There was a time when everyone’s idea of payment was giving a twenty-dollar bill to a cashier, but it’s no longer the case. In the Netherlands and other developed countries, the overwhelming majority of payments are cashless and happen online. This is true for entertainment more than almost any other industry. Even the recent Gaming Expo in Las Vegas made cashless payments in gambling one of the key parts of its agenda. Payment systems are evolving, and here are some of the things you need to know about them.
Everything is cashless now
It is yesterday’s news that cash payments are pretty much obsolete, especially in innovation-driven fields, including entertainment. The last year and a half have contributed to the global cashless revolution. With almost all offline entertainment unavailable because of the lockdown, people had to switch to online alternatives. Obviously, you can’t pay for streaming platforms, eSports, or video games ordered online in cash, so entertainment businesses had to focus on improving their cashless payment options.
Alternative payment systems will soon have much more power than banks do. Unlike banking, fintech companies are very innovation-driven and capable of customizing experiences. Since they also offer fewer services than banks do, they can easily overthrow traditional banks, at least when it comes to cashless payment in digital-heavy sectors akin to entertainment.
New payment technologies and systems are emerging.
The fintech world is also insanely competitive, which contributes to its growth. Some of the world’s most popular payment systems (such as PayPal and Worldpay) can easily compete with traditional banking. This is especially true in the entertainment industry, because customers appreciate the privacy that online payment systems promise and that is never attainable with regular banks.
Among different entertainment sectors, gambling is the one that embraces innovative payment methods the most. There are multiple casino sites in the Netherlands and worldwide that accept not only online payments and e-wallets but also cryptocurrency. Still, the most popular payment methods in the Netherlands are iDeal, Visa, Mastercard, AMEX. The only problem with those is that they can’t guarantee players the anonymity of some other payment methods, including crypto.
Cryptocurrencies keep rising
It isn’t surprising that crypto has become one of the most popular payment methods, particularly in the industries where anonymity and fast transactions really matter. Gambling is definitely one of such industries, hence the broad use of crypto in gambling businesses. While the pioneer and the leader in terms of name recognition, Bitcoin is no longer the players’ only option. Many trusted online casinos are accepting Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and other, even less known cryptocurrencies.
Gambling is not the only part of the entertainment industry that accepts crypto. Players can also use it to pay for Twitch and video games. For example, Bitrefill and Keys4Coins are among the few video game sellers that accept Bitcoin, while Twitch is the leading streaming platform for players who enjoy broadcasting themselves playing. Moreover, while this is not the case yet, chances are that we will soon be able to use crypto to pay for subscription services like Netflix and Spotify. Until this happens, buying their gift cards with Bitcoin is an option.
Integrated systems are a must
Integrated payment systems are now among the things that customers value the most in the businesses they support. As the CEO of PayNet Systems, Abhinav Paliwal, notes, “The entire point of integrated payments is to offer a seamless checkout experience for customers.” No matter the industry, but especially in innovation-driven entertainment, people want the payment process to take a couple of seconds at most.
Integrated payment solutions make this possible. To achieve it, service providers use Payment Initiation Services (PIS) and have a direct communication channel with customers’ banks. Sure, roughly one-half of customers are still wary about delegating payments to third parties. But given how quickly people are getting used to new technology, this number will soon shrink.
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