When it comes to sports betting, speed isn’t just for the players on the field. It’s also a critical factor in the flow of cash, where seamless deposits, lightning-fast payouts and frictionless transactions can make or break a bettor’s experience.

“It’s very frustrating for a player to deposit money [on one site] and then have it [stuck] there for three to five days because of processing times,” John Parsons, vice president of gaming at Trustly, told PYMNTS.

Consumers can order groceries for same-day delivery or stream entire seasons of shows in a single sitting, so waiting days for a payout or a deposit to settle feels archaic. This is especially true for sports bettors, whose entire experience is built on the rush of the moment.

Today, players can benefit from instant payouts with payment rails like the RTP® network, where players can move money in 15 seconds, Parsons said. As more consumers become comfortable with digital banking, pay-by-bank solutions are also gaining traction in the sports betting world.

Pay by bank is exactly what it sounds like: a method that allows players to make payments directly from their bank accounts, bypassing traditional intermediaries like credit cards or digital wallets. With a few clicks, money moves seamlessly between the player’s bank and the sportsbook, offering a new level of speed, security and convenience.

These systems allow players to link their bank accounts directly to betting platforms, enabling seamless transactions without the need for traditional credit or debit cards.

Innovating Responsible Gaming

Trustly’s solutions support responsible gaming initiatives, Parsons said. Beyond speed, pay-by-bank technology provides critical data to identify at-risk consumers.

“We can see where they’ve [gotten] non-sufficient funds, or they may have had other issues” when it comes to managing their finances for entertainment, he said.

By integrating directly with banks, sportsbooks can gain better insights into transaction histories, which aids in fraud prevention and ensures compliance with increasingly strict regulatory requirements, he said.

This information also empowers sportsbooks to monitor consumer behavior holistically, integrating financial data with gaming patterns to flag potential problems. Many sportsbooks now employ wellness specialists to conduct proactive outreach to players showing signs of distress, Parsons said.

For background, the sports betting sector exploded into mainstream acceptance around five years ago, with New Jersey leading the charge in the United States, he said. It has since grown fast.

“At first, there weren’t a lot of payment options available,” Parsons said. “Cards are one way of doing it, but many banks were blocking what they considered high risk.”

Card transactions that were approved came with high fees that caused more friction, he said.

The challenge for pay by bank in gaming’s early years was not just about processing payments but ensuring they were secure and guaranteed, a hurdle that traditional payment methods struggled to overcome.

Today, open banking technology, which allows secure access to financial information with user consent, is at the heart of pay by bank. The tech enables instant bank-to-bank transfers, offering a smoother experience for players and sportsbooks.

A Need for Speed and Security

The sports betting industry’s innovation offers valuable insights for other sectors, Parsons said. Traditional industries often operate on extended timelines for technology adoption, but the gaming industry’s agility in risk management and payment processing sets an example for financial institutions and retail businesses that might still rely on outdated legacy systems.

“In sports betting, [product and feature development] decisions are made in days and weeks rather than years or decades,” which has enabled operators to deliver products that their players want, he said.

Additionally, the targeted, data-driven approach adopted by the sports betting industry could help other sectors shift away from broad marketing strategies to more personalized, effective engagements, he said.

“With this kind of innovation and data and insight into what that consumer is doing now, retailers, billers, finserv — these very large operations — can now start doing very targeted marketing campaigns,” Parsons said.

As the U.S. market matures and more states explore legalizing online sports betting, the focus is shifting from rapid expansion to refinement. One of the biggest opportunities lies in the evolving capabilities of open banking, he said. By using data securely and transparently, Trustly aims to strengthen the relationship between players and operators.

“That pause [created by the slowdown of state expansions] allowed for everybody — for vendors like us, for our operators — to really evaluate all of these fine-tuning and nuances to make the platforms even stronger,” Parsons said.

“The more insights that we can provide to consumers, the more insights that we can provide to operators, strengthens that relationship” and makes the entire experience better for everyone, he said.