Speaking with Payment Expert for the SBC Leaders magazine earlier this year, Press Enter Group‘s Head of Payments, Sean Spiteri, looked back over his career and has some words of advice for aspiring payments professionals.
When placing a bet, whether it’s on slots, roulette, or who will become the next England manager, a lot is going on in the background that customers don’t see. Hopefully, if everything works correctly, a deposit can be made and a bet can be placed.
This seamless experience is made possible by the expertise of industry leaders like Sean Spiteri, PressEnter Group’s Head of Payments. With a career spanning pivotal roles in the payments side of the gaming industry, Spiteri has become a key figure in managing complex financial transactions and relationships with payment service providers (PSPs).
Having managed a diverse array of payment solutions at PressEnter, Spiteri’s career journey offers valuable insights for aspiring professionals. From ensuring approval ratios to overseeing configurations during onboarding processes, he handles what he calls “the full shebang” of payment solutions, covering both B2C and B2B perspectives.\
Embracing technological change
The payment landscape is forever changing and always at breakneck speed, largely driven by technological advancements. In recent years, innovations such as artificial intelligence, open banking, and blockchain have made an impact in both gaming and payments.
Spiteri says: “It is absolutely vital for anyone within the payments space to continuously be on the lookout for new solutions, trends and technologies. This all boils down to the speed at which numerous changes happen in this space and how fast-paced an industry it is – especially for anyone working in payments where things can change overnight.”
While many see new technologies as cheat codes, Spiteri points out that they must be used cautiously. Even when these innovations can enhance the industry, they’re not always readily embraced by players.
Take blockchain for example. There are several benefits this technology offers operators, such as enhanced speed of transactions at cheaper costs – mainly due to blockchain transactions not being dependent on banks, meaning that the costs of withdrawals and deposits are much lower than with any fiat currency.
However, Spiteri has observed significant hurdles in its adoption: “From my experience on casinos that have a kind of a hybrid setup in terms of having both fiat solutions and crypto solutions in tandem on the cache. I’ve never seen conversion specifically for crypto take off.”
Spiteri likens this idea to learning a language, observing an educational gap.
“Let’s say I’m trying to learn Spanish, but every time I speak in Spanish, whoever I’m speaking to, they’re replying in English. So learning Spanish this way would be incredibly difficult. Whereas if I’m being spoken to back in Spanish, this is forcing me to learn the language and it will incentivise me to learn it.”
Embracing regulatory change
“As the industry continues to mature, new challenges come along the way, especially with the current trend of markets opting for their own regulations,” says Spiteri. “It’s an area which requires continuous monitoring and studying to ensure you’re ahead of the curve, but as daunting as this may seem at face value, it’s what makes this area so intriguing and exciting.”
These responsibilities require a solid foundation, and with Spiteri’s extensive experience, he provides exactly that.
Entering the gambling industry with a background primarily in risk and fraud within e-commerce, Spiteri viewed this as an opportunity to bring a new perspective to the gaming sector.
Spitteri compares his early experiences in the casino industry to a buffet at a party. By sampling different departments and understanding their functions, he was able to step back, evaluate what he enjoyed most, and “make it his own”.
He adds: “I quickly realised that the best way to take on this approach, was to work with a startup, as in most cases working in startups, you need to wear a number of different hats at different times to make ends meet.
“This provides an incredible opportunity for any rookie to not only understand the different elements of the business but also get hands-on experience in each area.”
Utilising this approach and taking on a range of diverse opportunities presented to him, he was able to enter the payments product world. It wasn’t long after entering this sector that Spiteri realised he was “hooked”.
This was due to it leveraging his own unique interests in negotiation, problem-solving and pattern recognition, which he says have become valuable skill sets in his tool belt. Pushing boundaries has also been crucial to success in payments, he adds.
Spiteri has explored several B2C and B2B verticals, strategically putting himself in a unique position where he has experienced both sides of the coin and how each vertical operates.
“This has played a vital role in me climbing up the proverbial corporate ladder as the Head of Payments position at a number of companies prior to my current role of Head of Payment Solutions at PressEnter,” he says.
So looking back at this experienced yet still early career, what would be the best advice he could share?
“My advice to anyone new coming into the industry is to allow yourself to be as open-minded as possible to the endless opportunities that the industry provides, as this is – in my opinion – the industry’s greatest asset.
“Allow yourself to experience different areas of the business and see what tickles your fancy, and more importantly, why. Knowing your ‘why’, plays a crucial role as you may initially be biassed in a particular direction ahead of fully understanding it.
“Give yourself time to learn and prioritise horizontal expansion ahead of vertical growth in the initial portion of your career. This will yield dividends in the long run and remind yourself that this is a marathon, not a sprint. So play the long game. It’s worth it.”
