The best gaming payments options for US operators

Sportsbooks, sweepstakes, and daily fantasy sports platforms are trending up as more gamers and operators enter this growing market.

In fact, nearly 80% of Americans now wager on sports, according to a recent study.

To responsibly capitalize on the surge in user demand and regulatory momentum, online gaming operators need payment solutions built for speed, compliance, and trust.

Your deposit methods and withdrawal times can be the difference between a player adding funds or leaving your platform for good.

If you’re reading this, you’re interested in building a payment experience that players will enjoy. But you also need affordability, flexibility and control to scale efficiently and protect your margins.

Read on to learn how gaming industry operators can build an optimal payment processing stack to eliminate in-game friction, increase first-time deposits, and significantly improve player retention rates.

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Types of gaming payments

There are several popular ways for gaming players to add and withdraw funds on their preferred platform.

Successful gaming companies look for key features like flexibility, accessibility, and transparency with their payments.

Below are the most common types of gaming payments:

Pay by bank (online bank transfers)

Pay by bank lets players fund and withdraw using their bank accounts. It's the most effective payment method for instant in-game deposits and withdrawals.

Here’s how pay by bank works:

• Players select online banking as their deposit method.
• They link their checking account using bank login credentials.
• That account can be used to fund and withdraw going forward.
• Accounts stay linked for one-click control on future deposits and withdrawals.

For deposits, funds are transferred via ACH rails. Money is immediately available to play and settles Same Day for 80% of transactions. 

For withdrawals, funds can be paid out to over 8500 eligible banks instantly using real time payments rails like FedNow and RTP. This supports the 79% of gamers who prefer instant disbursements. 

Benefits for gaming operators: 

• Cost-effective processing. Pay by bank uses the ACH network instead of card networks. This means transaction fees are ~ 50% lower than cards.
• Guaranteed payment settlement. Get comprehensive protection from returned payments caused by insufficient funds, buyers’ remorse, bad account info and more. 
• Fast account funding. Once a customer bank is linked, streamline one-click deposits that are available to play immediately. 
• High acceptance rates. Advanced risk management and verification methods help to allow more good transactions. 
• Churn prevention. Bank info stays valid 14+ years longer than card numbers. Plus, adding instant withdrawals offers users the peace of mind to keep playing.

💡 Read next: The insider’s guide to pay by bank.

Credit and debit cards

Cards such as Visa and Mastercard, are among the most popular payment methods globally. 

By linking a card, players can add funds directly to their gaming platform of choice. In some cases, they’re also able to withdraw funds back to the account associated with that card. 

Keep these details in mind when considering card options for your platform: 

• High fees. Expect interchange fees ranging from 3-5% of each transaction. 
• Withdrawal issues. It’s not always possible to offer withdrawals back to debit cards, and not possible for credit cards. You’ll need a backup withdrawal method. 
• Risk of chargeback. Credit and debit cards are prone to chargebacks, where players dispute a transaction, leading to a reversal of funds. This leads to lost revenue as well as chargeback fees.
• Risk of decline. Card declines have many causes like non-sufficient funds, bad card info, or failed authentication. 

‍💡 Read next: Pay by bank vs. cards

Digital wallets

Digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal provide a secure and convenient way to store and use funds online without exposing bank or card details to third parties.

They’re effective for gaming companies looking to expand their payment offerings, but there are still some downsides to take note of: 

• Consumer-facing fees. Some wallets require consumers to pay a fee in order to withdraw funds or convert currency. 
• Merchant fees. Digital wallets come with 3-5% processing fees for merchants.‍
• Transaction limits. Digital wallets may impose daily or transaction-level limits, which can restrict the amount of money players can deposit or withdraw at a given time.

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin offer a decentralized payment method for industries like ecommerce and mobile gaming. Transactions are recorded on a blockchain, ensuring transparency and security.

This is a solid, anonymous, and low fee option for funding/withdrawing funds from gaming accounts. 

The downside with crypto is its associated volatility and complexity. This increases risk for players and operators.

Takeaway: Pay by bank for gaming payments

Pay by bank is the most efficient, secure, and affordable payment method for gaming operators looking to enable embedded online deposits and withdrawals on their platform. 

In other industries, pay by bank may be considered an alternative payment method. But in gaming it’s often the preferred payment platform.

Keep reading for a list of the leading pay by bank providers in gaming.

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Top gaming payments providers

How you process payments for your gaming operation can impact KPIs like revenue, conversion rate, deposit rate, fraud detection, and compliance. 

Before you choose a solution, keep these tips in mind: 

• Always include a provider that specializes in payments for gaming.
• Add multiple deposit options to improve [what]
• Include a pay by bank solution with instant withdrawal functionality. 

Here are the top pay by bank solutions for online gaming payments: 

Aeropay

Aeropay is the only fully in-house, end-to-end pay by bank solution built specifically for US gaming operators.

The entire Aeropay platform is designed to enhance the gaming experience while providing operators with flexible control over the costs, approvals, and risk associated with online payments. 

The system is modular but tightly integrated; onboarding, verification, payments, and recovery all happen within a single, intelligent flow.

Here’s a breakdown of the Aeropay platform:

🔗 Sync - seamless, customizable bank linking

Branded user onboarding with direct connections to over 12,000 financial institutions.

New players link their account in under 20 seconds using a fully branded flow. Sync supports extensive longtail FI coverage and delivers up to 25% higher conversion rates than traditional flows.

⚡ Pay - fast funding and instant payouts

Players add funds quickly and securely with guaranteed settlement.

Aeropay enables instant withdrawals via FedNow and RTP rails, and one bank link powers all future transactions to remove friction and improve retention.

🔍 Guard - intelligent risk model w/ 90%+ acceptance

Intelligent risk decisioning purpose-built for gaming.

Aeropay’s in-house risk engine learns from behavior across its entire network to achieve 85-90% approval rates while proactively reducing fraud and returns.

🛠️ Fix - automated recovery

Automated recovery and support. When a transaction fails, Aeropay uses smart retry logic and built-in end-user support to resolve issues in real time—recovering over 60% of failed payments without manual intervention.

Top Aeropay features for gaming: 

1. Industry-leading approval rate above 90% for transaction acceptance.
2. Network-level user recognition with over 5 million existing player accounts. 
3. Trusted User Program for granular control over costs and risk for VIP/Power players.
4. In-house AI risk model that accurately prevents bad actors.
5. Transparent, cost-effective pricing with no surprises. 

Trustly

Founded in Sweden, Trustly has established itself as a significant player in the European open banking landscape, facilitating direct bank transfers for consumers and businesses. In recent years, Trustly has expanded its operations to the US, aiming to replicate its European success.

While Trustly has strong global experience, its US offering isn’t fully designed for domestic needs. It uses third-party partners to complete key parts of the payment flow, which can lead to higher transaction costs and lower approval rates.

Nuvei

Nuvei is a publicly traded global payments provider offering a broad portfolio of payment methods, including pay by bank, cards, and digital wallets. With a strong presence in gaming, Nuvei supports operators across sports betting, iGaming, and daily fantasy sports.

Instead of a unified, in-house stack, Nuvei often depends on third-party platforms for bank linking, identity verification, and payment routing. This patchwork approach can introduce latency, increase costs, and reduce control for operators.

Paysafe

Paysafe is a legacy provider known for its presence in online gaming and digital wallets. In 2024, it launched a pay by bank product in the US, primarily for gaming operators.

However, Paysafe’s solution isn’t full stack and depends on third-party services, which can introduce friction. It also doesn’t offer instant settlement and tends to come with variable, high transaction costs, especially as volume scales.

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Tips for gaming payments optimization

In online gaming, deposits need to be easy. Withdrawals need to be instant. And if a player gets stuck at checkout, they’ll leave.

Successful gaming businesses prioritize four key areas of payments optimization:

• conversion,
• authentication,
• verification,
• and cost.

Let’s break them down.

1. Conversion: Turn intent into deposits

Conversion means getting players over the finish line; from choosing a deposit method to funding their account.

To improve player conversion:

1. Enable one-click deposits. Once a player links their bank, make future deposits instant. This removes friction and builds long-term engagement.
2. Remove password roadblocks. Embedded bank login with biometric or device-based verification improves checkout conversion by 25%.
3. Customize your checkout. Branded flows build trust — especially for new players. Make the user experience feel like it’s coming from your platform, not a third-party provider.
4. Offer multiple payment types. Support cards, pay by bank, and digital wallets so players can choose what works for them.

In real money gaming, speed and trust are everything. If your flow feels clunky, players will go elsewhere.

2. Authentication: Know your player, keep it seamless

Authentication is your first line of defense against fraud, but it’s also a point where you can lose users.

In gaming, the key is real-time identity verification that doesn't add friction.

What to prioritize:

1. Use embedded bank login. Let players log in to their bank account directly to verify identity and payment method to eliminate manual entry of routing or card numbers.
2. Simplify with biometrics. Aeropay’s biometric flows are 93% faster than 2FA and more secure than passwords.
3. Authenticate with oAuth. Instant, tokenized API connections provide real-time visibility into a player’s payment profile to improve trust and reducing dropoff.

Authentication should feel invisible to the player; fast, accurate, and secure.

3. Verification: Approve the good, block the bad

Verification happens behind the scenes but it directly impacts revenue.

For gaming platforms, every failed deposit is a missed wager and a (potentially) lost player.

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To improve payment acceptance rates:

• Ditch card credentials. Cards expire. Players bounce. Pay by bank connections are more durable and 3x more likely to succeed long-term.
• Strengthen your bank integrations. A robust API connection boosts reliability — and success rates — across ACH, FedNow, and RTP.
• Enable smart retries. When a payment fails, retry it automatically at the best possible time. Aeropay’s smart retry logic recovers over 60% of failed transactions.
• Guarantee your deposits. Aeropay protects you from NSF and other return risks so players can fund instantly — and you get paid no matter what.

Acceptance is where you win or lose. Make sure your system approves the most good payments.

4. Cost: Reduce fees, not performance

Card payments cost gaming operators up to 50% of each transaction.

Optimizing for cost means reducing those fees without sacrificing performance. 

How to save:

• Add pay by bank. It’s the most cost-effective payment method in the U.S. with no interchange, card networks, or middlemen.
• Identify trusted players. Aeropay’s Trusted User Program lets you lower costs for VIPs and high-frequency players with proven histories.
• Negotiate everything. Push providers for better rates based on your volume and track record.
• Route payments intelligently. Use tiered processing to route transactions to the most cost-effective method in real time.

Every basis point matters. The right mix of methods and smart risk tools can unlock considerable savings.

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Ready to upgrade your gaming payments?

The top operators in gaming add Aeropay to grow revenue, protect margins, and deliver a better player experience.

Leverage user recognition across 5+ million players already using Aeropay.

Wins from our gaming partners include: 

• Increasing yearly revenue by $42 million through 20% higher transaction acceptance.
• Averaging a 98% successful bank connection rate.
• Reducing transaction costs by 50% after prioritizing pay by bank at checkout.

Learn more about Aeropay for gaming.

Click here to get started with Aeropay.