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By Kamran Hedjri, CEO, PXP Financial

The iGaming and Sports Betting sector is a multi-billion-dollar industry with global reach that has found much success across Europe. Yet despite this, for the longest time it was incredibly difficult for gaming operators to run in the United States of America (US) as laws and regulations limited, or outright prevented, forms of gambling. Fortunately, since 2018 regulators have slowly eased up on restrictions and this has created many opportunities for both local and foreign companies to begin operating in the region.

While there are lots of opportunities for success in the US, it is not as simple as moving into the country and setting up shop. There are several regulations still in place across all 50 US states, and gaming operators need to ensure their ability to take transactions from players is not impeded by this. The worst thing an operator can do to its player base is prevent them from being able to play, after all. This is where PXP Financial has provided a major benefit, helping new and old operators alike with their payments infrastructure and security.

PXP Financial has been operating within the US for over eight-years and its team has become experts within the sector over this time, as evidenced by the success throughout 2021.

By the end of 2020, PXP Financial were in a good position to continue its growth journey in the region. The company was operating in nine US states and had added three high-profile clients to its portfolio over that year (BetMGM, Penn Interactive and Tipico). In 2021, PXP Financial’s stake in the market grew exponentially and allowed it to become a key player.

Adding to this success, Kamran Hedjri, CEO of PXP Financial, shares his reflections on 2021 and predictions for the industry in 2022.

PXP Financial in the US – 2021

As 2021 comes to a close, PXP Financial has now established a presence in 15 new US states, a six-state increase from its position in the previous year. PXP Financial’s services went live in its most recent states, Wyoming and Arizona, almost immediately as the regulations went live to allow them to. This was only possible because PXP Financial’s experience operating in the country allowed them to be fully prepared to go live at a moment’s notice. This has been a major benefit to its most recent partners – EveryMatrix and Shift4 – as well as others that are currently in development behind the scenes.

In order to ensure all its customers are finding success in the iGaming and Sports Betting market, PXP Financial has been performing an analysis of market trends and ensuring its solutions are updated accordingly. It is by doing this that PXP Financial was able to help its partners meet their growth goals and find success during major sporting events, such as the Super Bowl. Everything from improved / new UI features that are more optimised for mobile to an updated cage deposit solution – PXP Financial has been working hard this year to provide a best-in-class service for its customers.

Now that 2022 is here, PXP Financial is continuing to look forward and ensure its technology addresses some of the major concerns from operators with how the market is changing. These are just some of those concerns:

Prediction 1 – an uptake in regulation

While many states have been updating their regulations to make iGaming and Sports Betting legal, there are 50 states across the US and it’s unlikely that all of them will make a complete turnaround by 2022. With that said however, we do expect the turnaround from states still unsure, to happen at a much faster rate than in previous years.

This is largely down to regulations being workshopped by other states and reaching a condition where they are more acceptable to a wider council. As the hesitant US states begin to see regulations working effectively in the states that have already opened up, they will also begin to lessen restrictions.

The process will ultimately be a lot faster as well, as these states can easily adopt what has worked elsewhere and make small amends instead of workshopping new regulations from scratch. There will be more case studies for the regional regulators to work from and this will speed up the process.

So, while we don’t expect to see all 50 states open to iGaming and Sports Betting by the end of 2022, we do expect to see a larger portion of US states adding new regulation in support of the industry than ever before. This is something any company involved in the sector needs to be ready for.

Prediction 2 – bigger investments lead to better tech

As this sector is growing and proving to be a success, this will draw the attention of investors who will be keen to take part in supporting the growth of the industry. This will naturally result in many of its upcoming and currently key players receiving funds that will support in their growth – and one way we will see this growth take form is with new technology.

Innovation is constantly happening across all technology sectors, payments and otherwise, and some of this technology will support in streamlining the process for players to participate in iGaming and sports betting, as well as offer new ways to play. We anticipate that a slew of new investments will lead to the adoption of several new technologies to this sector, and that in turn will lead to further investment.

Prediction 3 – iGaming continues to boom

Over the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry saw a huge boost in iGaming as players were forced online. Even though lockdown has subsided, and many in-person casinos have reopened, the revenue made from iGaming alone has not decreased. In fact, it has increased along with revenue across the industry as a whole and the will certainly continue its upward trajectory throughout 2022.

iGaming and Sports Betting is a thriving industry currently and has proven to be so globally for many, many years. Over the last few years, the US has been given the opportunity to experience this success and it is only going to rise further. We at PXP Financial will be there to support businesses at every step, both if they are existing operators hoping to expand into new states or new entrants into the region.

The payment expert continues its successful US growth with its latest acquirer partnership

New York, NY, 27 October 2021 - PXP Financial Inc, the expert in acquiring and payment processing services, has today announced a partnership with leading provider of integrated payment processing and technology solutions Shift4, as PXP expands its capabilities in the US market.

Following a successful year in the US market, the partnership will see Shift4 added to PXP’s platform as an acquirer, improving the payment specialist’s connectivity and reach in the US market, allowing for further growth across the country. It allows for PXP Financial customers to reach a wider market and offer an improved payment experience to end-users.

Kamran Hedjri, CEO at PXP Financial Inc., says: “Our partnership with Shift4 has been mutually beneficial to both parties. Shift4 has been incredible to work with and we can really feel the synergy between both companies, both for our business goals and our values. The US is a complex market, but by leveraging partnerships locally, PXP can deliver a more seamless payment experience for customers.”

“PXP is a great partner with a wealth of knowledge and experience in payments and gaming,” said Michael Isaacman, Chief Commercial Officer of Shift4. “We look forward to a long and successful relationship.”

Increasing its presence in the US gaming market since 2013, PXP Financial has recently seen momentous growth, expanding into 15 US states including, most recently, Wyoming and Arizona. The has already delivered against its ambitious plans for 2021 and is set to continue its expansion throughout the US into next year and beyond.

To find out more about the PXP Financial family of companies, please visit: www.pxpfinancial.com.

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About PXP Financial Inc.

The end-to-end payment platform: PXP Financial Inc. provides a single unified payments platform to accept payments across channels. Powered by acquiring, 200+ alternative payment methods & financial services, PXP Financial family of companies processes globally over EUR 21.5 billion annually through our unified gateway. Whatever your business needs today or tomorrow, PXP Financials’ innovative payment platform will support your business growth with all the payment services you will ever need from one source, wherever your business takes you. To find out more about PXP Financial family of companies, visit: www.pxpfinancial.com.

About Shift4 Payments

Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR) is a leading provider of integrated payment processing and technology solutions, delivering a complete omnichannel ecosystem that extends beyond payments to include a wide range of commerce-enabling services. The company’s technologies help power over 350 software providers in numerous industries, including hospitality, retail, F&B, eCommerce, lodging, gaming, and many more. The company securely processes billions of transactions annually for hundreds of thousands of businesses across North America. For more information, visit shift4.com.

Seasonal peaks are getting steeper and closer together. Customers often ask me about PXP’s capacity planning and what support we provide at peak trading times, so here goes…

Capacity planning

The first thing to note is that our capacity planning is continual. It never formally starts or stops. We are constantly using our application and infrastructure data to assess the performance and efficiency of our platforms.

Our customers expect us to process whatever they send us. We expect this of ourselves. So, we monitor the draw on our capacity and resources daily to meet and exceed this.

When it comes to Black Friday, we begin planning a year ahead. As soon as one Black Friday ends, we review the data from this new peak and start planning how we can improve performance throughout the year.

We put new functionality, features and fixes into our development and release schedules. This means we can implement and prove them ahead of time, so we’re ready for the next Black Friday peak.

The last release we do in mid-October is our ‘stability release’. This is where we focus on system optimisation, performance and bug fixes, rather than any new features.

Our first change freeze usually starts at the beginning of November. We can implement fixes before the Christmas peaks, before our second change freeze from mid-December to mid-January.

Forewarned is forearmed

Given what I’ve said above, it probably won’t surprise you to know that PXP believes that forewarned is forearmed. We aim to spot potential issues before they become problems. That’s the case throughout the year as well as for peak periods.

We’ve made heavy investments in our monitoring capabilities which means we can retrospectively review what has happened for individual customers, and why.

We have a daily report that we review every morning for volume, performance, comms areas and everything that is happening in the environment. If there are any issues or anomalies that could potentially be problematical, we raise them with customers, often before they’ve noticed themselves.

We believe — and our customers agree with us on this — that preemptive action is better, simpler, cheaper and less painful than when the problem has manifested itself. So, if you’re interested in finding out more about capacity planning please get in touch.

No sooner is summer over than Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas seem to be around the corner. So, how can retailers prepare for the peaks of peak trading?

From statistics to insights

My first piece of advice is to look behind the statistics for real insight. We regularly get asked in tenders and RFPs what our throughput is. We’ll happily tell customers how many transactions we can process per second. Moreover that during Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the US, we see roughly five times our normal daily peak — and can more than handle it with capacity to spare.

However, in my experience customers don’t necessarily know what their own capacity is. They know how many transactions they process on a given day or month. But they don’t necessarily know what their real peak looks like. Or how many transactions per second they see. Capacity planning with customers is a case in point. The statistics customers give us before peak season can be very different to the reality.

Customers can address this by investing in monitoring and reporting capabilities. We can also take this pain away for our customers. We’ve made a considerable investment in monitoring and can monitor your environment for you — more of which below.

Coming back to the transaction per second statistic, there are a couple more reasons why it’s not very insightful. It’s obviously a good measure of how many transactions arrive, but it doesn’t indicate how quickly they are processed. Acquirers process at different speeds.

Secondly, transactions per second don’t really mean much on a per customer basis, because it lacks the context of how many transactions their payment service provider processes for others.

Trust in your partner

My best advice is that you need to trust in a partner that has insight into your processing requirements as a merchant. We deliver that because we have close relationships with our customers. We know what their patterns are like because we’re constantly monitoring them.

For us, reviewing volume, performance, comms areas and everything happening in the environment is not just a peak trading event. It’s daily and goes to understanding the draw on our resources so we can improve efficiencies and deliver reliably time after time.

Every morning, we review the report from the previous day. If there are any issues or anomalies that could potentially be problematical, we raise them with customers, often before they’ve noticed themselves.

If you’re interested in finding out more about capacity planning in the run-up to peak season, please get in touch.

With peak trading season just around the corner, we consider some principles to guide retailers’ response and get the most out of their payment partners.

Plan ahead

In years past, the peaks of peak trading season were becoming steeper and closer together. They started early in the fourth quarter, driven by shopping events such as Amazon Prime Day in October and the Alibaba Group’s Singles’ Day in November. And then continued through Thanksgiving in the US, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, before picking up again pre- and post-Christmas.

Most sectors have seen more than 10% growth in their online customer base during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to McKinsey research.¹ The shift to e-commerce has been particularly noticeable in countries starting from a lower base of online shoppers. For example, consumers in the US spent more online during Covid lockdown in April and May than during the 2019 holiday season, according to Adobe.²

Calculate your capacity requirements now and speak with your payment service provider. If you are unable to accept payment from customers at any time, it will directly affect your bottom line. Lean on your payments partner at this time. They should have 100% availability across more than one data centre as standard. And offer full redundancy, meaning there is back-up to every component.

Think local

You don’t want to lose customers for the simple reason that they can’t pay you. So, provide multiple payment options. PXP Financial offers customers integrations to major international card brands, local schemes, bank transfers, e-wallets and instalment options. That’s in addition to sector-specific payment methods for the gaming and industries.

Also, consider pricing in local currencies. If you sell globally, then pricing locally removes payment friction. Which helps maximise conversion and minimise cart abandonment. Our multi-currency management solution supports any currency, so you can make customers feel at home whenever and wherever they shop online with you. We’ll take care of the rest.

Baseline normal

What does normal look like for your business and customers? Examine typical sales patterns by volume and value, sales channel and geography. Similarly, review activity by user — account creation, logins and updates — to baseline normal. Unless your marketing team have been particularly active with promotions, any deviations from the norm should raise a red flag and warrant a follow-up.

When it comes to fraud prevention, make the best of what you’ve got and draw on the support of your payments partner. With peak season just around the corner, it’s not really the time to be rolling out anything brand-new. There’s plenty you can do with good business-as-usual fraud alerts.

A concentration of sales from a narrow range of IP addresses or a mis-match between IP addresses and delivery addresses or pickup locations could suggest bogus orders. Multiple accounts on a single device or connected to a single e-mail address should raise suspicions. Block obviously doubtful transactions, such as unusual bulk orders or those from questionable countries.

For more information

To request a free consultation about your particular peak trading needs, contact us.

¹ ‘Consumer sentiment and behavior continue to reflect the uncertainty of the Covid-19 crisis’, McKinsey, 8 July 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-global-view-of-how-consumer-behavior-is-changing-amid-covid-19

² Online shopping during Covid-19 exceeds 2019 holiday season levels’ Adobe, 12 June 2020, https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2020/06/12/online-shopping-during-covid-19-exceeds-2019-holiday-season-levels.html#gs.iup1kh

By Graeme Zwart, Head of Security

Genuine customers are not the only ones shopping with you this peak season. Fraudsters are also busy this time of year. We examine four common online fraud types and how retailers can avoid falling victim to them.

1. Account takeover

Fraudsters take over an existing customer account, either by buying stolen usernames and passwords online or by credential stuffing. This is a type of brute force attack by another name. It’s when hackers systematically guess a number of possible combinations to gain unauthorised access to a customer’s account.

Once the fraudsters have control of the account, they can make unauthorised purchases, commit loyalty/reward fraud or test stolen card numbers. Entertainment, media, gaming and retail businesses are particularly at risk.

Some simple checks include being aware if there’s an increase in customers reporting unauthorised activity on their accounts. Have a process in place for your customer service team to alert your fraud team if this happens.

Genuine login attempts by real customers look very different to credential stuffing attacks by an automated tool. Deploy analytics to spot what’s a bot and what’s not. This is usually a mix of velocity checking, IP address detection and baselining what is normal by channel, device and customer account.

2. Loyalty/reward fraud

Loyalty is big business. None bigger than the Starbucks loyalty reward programme. Customers have more money loaded on Starbucks cards and mobile apps than some banks. $1.2 billion, in fact, and that was back in 2016.¹

Clearly, not every loyalty or rewards programme is as large. But as loyalty/reward points are as good as cash in some instances, it’s small wonder they’ve become a target for criminals following the money.

The loss or theft of loyalty points is likely to be particularly upsetting for customers, plus leave you out of pocket. So in this instance, prevention is better, simpler, cheaper and less painful than cure. Set system alerts for large numbers of loyalty points being purchased, redeemed or transferred between accounts.

3. Gift card fraud

There are various ways to commit gift card fraud. Criminals can buy gift cards with stolen card details. They can hack or takeover an existing gift card account. Or ask for refunds to be paid onto gift cards.

Protecting yourself against gift card fraud often comes down to understanding what normal looks like for your customers and business. If you know what your typical gift card sales by volume and value look like, any anomalies should stand out. For example, bulk purchasing of cards or usually high transaction values.

Take sensible precautions such as preventing gift card codes from being used outside your website. And be able to track gift card activity from purchase and load through to redemption.

4. Referral fraud

Affiliate or referral programmes are a cost-effective way to acquire new customers online. You only pay if the affiliate brings you a customer. However, affiliate commissions can be an attractive revenue stream for fraudsters.

Guard against affiliates referring themselves or creating fake accounts. Look out for batches of referrals concentrated around the same or similar IP addresses. Orders from certain affiliates may have unusual cancellation, refund or chargeback rates. If you sell digital goods or downloads, an obvious red flag is if customer login details are not used, even though they were paid for.

Free consultation

If you’re worried about fraud in the run-up to peak season or would like a review of the defences currently in place, e-mail sales@pxpfinancial.com or complete your details on the contact form below for a free 30-minute consultation.

¹ ‘Starbucks cards now have more money than some banks’, Fortune, 10 June 2016, https://fortune.com/2016/06/10/starbucks-card-balance/

Our top tips for getting the most out of your in-store estate this holiday season.

Covid left uncertainty for instore sales over the past 18 months so Store managers are used to expecting the unexpected. They’re used to hoping for the best but planning for the worst. Against that backdrop, here are our top tips for planning ahead, being prepared and flexible as peak season approaches.

Additional fixed points of sale

You probably already have reconfigured store lay-outs to accommodate social distancing. For example, deployed floor markings and signage to manage queues and installed screens at checkout.

Powering up additional fixed tills is a great way to cut queues and serve customers faster as peak season approaches. You may have several fixed points of sale in-store, only some of which are ever used for the majority of the year. Plan in advance to ensure that the terminals and PIN entry devices (PEDs) are working when you need them.

If you want to re-introduce a terminal that’s not been used in a while, we can help test it ahead of time. We can also see from our monitoring system when you’ve added a new POS, and whether it’s using the most up-to-date software.

Making card acceptance mobile

Mobile point of sale, or mPOS for short, gives you the flexibility to take payments in-store with no sacrifice of retail space, no wires or cables. That’s a boon at this time of year, when you want to devote space to displaying merchandise not processing payments. You can also deploy your staff more efficiently at busy times to serve customers.

If you’re operating pop-up stores, concessions or trading outside your main store environment, for example through a hatch or window to the street as a Covid-19 work-around, mPOS will also help you get up and running with card acceptance quickly.

Train your staff

At this time of year, you may engage additional temporary staff. Or be welcoming colleagues from other stores or those returning from furlough. It sounds obvious but make sure your staff are trained on how to process payment on your particular terminal set-up. This may have changed.

They are in a perfect position to guide customers through the payment process and leave them with a positive final impression of your store and brand. So, explain how to use the terminal, prompt the customer and offer a receipt.

Unfortunately not everyone that visits your stores has the best intentions. Terminal swap out fraud is a real threat. Fraudsters pose as maintenance staff so they can modify or replace terminals and capture card details. Forewarned is forearmed. Train staff to challenge anyone claiming to be maintenance staff, ask for ID and supervise and escort visitors whilst they are on the premises.

For more information

For a free 30-minute consultation about your particular in-store terminal needs during peak season, contact us.

London, UK, 20 September 2021 - PXP Financial, the global expert in acquiring and payment processing services, today celebrates three successful quarters of growth in the US iGaming and Sports Betting market.

At the end of 2020, PXP Financial was licensed to process payments in nine US states and now, following nine months of activity, the company has boosted that number to 15. Having been licensed in just one state in January 2020, this shows PXP’s remarkable drive for growth, with future plans for further states to be added to its growing portfolio. The latest states that PXP Financial now operate within include Arizona and Wyoming.

When launching in Wyoming, PXP Financial was able to enter the market and operate with immediate effect as soon as regulations in the state allowed it. In order to achieve this, PXP Financial utilised its experience operating in the country to fully prepare its payment service gateway and secure a state license ahead of the regulation launch. This meant any partner or customer of PXP Financial aiming to operate in Wyoming could do so as soon as it was legally allowed.

When discussing the growth of the US market, CEO Kamran Hedjri commented: “The US gaming market keeps on moving at an unbelievable speed and we at PXP Financial are at the forefront of this journey. The recent launches are another milestone on our mission to provide the biggest coverage and best payment solution to US gaming operators and their customers. To further this, in early 2022 we will be releasing an updated version of our cage deposit solution with new UI and optimised for mobile, amongst other features we will share soon.

Our strong focus on collaboration with our partners and clients has been the key to achieving our remarkable success.”

This celebration follows on from the recent partnership announcement between PXP Financial and B2B iGaming technology provider EveryMatrix. This partnership gives the latter access to PXP Financial’s wide portfolio of over 200 alternative payment methods and financial services, while introducing PXP to a new selection of Gaming Operators to help in the expansion of its US operations.

With more states on the horizon, PXP Financial is on track to break through all of its projected growth targets for the region.

To find out more about PXP Financial, visit: https://www.pxpfinancial.com.

London, UK, May 4th 2021 - PXP Financial, the global expert in acquiring and payment processing services, has today published a research report ‘The COVID-19 Effect on European E-Commerce and Retail’, exploring UK and European consumer attitudes to the future of retail shopping.

• PXP Financial undertakes extensive consumer research across six countries
• Across Europe and in the UK, 41% of shoppers would feel positive about a cashless society
• Just under half (48%) of all respondents have tried contactless as a result of the pandemic

The report uncovers current thinking towards COVID’s impact on the high street, the concept of a cashless society and the alternative payment methods that are currently being utilised in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland and the UK.

Combining answers from respondents across all countries in the PXP Financial research, over half (55%) of all participants think the high street was already on the decline before the pandemic, 41% would feel positively about a cashless society and 48% have tried contactless as a result of the pandemic. Other forms of mobile transactions such as wallets and wearable payment forms also increased, further adding pressure on retailers to have the necessary payment systems to process mobile transactions going forward.

The report highlights that if merchants use solutions that can generate data insights from customer payments, they can quickly identify how best to optimise the retail experience for their customers – whether that is through targeted personalised promotions, in-store-only redemption of rewards, or online discounts. Only by getting a deeper understanding of their customers will merchants be able to foster deeper loyalty and greater sales volume.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Koen Vanpraet, CEO of PXP Financial, believes retailers can thrive – both in the digital space and the physical. “Covid may have affected the way people pay, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of European high streets as we know them. Forward-thinking merchants and payment players will adapt to the ‘new normal’ by using innovative payment technologies to replace cash usage. By working together to better understand consumer behaviour, retailers and payment players can capture consumer imagination with personalised promotions and value-added services that will deepen customer loyalty.”

“This new retail landscape that we find ourselves in doesn’t have to mean the end of the high street. It can also offer a prime opportunity for merchants to join with payment organisations to promote safer, quicker and more efficient cashless payments. At the same time, European retailers can gain valuable insights into their customers, enabling them to adapt to changing consumer needs much more quickly and efficiently than before,” Vanpraet concluded.

By and large, consumers were already adapting their purchasing behaviour in line with the growth of e-commerce. While the pandemic has accelerated the shift towards online shopping, the bricks-and-mortar high street is still regarded fondly by shoppers, and retailers can still count on the loyalty of their customers. But it’s more important than ever for those retailers to ensure that shoppers have the widest possible choice of payment methods which should be considered in retailer strategies going forward.

For more information, or to download PXP Financial’s whitepaper, The COVID-19 Effect on European E-Commerce and Retail’, visit: https://info.pxpfinancial.com/the-covid-19-effect-on-european-e-commerce-and-retail

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About PXP Financial

The end-to-end payment platform: PXP Financial provides a single unified payments platform to accept payments online, on mobile and at the point of sale. Powered by inhouse global acquiring, 200+ alternative payment methods & financial services, PXP processes over EUR 21.5 billion annually through our unified gateway.

Whatever your business needs today or tomorrow, PXP Financials’ innovative payment platform will support your business growth with all the payment services you will ever need from one source, wherever your business takes you.

Media Contacts

Becky Sales, Account Director, SkyParlour: becky@skyparlour.com / +44 (0)330 043 1315

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We’ve mentioned it before, but PXP is actually an acronym for People X Platform. This message is a part of the DNA that makes up PXP Financial, as our platform provides an overall supporting business tool in all its dimensions and brings together payment and financial services experts, alliances, partnerships, technology, payment products and financial and professional services.

Every commercial company has three core dimensions in its activity; it must provide great products and services, aim to process excellence to deliver and maintain its products and services, and it has to have great customer relationships. At PXP Financial, we focus on being great at all three dimensions but the one we choose to be excellent at is our client relationships without any compromise. – Koen Vanpraet, Group CEO, PXP Financial.

Every one of our clients and partners is unique, with their own set of challenges and needs. At PXP Financial we go above and beyond to understand and address these challenges in our services. After all, we believe technology only serves a purpose when it is relevant and solves a specific requirement or problem. It is to that end that we place client advocacy as one of the most important practices of our business. We focus on what is best for our clients and aim to deliver relevant and personal solutions and services to fit those requirements.

Client advocacy is an idea we have been living and breathing for years at PXP Financial, and we have built several initiatives to walk the talk; whether it is through our regular self-critical performance reviews, personal client satisfaction interviews, annual performance reviews with key clients, joint roadmap alignment workshops, and much more, but it all comes together with our inaugural PXP Financial Client Advisory Board. This board will give our clients a direct insight and influence on our service development as well as our product and service roadmap. This would be followed by a joint workshop to discuss market and technology trends and agree on an overview of what goals need to be met in the upcoming months and how PXP Financial tracks against the plan.

The intention is to delight our clients as it offers them insight into the whole organisation, not just the account managers they would usually communicate with on a daily basis. It gives us a chance to show our ‘customer first’ attitude that we pride ourselves on directly to the clients themselves. This attitude is something we also look for in our employees, doing so from the very start of recruitment. This way, we can ensure that everything from our commercial activity to the way our technology is built and how accounts are onboarded has this consistent customer focus.

PXP Financial offers great products and services. We also focus on efficient processes to deliver, implement and maintain our products and services, but we top this up with a far more personal and relevant relationship with our clients that focuses on long term partnerships, effective results and tangible efficiency. For us, the next step in our client advocacy programme will be an upcoming workshop at the end of this month that our board of customers will attend. It will be an exciting day and we will make sure to share some of the insight on our blog, following the event.

2020 was a great year for PXP Financial’s growth in the US iGaming market, and now that we are three months into 2021, we can say with confidence that we won’t be slowing down anytime soon! In line with our overall market growth, our US operation has grown exponentially in 2021 so far. So how are we doing it?

Meeting everyone’s goals for growth 

Alongside our own growth, our US partners wanted us to support their growth journeys with our full-service payment offering. With this in mind, our primary focus over Q1 was to make sure we serviced existing US merchant customers by helping them to prepare for their 2021 launches. For example, BetMGM, a joint venture between MGM Resort and Entain, a PXP partner since 2020, wanted to expand its poker operations into a new region, specifically Michigan (MI). Utilising our dynamic team and technology, as well as expert knowledge of the US iGaming landscape, we have made this possible this year. It also enabled us to expand Penn Interactive, a subsidiary of Penn National Gaming, with their sports offerings into Illinois and casino and sports into Michigan.

Michigan was also a key step in PXP Financial’s own growth as it was a new state for us to operate in. It wasn’t our only new state to expand into this quarter, however, we also set up operations in Illinois (IL) and Virginia (VA) – bringing the total of US states with a PXP presence to 12.

Supporting big sporting events

In the US, the start of the year is the start of the sporting season and two major events took place that kept our sports bookmaking partners busy.

The first of these was the Super Bowl on the 7th of February 2021. This was the first real test for us in this region (for this year). Interest in this event is held across the entire country and from our past experiences, we know it entices many first-time players and one-time customers wanting in on the action by placing a bet. The excitement around the event meant there were constant large volumes of transactions taking place, and we are pleased that through our service all users wanting to place a bet were able to.

Less than a month later saw the NCAA March Madness event take place. The month-long basketball tournament has 68 teams from across the country competing and is a very popular event for fans of the sport. With a huge number of teams taking part there were plenty of games and in turn lots of opportunities for bets to be placed and payments to be made. Our full payments gateway ensured there was no downtime and allowed players to keep up with the exciting tournament as it evolved.

Working through challenges

 It’s not all been smooth sailing of course as COVID-19 continues, presenting major challenges daily to our lives and this inevitably slows down some processes. Thankfully, it is something we at PXP are used to now and have adapted to and fortunately, iGaming has been relatively untouched.

Another challenge presented itself in the form of regulation. While most states allow iGaming to some degree (with the exceptions being Utah and Hawaii), not every state is fully regulated for iGaming and our growth is affected by this. For example, Illinois allows for some variants of iGaming but not every type of game, meaning that our partners are still limited in what activity can be done. We are seeing a push from politicians to change these current policies and as the year goes on, we hope more states allow the iGaming industry more freedom.

Focusing on an even better tomorrow

 Q1 was ultimately a great few months for us. We are fully on track with our growth expectations and slightly ahead of our project numbers for the year, which is fantastic. As the year goes on, we aim to continue supporting our partners with expansion and product plans, but we are also getting ready to announce some new US partners as well. We look forward to keeping you posted on our success in the US.

If you want to learn more about how PXP Financial supports its gaming partners, in all regions, then get in touch via the form below or visit: https://www.pxpfinancial.com/gaming

First celebrated in 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, the 110th International Women’s Day (IWD) is upon us! A global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and with just 30% of the fintech sector’s overall workforce being women, there is no time like the present to recognise the amazing women, among our 200- strong team of experts that play a huge part in PXP Financial’s overall success.

Diversity drives innovation – when we limit who can contribute, we in turn limit what problems we can solve.

Telle Whitney, former CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

As a global expert in acquiring and payment processing services, offering a dynamic range of payment services to our customers, we know that diversity of thought generates innovation and can only come from employing a diverse workforce. At PXP Financial, we promote an inclusive and diverse environment which rewards individuals based on their performance and nothing else! Regardless of age, gender or race there is space for everyone to grow here.

That is why for IWD this year, while it was hard to narrow it down to just four employees, we are showcasing the women making waves across the board at PXP Financial and how they help others to do the same.

Agota Kiss, Head of Commercial Support at PXP Financial

First up is Agota Kiss who, with a diploma in environmental sciences and landscape engineering, had a rather unusual route into financial services. But her techy background meant she was an ideal candidate to start off in hardware and software support services, and soon transitioned into account management where she has since built up a large portfolio of clients.

Rising to any challenge that comes her way within payments Agota commented: “It is amazing to see how quickly solutions are adapted when there is pressure created by a situation that has nothing to do with payments.”

Working at PXP Financial for just under eight years, she has risen through the ranks and is now a senior member of the team as Head of Commercial Support team, and following her own success is a keen advocate for supporting other women to shine too. “I empower women through conversations, forums, events – wherever I can – to help them have the confidence to create their own paths.”

Anschana Caravaca-Sasse, Head of Account Development at PXP Financial

Head of Account Development, Anschana Caravaca-Sasse holds over 16 years of financial services experience. Throughout her career, she has worked across various areas of the payments industry including acquiring, gateways, e-Wallets, online gaming and retail.

She continues to thrive within payments due to the many challenges it presents which she enjoys getting her teeth into – “Payments is no longer a simple transaction from A to B anymore. Now there are lots of different aspects to navigate: customer experience, understanding customer behaviour, technology, optimisation, security, geolocation, the list goes on.”

Anschana believes in leading by example, she regularly pushes herself outside of her comfort zone and encourages her team to do the same. She’s also incredibly transparent and human in the way that she operates. “Mistakes will happen, but that’s how things improve – embrace them!”.

Lyndsey Thomson, Head of QA and Certification at PXP Financial

Next up is Lyndsey Thomson, who began her career as a service desk call handler and has been making her way up the career ladder ever since and is now part of the senior management team. She loves the payments industry due to its constant flow of change and the evolving technologies that make it a super exciting industry to be in. “Payments have never been so easy and secure for customers, with the introduction of EMV, tokenisation, SCA and biometrics.”

As well as enjoying the diverse nature of the industry, she is also a big advocate in creating a working environment for her team that allows them to thrive by ensuring the path and end goal are always clear. “The way we reach a solution may change but ensuring empathy and a space where everyone feels supported even in challenging situations is key.”

Magda Schmid-Debska, Head of Marketing and Communications at PXP Financial

Last but by no means least, we have Magda Schmid-Debska!

Throughout her career Magda has been fortunate enough to learn from and work with a diverse range of leaders in the payments industry. She has held a variety of exciting roles, one of which saw her play a role in the launch of a brand-new bank, as well as others which saw her work on educational projects with media outlets for the National Bank of Poland. She then moved over to the marketing department at PXP Financial, which enables her to combine her in-depth knowledge and passion for the payments industry with data-driven approaches to her work.

Commenting on the industry, she said: “What makes this industry so unique is how it embraces innovation and welcomes new entrants. As a payments business you cannot afford to stand still, you need to constantly improve to succeed.”

To inspire those around her, she applies her listening skills and gives women the space and opportunity to fully express themselves to generate their own ideas and solutions. She said: “Be the change you want to inspire. It’s important to aim high yourself in order to show those around you that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to. Handle things with positive thinking, continuous improvement, and a can-do attitude.”

Head over to our LinkedIn page this week to see the other women our employees admire at PXP and the wider tech industry here.