As we enter 2023, betting is on the rise: KYC is therefore becoming a critical issue for coping with large volumes of registrations. In addition, the sector is subject to constantly evolving regulations, particularly in the context of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Another constraint on KYC is the need to deliver a great customer experience and the best possible conversion rate. In a meeting with an expert, David Ozararat, CEO France of the SoftConstruct group, he explains how Betconstruct (Vbet.fr/Partouchesport.fr/Barrierebet.fr) has been outsourcing its KYC operations to Webhelp KYC Services since 2019.
What’s new in online sports betting today?
The online sports betting industry continues to build on its success. At the end of 2022, the first “Responsible Gambling Week” took place, with the aim of cleaning up the market and practices, in particular, by better protecting children and compulsive gamblers.
How is the SoftConstruct group organised?
The SoftConstruct Group specialises in designing and marketing software. Within the group, Betconstruct is the technology provider in the world of online gaming. As for Vbet, this is our B2C online gaming operator. Betconstruct’s technologies and services support well-known sports betting platforms such as Partouche Sport and Barrière Bet.
When it comes to betting and gambling, what are the KYC specifics as far as France is concerned?
These regulations apply to people living in France. In particular, they require us to obtain proof of identity and proof of address, and to check them against the register of people banned from gambling. A player who does not meet these conditions will not be able to receive any winnings.
Specifically, we must ensure that the information provided when creating the account matches that contained in the player’s ID and proof of address. As for the bank details, they must show the player’s name.
By the way, the bank details are the key point of this verification: a bank card would not provide the same level of security, for example, as regards money laundering or the financing of terrorism.
How are your KYC operations conducted?
ID, proof of address and bank details: these are the three documents used in a KYC verification. These operations have been entrusted to the technology and verification teams of Webhelp KYC Services since 2019.
As a general principle, the SoftConstruct Group needs to offer its customers the best possible experience. This is why the procedure for admitting a new player must be compliant, but also straightforward and fast.
In this context, Webhelp KYC Services gives us two fundamental advantages:
- the speed of processing that its automated solution provides, based on extensive resources for accessing various databases,
- monitoring by a human agent if there is an anomaly or a problem with understanding the digital document provided. This manual review is also carried out in less than 24 hours.
How do you assess the operations entrusted to Webhelp KYC Services?
Thanks to these checks and calibrated responses, we can quickly identify the origin of a problem: a false document, an illegible document, a data entry error, etc.
To sum up, from registration request to player confirmation, meaning the point when a provisional account is opened in the name of the verified account, the operations, in the vast majority of cases, are fast and frictionless. Our conversion rate is therefore very high, and it continues to increase, which is very welcome.
In addition, our internal customer service and our community management and social listening activities have not given rise to any significant criticisms.
Of course, we could handle these procedures in-house and build up our own technological structure, but this option is not a priority and does not make strategic sense. We have come to this conclusion after a cost and feasibility study. In our case, because of the good results it produces, outsourcing to Webhelp remains very useful because it allows us to remain focused on our core business and on what makes our group strong.
