2030.
So, what exactly makes payment orchestration platforms increasingly popular among businesses?
What’s a payment orchestration?
Payment orchestration platforms are technical solutions that provide a single hub to process payments via many different payment service providers (PSPs) and acquirers. They allow businesses to work with many payment partners conveniently and without having to develop integrations, manage their payment traffic in multiple disjointed systems, or reconcile transactions across all providers manually.
At the core of any payment orchestration provider lies payment routing — an online payment processing functionality that determines the optimal payment service provider for every transaction based on predefined rules and attributes or even real-time conditions. To further minimize failures, they offer cascading features that seamlessly reroute transactions to the next best provider when needed. Additionally, orchestration platforms allow fine-tuning settings for each merchant account and provide a unified dashboard for managing all payment operations in one convenient interface.
Payment providers vs payment orchestrator
Payment orchestrators’ advantages
The key benefits businesses gain from working with payment orchestrators include:
- Improved success rates. Payment routing ensures transactions are directed to the acquirer most likely to approve them, factoring in variables like region, card type, and issuer. Orchestrators claim this leads to an average 20-30% boost in authorization rates. On top of that, most payment orchestrators have automated retry mechanisms — sometimes called auto retries, failovers, or cascading — that step into reattempting failed transactions, giving them another chance to go through.
- Cost optimization. According to orchestrators’ claims, their clients enjoy up to 15-20% reduced payment processing fees. They do this by automatically routing transactions to the provider with the lowest cost for each case. For businesses handling large volumes, those savings can really add up.
- Faster time to market. Launching in new markets often requires integrating multiple local payment methods and PSPs, which can take weeks or months when done manually. Payment orchestrators make this much simpler. Many have dozens or even hundreds of pre-integrated providers, letting businesses add new options or connect to local processors in just a few hours.
Most companies dream of these kinds of benefits from their online payment gateway. But you need more than that to stay ahead in iGaming, with its stringent regulations and operational specifics.
Why All-Purpose Payment Platforms Fall Short for iGaming
Thanks to their broad appeal, all-purpose payment orchestration platforms seem a solid choice. But when you dig deeper, the very features that work so well for other industries often fall short of even the basic needs of iGaming.
Industry Expertise
One of the fundamental limitations of generic payment platforms is their lack of focus or industry-specific expertise. The gambling sector is unlike any other — it’s a high-risk industry, subject to stringent regulations, volatile market demands, and a unique customer profile.
Generic payment orchestrators, by design, aim to cater to multiple industries, offering broad-stroke solutions that miss the mark when applied to iGaming.
They often lack the essential features required for success in high-risk industries: seamless integrations with the most popular payment providers and methods, advanced fraud prevention tools tailored to the unique challenges of iGaming, efficient traffic management to boost payment success rates, and an intuitive interface optimized for managing multiple merchant brands, complete with in-depth transaction analytics for data-driven decision making.
Integrations
Most orchestrators on the market provide hundreds of integrations with global and local payment vendors out of the box. In fact, this is one of the key metrics in which they compete. But here come the buts:
- You must still open merchant accounts (MIDs) with all the iGaming payment service providers or acquirers you want to work with. That’s because you must input your account credentials to start using any of those pre-made integrations. Given that you’re in a high-risk vertical, finding the optimal PSP and getting a MID with them may be a challenging task you’ll have to deal with on your own.
- Your orchestrator's integration pool will likely lack options tailored to exotic regions where iGaming operators often thrive, such as Thailand, Brazil, or Kenya. While some platforms allow you to request custom integrations, be prepared to wait — it’s not uncommon for operators to face delays of over three months just to get a single on-demand integration live. In fact, the largest orchestrators tend to have integration queues stretching several months due to the high volume of client requests.
- Hundreds of integrations require ongoing updates, maintenance, and rigorous testing to ensure smooth operation. And let’s be honest — the more extensive the integration list, the higher the chance you’ll encounter outdated connections built ages ago. Their functionality and reliability might be questionable, creating unnecessary risks for your payment flow.
Choosing a universal platform is like buying a fancy car without wheels — it might look impressive with all its integrations, but without direct PSP relationships and merchant accounts, it won't get you far.
Regulations and Fraud Prevention
Operating within the iGaming industry means having to adhere to the landscape of regulations that vary greatly from country to country. This is where universal payment orchestrators often fall short — they’re not built with the iGaming industry in mind. Their compliance solutions are generic, covering basic regulatory requirements like PCI DSS, GDPR and PSD2 compliance.
In turn, iGaming businesses need a payment solution that can navigate stringent anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, dynamic changes in licensing laws, and ensure adherence to region-specific high-risk payment rules. The best proof of how crucial this is is that gambling businesses incurred $104 million in financial penalties globally just this year.
Besides, universal payment orchestrators tend to use one-size-fits-all fraud prevention models, which are less effective against sophisticated, industry-specific threats like bonus abuse, arbing, multi-accounting, or account takeovers.
How iGaming Payment Gateways Make the Difference
iGaming-specific payment gateways are designed from the ground up with gambling operators in mind, making them inherently different from universal payment platforms. Some of them, including GR8 Payment Gateway, were born in the industry as part of renowned international gambling businesses. These gateways are not just about processing transactions — they're about understanding the entire iGaming payments lifecycle, from deposit to withdrawal, and the unique challenges it poses.
Payment ochestrator vs iGaming payment solution
Tailored payment gateways are deeply embedded in the iGaming industry. They don’t need to keep up with industry updates from afar — they experience them firsthand. This direct involvement allows for quick reactions and the development of new, relevant features and approaches.
These payment gateways also typically come integrated with essential tools for gambling businesses, such as gaming platforms, CRMs, and chargeback prevention systems. This all-in-one solution makes the setup more convenient, streamlined, and legally safer, as operators work with one trusted partner rather than multiple vendors.
If you’re a mature business aiming for sustainable growth, avoid fragmented setups involving cheap or overhyped solutions. Choose a strong partnership with someone who has already navigated this journey and succeeded.
Knowledge of the industry
Like all-purpose orchestrators, iGaming-specific payment solutions come with a set of integrations with various payment providers. However, unlike generic orchestrators, they have hands-on experience processing gambling transactions across different markets worldwide. This expertise enables them to recommend an optimal combination of payment vendors and methods tailored to an iGaming operator's specific goals and needs.
Clients benefit from tried-and-tested, reputable payment options, which lead to increased gross gaming revenue (GGR) through higher successful deposit rates and, ultimately, boosted revenue. Additionally, gambling payment gateways have established histories with various PSPs, providing firsthand knowledge of their reliability and response to challenging situations.
iGaming gateways understand the frustration of spending significant resources to attract players, guide them through registration, and then see their first deposit fail. That’s why they focus on minimizing these failures, ensuring a seamless experience for both operators and players.
Turnkey solutions
When you work with a payment orchestrator, you often end up sorting through a bunch of payment providers, figuring out by trial and error which one actually fits your needs.
With an iGaming payment gateway, you share your business goals and requirements, and they’ll provide a list of trusted vendors, complete with details like approval rates, fees, and any limitations. Sometimes, they'll even negotiate better terms for you. Plus, they'll help you set up a cost-efficient solution that strikes the right balance between conversions, transaction fees, and security.
The same applies when you decide to enter a new market. You'll have access to expert insights on whether your current setup is suitable, which new methods you might need, and any additional licensing requirements — ultimately speeding up your time-to-market.
Overall, with an iGaming-specific payment gateway as your partner, you won't be left to tackle payment issues or growth challenges on your own.
If you remember one thing from everything you’ve read here, I’d like it to be this simple analogy:
A universal platform is like an ordinary sedan on a racetrack—you can drive it, but you won’t win the race. An industry-specific solution provides you with a high-performance vehicle tuned for the track. It knows the terrain, anticipates the hurdles, and is built to give you a winning edge as a gambling operator.
TL;DR: Why Tailor-Made Trumps Universal
Universal payment orchestration platforms might seem like a convenient choice, but when it comes to iGaming, they're often not up to the task. They lack the specific features and adaptability needed for a demanding high-risk industry like gambling.
On the other hand, iGaming-specific payment gateways are built with deep industry knowledge, tackling complex compliance, offering effective fraud prevention, and optimizing payment flows tailored for gaming. They provide the optimal tools, faster market entry, and support for high-risk payment methods, ensuring a smoother experience for both operators and players.
If you're serious about your iGaming business, going for a specialized solution equips you for long-term success.
