Yaspa Secures UK Government Grant for Safer Gambling Platform

The payment provider has been awarded an Innovate UK grant for its safer gambling and AI platform

Instant bank payment provider Yaspa has been awarded a government grant for its safer gambling payments and AI platform by Innovate UK, the United Kingdom’s innovation agency.

Yaspa’s innovative web-based B2B platform will combine payments and AI to help gambling operators identify vulnerable players in a frictionless manner. The platform, which will be the first of its kind, will help gambling businesses to identify and address some of the United Kingdom’s 300,000 estimated ‘problem gamblers’.

Using open banking technology, Yaspa will provide operators with access to player transaction data at the point of deposit, giving a significantly broader and more accurate picture of a player’s pan-operator activity. The application of AI modelling will then detect the likelihood of them being at risk of harm due to gambling.

The inclusion of payment data will offer a frictionless way to conduct affordability checks that goes beyond current consumer protection initiatives such as paper-based affordability checks and reliance on data from within a single operator’s domain.

“With Innovate UK’s support, Yaspa will play a pivotal role in the future of compliance within the gambling sector,” the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer for Yaspa, James Neville, said. “With the use of fast-growing technologies including AI and open banking, our safer gambling platform will reimagine how affordability checks are conducted and actioned to protect vulnerable players.

“Currently, operators view players at the single operator level and rely on disruptive checks that risk driving people to grey markets. Yaspa’s frictionless process, combined with a pan-operator view, will transform the experience for operators and players alike.”

The project is a response to the United Kingdom government’s plans to reform the country’s gambling landscape, which have set out expectations for operators to implement frictionless financial vulnerability checks for players, mooting open banking as a possible solution.

The receipt of co-funding from Innovate UK will enable Yaspa to work with academics in safer gambling and AI to build a platform that uses world-class data analysis to ensure players can make quick and easy deposits with non-disruptive, real-time risk detection.

The Yaspa platform will meet operator needs and exceed regulatory requirements while addressing the far-reaching ramifications of problem gambling in the United Kingdom.