Financial crime prevention expert, SEON has analyzed millions of its own data points related to transactions, deposits, bonuses, and other user actions to shine a light on the darker corners of the global iGaming market.
The company’s new report, entitled ‘The State of iGaming Fraud 2023’ offers insights into the different ways that iGaming fraud is evolving across the world. The key findings of the release are as follows:
● iGaming fraud is massively widespread, with approximately 25% of new signups in Europe falling into the category of ‘high-risk’ and a 40% decline rate in Asia.
● Fraudulent players still routinely abuse promo offers, with SEON’s research showing they use 2.7 times more bonuses than legitimate users.
● Bad actors in Europe tend to leverage sophisticated fraud tools like virtual machines whereas fraudsters in Asia rely on less sophisticated measures, such as click farms.
Following its recent analysis of online fraud trends in 2023, SEON has delved deeper into the specific risks facing iGaming operators around the world. Leveraging millions of data points from across its industry-leading platform, the company has created a new report, which highlights the persistent nature of fraud across the iGaming space and underlines the incredible variance in fraud risks between regions, and the increasingly varied tools that fraudsters rely on to target their victims.
SEON’s new report differentiates the global iGaming market into eight key regions. As the findings show, while all regions currently face a fraud challenge, there is a huge difference in the methods and techniques deployed by fraudsters towards their goal. By bringing this information together in an easy-to-read report, SEON is giving businesses greater insights into what iGaming fraud looks like in 2023, and helping them to make more informed decisions in the battle against financial crime.
For example, SEON’s research shows that fraudsters in Europe tend to leverage sophisticated tools like virtual machines to circumvent more robust risk management systems, whereas fraudsters in Asia can still get a lot of value out of more basic click farm-type bonus abuse setups. By better understanding the specific risks they face, iGaming providers across these regions can ensure they’re doing all they can to implement effective know-your-customer checks (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) measures.
The company’s new report also highlights that bonus and promo abuse remain very enticing to fraudsters. After analyzing more than 365,000 user actions, SEON discovered that fraudulent players use 2.7 times more bonuses than legitimate users. In some regions, such as LATAM, where approval rates are up to 70% higher, bonus abuse has become incredibly common. Similarly, SEON’s research shows that fraud rates are lower across affiliate sign-ups, with fraudulent signups with affiliate IDs coming to 12.77% compared to 19.24% without. Despite this, affiliate fraud is still more common in iGaming than in any other sector.
Speaking on the new report, Tamas Kadar, CEO and co-founder of SEON commented: “Even for iGaming operators that are stacking their decks with best-in-class risk management solutions, fraudsters are still finding a seat at the table. Our new report scrutinizes the state of fraud in this rapidly growing sector in exceptional detail and should be considered a must-read for those in the space who want to protect themselves from losing out to high-risk and fraudulent actors.
“As our research shows, the temptation of shiny bonuses, quick access to money, and de facto online wallets continues to be too alluring for organized criminals and habitually abusive users. However, while all fraudsters are ultimately after the same thing, the methods they use to go about their crimes are vastly different. Operators working across multiple markets, or those with plans to expand into new regions would do well to read the ‘The State of iGaming Fraud 2023’ to learn more about these nuances and to avoid costly regulatory fines.”
SEON is a proven financial crime prevention leader, with deep expertise across the fields of AML, online fraud prevention, and KYC, providing businesses with refined tools in the battle against online crime. By using Artificial Intelligence (AI), the company is redefining what it means to fight online fraud, with notable results achieved across the global iGaming sector. To this end, the company has recently worked with businesses such as Gamevision and Soft2Bet, helping to detect bonus abuse, eliminate multi-accounting attempts and vastly reduce the need for manual queries and reviews.
To read SEON’s new report, please visit: https://seon.io/resources/guides/igaming-fraud-stats-2023/