As a busy summer betting period gets underway IDnow, the Manchester-based international identity verification provider, has reported a significant spike in the number of gambling customers requesting identity verification.
Between June 14 and 16, IDnow saw a 750% increase in the number of players being verified with a European gambling operator. The busiest sign-up day was June 14, the day of the opening match of Euro 2024, which has already seen a much higher volume of verification requests than was seen during the 2022 World Cup.
During each country’s first game, IDnow is expecting these figures to remain high, and likewise the possibility of bonus abuse, multi-accounting, underage gambling, money laundering and fake documentation.
“The challenges operators face during major sporting tournaments are not necessarily any different to their regular daily compliance hurdles, but the sheer volume of new players from all around the world, coupled with increased activity is likely to cause issues for unprepared operators,” said Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk, VP of global gaming at IDnow.
“Euro 2024 will be a huge opportunity for gambling platforms, new and old, so it’s essential they capitalise on the event, while safeguarding their players and their reputation. It’s important they have effective, compliant verification processes in place to onboard vast numbers of players as smoothly and safely as possible. Only when operators are confident they can verify accounts thoroughly, and onboard the right players during such busy period, will they be effective in fighting fraud.”
As global sporting events have such broad appeal, combined with the convenience and accessibility that online platforms offer, they attract both casual and regular bettors. Betting during the 2022 World Cup increased by 13 percent compared with the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Worryingly, the surge in gambling activity was seen on both regulated and unregulated sites. In the UK alone, 250,000 people visited unregulated, black-market sites during the last World Cup compared with just 80,0000 during the same timeframe of the previous year.
Although all global gambling platforms are likely to see an uptick in player onboarding, it will be European nations that share the same time zone as the tournament that will see the biggest increase in usage.
“Gaming operators in these regions must offer secure player onboarding, deposits and withdrawals, and conduct seamless Anti-Money-Laundering and age verification checks to help fight the expected proliferation of fraudulent activity in both the build up to EURO 2024 and throughout the tournament,” said Redfearn-Tyrzyk.