Europe’s embrace of instant payments is reshaping iGaming player expectations, compliance frameworks and operational strategies. As SEPA Instant Payments and open banking mature, Paymix Pro COO Mina Mitkova outlines why real-time payments are fast becoming a competitive necessity for operators.
Digital interactions have transformed consumer expectations across numerous industries. In iGaming, meeting those expectations has become pivotal for operators.
Among online gamblers in Europe, 82% consider fast payouts to be important when choosing an iGaming platform, while 79% cite the speed of deposits as important. Indeed, more than half of such punters are likely to switch to an online gaming service that offers instant withdrawals.
There are multiple reasons why speed, security and seamless withdrawals have become central to the gaming experience in the digital era.
While the financial security element is vital, with players wanting to be sure that their money is available at any time, there are obvious implications for both trust and, consequently, brand reputation.
Sluggish payouts or deposit processes can also have a material impact on player retention and lifetime value. One study in the US found that 78% of US iGaming players who receive a payout within 24 hours replenish their account within a week while only 32% of those who have to wait for more than five days do the same.
However, it is widely recognised in an increasingly competitive sector that the quicker iGaming platforms can process monetary transactions, the more likely they are to reduce churn. With this in mind, the race to real time responsiveness is hotting up, according to iGaming payment services provider Paymix Pro.
A global shift
“The global shift toward instant payments has redefined player expectations in the iGaming industry by making immediacy the new standard,” Paymix Pro COO Mina Mitkova says.
“Players now expect deposits to be credited in real time and withdrawals to be processed with minimal friction, often within minutes, rather than days. At the same time, this demand for speed has heightened expectations around security and transparency.”
Seamless payments are increasingly viewed as part of the overall gaming experience, rather than a separate operational layer, adds Mitkova.
“As instant payment infrastructures mature across jurisdictions, iGaming players are becoming more selective, gravitating toward platforms that offer not only fast transactions, but a smooth, predictable and secure end-to-end payment experience that feels native to the digital era, directly impacting player engagement and desired loyalty,” Mitkova says.
Mitkova insists, however, that while players want fast transactions, it should not be at the expense of safeguards.
“They expect robust authentication, real-time monitoring and clear visibility over their transaction status,” she adds. “In regulated markets, this also translates into an implicit expectation that operators and their payment partners be fully compliant, well-supervised and capable of handling instant flows without compromising anti-money laundering, fraud prevention or responsible gaming controls.”
Europe’s evolving regulatory landscape
The drive for immediate monetary transfers has accelerated due to the widespread adoption of SEPA Instant payments across Europe.
Under the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR), adopted in March 2024, mandatory rollout deadlines in the Eurozone were set for January 2025 for enabling instant payments to be received, and October 2025 for enabling instant payments to be sent. This has led to near-instant Euro payments of within 10 seconds on a 24-seven basis across all banks in the Eurozone.
These instant settlements create opportunities in terms of cash flow and reducing failed transactions, according to Mitkova who says SEPA Instant “fundamentally improves liquidity management for iGaming operators allowing them to optimise cash flow, reduce reliance on prefunding as well gaining greater visibility over incoming and outgoing funds. This is due to them no longer having to rely on delayed transfers from payment service providers and card-clearing cycles and is an advantage that becomes particularly meaningful at scale.”
She continues: “From a player’s perspective, instant settlement significantly improves satisfaction and retention and coupled with the use of open banking APIs in Europe underpinning account to account (A2A) transfers, materially reduces the long-standing friction points in iGaming of failed transactions, card declines, and chargebacks. This results in a smoother, more predictable payment journey that directly supports higher conversion rates and longer player lifecycles.”
The ‘forefront of real-time payments’
The European Union’s IPR and open banking infrastructure have therefore strengthened claims that the continent’s evolving regulatory framework are transforming instant payments from innovation into necessity in iGaming.
Mitkova is in no doubt that Europe’s regulatory and infrastructural initiative and enforcement, particularly through the SEPA Instant scheme “has positioned the region at the forefront of real-time payments”.
For regulated European iGaming operators, this creates an environment where instant A2A can be “deployed at scale, across borders, and within a well-defined supervisory framework”.
She adds: “This transformation allows operators to offer faster, safer, and more transparent payment experiences, whilst remaining fully aligned with regulatory expectations. As adoption accelerates, instant payments are becoming a competitive necessity rather than an innovation, fundamentally reshaping how European iGaming platforms design their payment strategies.”
Solving iGaming payment pain points
In fact, instant A2A transfers, which do not require intermediaries, are not only a phenomenon across European iGaming markets. Indeed, the volume of global A2A payments across all sectors is projected to more than treble from 60 billion in 2024 to 186 billion by 2029.
According to Paymix Pro, which is based in the iGaming hotbed of Malta and operates internationally, strongly believes these transfers are helping to solve long-standing pain points for players and operators alike.
Mitkova explains: “Traditional card schemes were not designed for real-time digital ecosystems and their limitations are increasingly visible in iGaming
“Declines due to issuer rules, geographic restrictions, chargebacks and opaque settlement timelines create friction for both players and operators. Instant A2A transfers directly address these issues by moving funds bank-to-bank and removing unnecessary intermediaries.”
Instant A2A payments are not merely an alternative payment method but represent a structural evolution that challenges the long-standing dominance of legacy card networks.
“As adoption accelerates, instant payments are becoming a competitive necessity rather than an innovation”
In practice, instant A2A payments mean fewer failed deposits and faster access to winnings for players while for operators, they reduce operational costs and dependency on traditional card payments, as well as exposure to fraud. Indeed, such transfers and open banking can play a crucial role in helping operators to strengthen fraud prevention and AML without adding friction for legitimate players.
Open banking introduces a powerful shift in compliance by enabling access to verified bank-level data, with player consent, at the point of transaction. This allows operators to perform name-matching and account ownership verification through the newly introduced Verification of Payee scheme, without relying on repetitive manual documentation or intrusive checks.
Paymix Pro believes when combined with instant A2A transfers, compliance becomes more intelligent and less visible to the end user. Legitimate players benefit from a faster, smoother experience, while operators gain enhanced risk controls and auditability. This balance between robustness and user experience is increasingly critical in regulated iGaming markets.
Building resilience through partnerships
Paymix Pro insists that partnerships between operators, open banking providers and payment service providers help to build a more resilient iGaming payments ecosystem. These collaborations are particularly important in tightly regulated markets, where compliance, reporting and transaction monitoring must be embedded into the payment flow itself.
“In today’s regulatory environment, no single participant can operate in isolation,” Mitkova says. “Strong partnerships between operators, PSPs, and open banking providers are essential for delivering compliant, scalable and resilient payment solutions.”
Each party is able to contribute a critical layer towards the process. While operators understand player behaviours, PSPs manage regulated payment flows, and open banking providers enable secure, real-time bank connectivity from a technical perspective.
“When aligned correctly, partnerships allow for further business growth for all parties involved, as well as a creation of greater synergies,” Mitkova says.
It is inevitable that focusing on strong, scalable options that reduce structural dependency on legacy infrastructure can help operators to stay at the cutting edge of future payment innovations driven by open banking and real-time A2A infrastructure.
This means actively investing in instant A2A digital pathways – also known as ‘rails’ – as well as open banking-enabled payment flows and locally relevant bank-based methods that deliver reliability, transparency and regulatory alignment.
“Building this diversified payment stack is no longer about offering choice alone, but about creating resilience, cost efficiency and long-term strategic control over payment flows,” Mitkova adds. “Equally important is the mindset. Instant payments are not a short-term trend, but a foundational shift in how value moves digitally.”
Given the opportunity at hand, it is apt that time is of the essence.
Mitkova concludes, “operators that adapt early – by rethinking treasury, compliance and player experience around real-time A2A – will be best positioned to lead, as instant payments continue to challenge and ultimately redefine the traditional financial and banking landscape”.
Paymix Pro COO, Mina Mitkova
