Soon, the world will be divided into two camps again: those that don’t watch football and those that can’t get enough of the World Cup. Between all the bustle about teams, stars and stakes, we often forget how important this event is for the gaming industry.
Up to 90% of all sports wagers in the UK are placed on football. Sportradar estimated a global betting turnover of €2.1 billion, with the final generating around €7.2 billion in betting turnover worldwide. From the 2014 World Cup to the 2018 World Cup, gambling activity increased by 50% in the UK alone.
After the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to legalise sports betting, this is the first opportunity for football fans in America to wager online for the World Cup. That means the average of €2.1 billion in bets placed on each game in 2018 is likely to be shattered this year. In fact, an all-time record may be set as “soccer” is more popular than ever in the United States.
So the stakes are high for the gaming industry - but can they deliver?
Gaming today is online
It’s no news that more and more people like to place their bets online. Analysts predict that the online gambling market will continue to experience a CAGR of 8.6% from 2025 to 2030. Betting online is easy, fast and often more fun than in-store.
The downside: your competition is just a click away. What’s the best way to set yourself apart from the crowd? An incredible customer journey can make all the difference here. Every touchpoint with your gaming app should make for a great experience, from an easy login to personalised offers. And a secure authentication system is as important as a clear user interface, even if your customers won’t always appreciate that. For them, it’s a given that their data is protected against hackers, and few are aware of the dangers lurking in the online space. Whatever security measures you put in place, they can’t slow gamers down. That is especially true when it comes to live betting. When it’s all about placing bets in real time, your customers won’t miss out because of clunky authentication methods. Protecting their data and that of your company whilst offering a great user experience is a constant challenge.
That’s where MFA comes in. This authentication method is one of the best security enhancements to prevent threat actors from stealing sensitive data.
What does MFA stand for?
Passwords alone aren’t safe - in fact, they never were. Today, 24% of Americans use passwords like “password,” “Qwerty,” and “123456”, and 50% of people even use the same password for all their accounts. That means once threat actors have gotten hold of one password, they immediately have access to multiple accounts. To avoid that, you need a gatekeeper - which is where MFA comes in.
The abbreviation MFA stands for Multi-Factor Authentication. It means you must identify yourself with more than one identification factor. That includes something you own (a device), something you are (like biometric authentication) and something you own (like a PIN or traditionally an insecure password).
When should MFA be used?
You will have noticed that many countries already require multi-factor authentication. Payment providers within the European Economic Area have to implement MFA since October 2022.
With the enormous rise of cybercrime, this requirement ensures that online transactions aren’t easy to interfere with and protect consumers. In the USA, many states demand the same from the gaming industry - for good reasons: hackers love the gaming industry. A hacker who has access to a user’s login information can attack or threaten to assault video game firms.
Typically, fraudsters want the personally identifiable information of users, in this case, gamers (PII). That might be data like a passport number or a social security number. Threat actors can sell PII to other hackers or even players who want to start a game at a higher level.
Then, there are revenge assaults by fired employees in the commercial world or retaliation by irate gamers. Additionally, it’s always possible that some players could attempt to infiltrate the gaming company’s network. As you can see, the question is not when MFA should be used but why some individuals and companies still shy away from it.
MFA and your login success rate
Security is one of the most important aspects of choosing the right MFA for your gaming company, but it can’t be the only one. Your customers might realise they need an MFA to protect their data, but they don’t want that authentication method to stop them in their tracks.
That’s where the login success rate comes in. It’s the percentage of people who manage to log into their account without needing to reset their password or PIN.
Many gamers immediately drop off the app or website when they have to spend more than a few seconds to log in, and that risk increases if they have to create a password or use multi-step multi-factor authentication like SMS. We encourage every gaming provider to check their login success rate- you might be surprised how many potential customers you lose because of this seemingly minor issue.
The login is part of the overall customer experience and often the biggest hurdle to a visitor becoming an actual customer.
You need both: a secure MFA method and a hurdle-free login for your customers. That will increase your login success rate and, in turn, your overall profit. That’s where MIRACL comes in.
How does MIRACL work?
It’s simple: users select a PIN for their trusted device. It’s totally secure, and you don’t need to deploy any hardware. Users can select different PINs for different devices. And no matter how many PINs you have, they’re only ever known by the user - MIRACL does not keep that information. That’s another advantage over passwords that are stored in the cloud by providers. Deployable across all devices and browsers, MIRACL’s single-step MFA is the world’s fastest MFA solution.
How do you enrol?
Increasing your login success rate and protecting your assets against hackers should be as easy for you as gaming is for your customers. MFA is vital, and it needs to be done fast. You can improve your login success rate in minutes by setting up MIRACL. The single login MFA is tailorable to your environment. If you need inspiration on how your user flow could look with MIRACL, check out a few examples here.
And if you need more help, get in touch - we’d love to show you how MIRACL works.
