Focus on Everi FinTech: Flexible payment solutions offer a seamless customer experience

From a payments perspective in the casino industry, technology growth has shifted demands from pure cash-funded game play to expectations of meeting patrons wherever they are and offering optionality across the player experience.

Everi’s FinTech portfolio is uniquely designed to add value for players and operators at every touchpoint, whether a player chooses a wallet, account-based experience, or an anonymous transaction. It enables each transaction type through a robust suite of payment solutions.

Victor Newsom, IGT SVP, FinTech Commercial Strategy, breaks down the diverse ways that players can seamlessly fund their entertainment experience with options in the Everi FinTech portfolio, starting with QuikTicket and QuikTransfer, products which are an embedded, cashless payment experience through Everi kiosks, and BeOn Pay2Game which enables direct funding at the gaming device.

The products expand traditional payment options across the gaming enterprise and offer expanded opportunities to fund gameplay by eliminating friction.

“Our goal is to enable consumers to transact when, where, and how they want, and to make the user experience as seamless as possible,” Newsom said.

QuikTicket gives eligible players another way to access funds through an Everi kiosk by dispensing a single gaming ticket instead of multiple bills. The ticket can then be used for gaming like a traditional gaming voucher, enabling the operator to reduce cash handling while keeping approved funds available on the floor.

“It is very common, very easy, and very little friction,” Newsom said. “It is a pin debit card transaction like any other point of sale, but instead of purchasing merchandise you are purchasing money in the form of a TITO ticket.

“At the other end of the cashless spectrum there are account-based solutions which are more like bank accounts. The consumer has banking as a service with an insured account, diverse ways of moving money in and out, and an experience that is simply curated at the operator level.”

Newsom said that over 40 percent of the volume for QuikTicket is people that have no experience with an ATM, and that 20 percent are people that have never done a cash advance but are familiar with ATMs.

“What this tells me, and it is my interpretation as a payments person who has done payments and banking since the late ‘90s, is that you have tapped into a customer segment that was not engaging with your services.

“Your ATM surcharge was too high, or they did not like the idea of a cash advance. Among the 20 percent there were guests that were intimidated to go to the cage, or they just did not like the term. A lot of people trigger on the words ‘cash advance,’ but they are fine with buying a TITO ticket.”

Another cashless payment experience, QuikTransfer, gives casino customers a convenient way to transfer eligible gaming funds to supported payment cards through Everi kiosks and CashClub Wallet.

Using original Credit Transaction technology through supported networks, QuikTransfer can provide near real-time access to transferred funds, offering a faster alternative to methods such as ACH that may take longer to settle.

“QuikTransfer can be used to redeem TITO tickets,” Newsom explained. “Instead of walking out of the casino and into the parking lot with cash in your pocket, you just send it back to your debit card for a small convenience fee. It is helpful from a guest safety and convenience standpoint and completes an entirely cashless option.”

It is Newsom’s strategy with FinTech to have more options to cover more segments of the operator’s customer base options that will logically progress the customer base to make the most sense for a win-win for the operator and the guest.

“Some proof of this strategy is that our core business for decades was going to the ATM and hitting your limit,” he explained. “We have a great way of moving forward into a point-of-sale transaction. The guest is not using their ATM limit. They are using their regular debit card’s point of sale.”

Everi is pioneering BeOn Pay2Game, a cashless, in-person payment solution that boosts operational efficiency for casino operators while delivering unparalleled convenience to players.

Funds can be deposited directly from a guest’s bank account to a slot machine in seconds, leveraging their trusted online banking login on personal devices. The solution optimizes player experience and streamlines casino operations, reducing the burden of cash handling.

BeOnPay2Game integrates with Everi’s FlexFunds (e-Check) to transfer funds directly to EGMs without the need for guests to create additional accounts or loyalty memberships.

Newsom’s depth of experience with FinTech solutions has led him to many interesting discoveries, including a loyalty program and a wallet creating a more effective digital loyalty program than the classic physical card-based program.

“The addition of a wallet makes the program five times more effective because the guest is checking their balance. It is a little more personal because the guest is more committed.

“We also have a clear indication that the more digital the experience, the greater the revenue opportunity. Wallet, for example, tends to drive a sustained 30 percent impact to the floor.”

Newsom acknowledges that a casino operator must consider that they have different customer segments. Different loyalty tiers based on rated play, various age groups, economic backgrounds, and varying degrees of sophistication and gaming experience are elements that comprise these segments.

“What you have to think about is having a series of products that make a ton of sense to a given customer segment at a given point in time,” he said. “Our goal is to make sure you have all the tools to engage with your guests when, where, and how they want.”