The regulatory landscape across the UK is in the midst of significant change, with more stringent age verification methods being part of a whole set of new safeguards coming into place. 

The effectiveness of age verification methods was explored at the Betting on Sports Europe – Digital Conference, on the Analysing the Age Check Changes panel sponsored by Trustly. 

Moderator and CCO of Zmipler, Rhi Burns challenged the panel to outline changes to age verification and KYC processes means for onboarding in the UK market. 

Peter Murray. Group Head of Sales, W2 Global Data commenced the discussion by stating: “The tightening of the regulations were coming, we certainly should have seen them, I think we did see them and we dealt with them. 

“The nature of the business we deal in, certainly from the view of the politicians, the media and the public at the moment is very toxic. So I think it’s gone from a simple one plus one check, to a two plus two, all the extra regulations are just things that the industry is going to have to go through.”

Genia Gurevich, Head of Banking & Payment Services echoed the sentiment of Murray, adding: “We also see from our clients that the regulation is getting stricter and stricter and from our perspective, it’s not necessarily bad but is necessary.”

He also stated it’s positive the verification process has been implemented from an earlier stage of the customer journey, rather than when it was previously asked for during the withdrawal. 

Tal Ron, Drihem & Co., Law shared a different perspective emphasising that ‘compliance is not always bad, compliance is a challenge and also an opportunity’. 

He concluded by underlining the importance of the industry having a plethora of options to choose from when it comes to payment solutions.