Fantasy sports payments that clear before kickoff
Keep your existing processors · Go live in under an hour
Orchestrate the processors you already use
- Stripe
- Adyen
- Authorize.net
- Airwallex
- Checkout.com
- Paysafe
- +18%Approval-rate uplift
- 99.99%Routing uptime
- 20+Processors supported
- <50msAutomatic failover
How it works
Orchestration in three moves
Connect once, route everything, and let fail over and recovery run on autopilot, so a single decline, freeze, or shutdown never costs you a deposit, an entry fee, or a contest.
- 01 · Connect
Plug in every processor
Bring Stripe, Adyen, Authorize.net, and your high-risk acquirers under one unified API. Add or swap processors without touching your checkout.
- 02 · Route
Send each charge to its best home
Every transaction is routed by card brand, BIN, currency, amount, and live approval performance, landing on the processor most likely to say yes.
- 03 · Recover
Fail over and retry, automatically
If a processor declines, slows, or goes offline, the charge reroutes in milliseconds and retries on a backup, so the sale still closes.
The platform
See orchestration at work
From a single control surface to real-time routing and recovered revenue. Here’s what running on PaymentKit looks like.
One router, every processor
Connect Stripe, Adyen, Authorize.net, and your high-risk acquirers, then let PaymentKit route each charge to the one most likely to approve.
Every payment method, one checkout
Give customers cards, wallets, and BNPL (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, Klarna, PayPal), all orchestrated behind a single integration.
Grow and stabilize recurring revenue
For memberships, treatment packages, and product subscriptions, orchestration keeps renewals flowing and your monthly recurring revenue climbing, even when a single processor stumbles.
Recovery and churn, in real time
Track recovered revenue and churn across every processor from one dashboard, and see exactly what orchestration wins back.
Capabilities
Built for revenue that can’t afford to stop
Everything a fantasy sports operator needs to keep approvals high and payouts flowing, across every processor at once.
Universal PSP routing
One integration connects to any processor or acquirer. Direct traffic by rules you control, route international patients to local acquiring, or let live performance decide.
Zero-downtime failover
A processor outage or freeze no longer stops checkout. Traffic reroutes instantly to a healthy backup, with no customer-facing errors.
Cross-processor recovery
Soft declines get a second chance on a different processor, with retry timing tuned to historical success windows.
Approval-rate optimization
Routing learns which processor approves which customer profile, lifting authorization rates without you lifting a finger.
Fraud & chargeback shield
Chargeback protection with risk rules you set once and keep consistent across every processor: flag bad transactions while real players’ deposits sail through.
Compliance & risk support
Guidance through underwriting and acceptable-use requirements so your gaming-coded accounts stay open and your billing descriptors stay recognizable to players.
Implementation
Launch with or without code
Build routing in the dashboard, or wire it up with a few lines of API. Either way, you go live in under an hour.
No code
Drag-and-drop routing rules
Set processor priority and add conditions by card brand, BIN, currency, or amount, then toggle fail over: no deploys, no engineers.
Prebuilt checkout components
Drop in PSP-agnostic, PCI-compliant payment fields and let PaymentKit handle the routing behind them.
Yes code
Live performance dashboard
Watch approval rates, fail overs, and recovered declines per processor in real time, and adjust rules on the fly.
One-click processor connect
Add or remove acquirers from a single screen. New processors join your routing pool instantly.
Single processor vs. orchestration
Why one processor is a liability
- Account shutdownSingle processorRevenue stops deadPaymentKit orchestrationTraffic reroutes, sales continue
- Frozen fundsSingle processorCash held for weeksPaymentKit orchestrationVolume spread, exposure limited
- Soft declinesSingle processorLost at first noPaymentKit orchestrationRetried on a backup processor
- Approval rateSingle processorCapped by one providerPaymentKit orchestrationOptimized across all of them
- Processor outageSingle processorCheckout goes downPaymentKit orchestrationFail over in milliseconds
- Switching processorsSingle processorRe-integration projectPaymentKit orchestrationA config change, not a rebuild
Who we support
Orchestration for every fantasy sports business model
From daily contests to season-long platforms, PaymentKit gives fantasy operators stable, multi-processor infrastructure built to scale.
Daily fantasy sports platforms
Deposits and contest entry fees with approvals held high through the issuer declines that plague gaming-coded transactions.
Season-long league platforms
League dues and subscription billing that renews reliably across a nine-month season, whatever one processor decides in week 3.
Pick’em & prop-style games
Fast-growing formats whose regulatory status shifts by state, kept online through acquirers that understand the category.
Fantasy tools & content subscriptions
Premium stats, optimizers, and content memberships on recurring billing with adaptive retries recovering failed renewals.
The problem
Why fantasy sports platforms lose revenue on a single processor
Fantasy sports payments fight on three fronts at once. Card issuers decline gaming-coded transactions at rates far above ordinary ecommerce, and some banks block them outright, so even a perfectly legal deposit from a verified player in an eligible state fails more often than it should. Regulation is a state-by-state patchwork that changes season to season, which makes underwriters cautious. And mainstream platforms prohibit real-money gaming entirely, leaving operators dependent on a small set of specialized acquirers.
Then there’s the calendar. Fantasy volume doesn’t arrive evenly: it detonates around kickoffs, draft nights, and playoff weeks, exactly when a single account’s velocity limits and risk models are most likely to throttle traffic. Add friendly fraud from players disputing entries after a losing week, and a single-processor operator is one bad Sunday from held payouts during the most valuable stretch of the season.
Common triggers that get fantasy sports operators flagged on a single processor:
- Issuer declines on gaming-coded transactions, even for legitimate deposits
- Entries accepted from states where the contest format isn’t eligible
- Friendly-fraud disputes from players after losing contests
- Game-day and draft-week volume spikes past underwritten limits
- Withdrawal and payout complaints escalating into chargebacks
- Bonus and promotion terms players claim they didn’t understand
Payment orchestration removes the fragility. Instead of betting the business on one provider staying happy, you distribute volume across several processors, so no single decision by a single processor can take you offline. Orchestration doesn’t replace good compliance. It protects you when a processor changes its mind anyway, and it keeps your risk and routing rules consistent whether you’re on one acquirer or six. That makes fantasy sports payment processing far more resilient than depending on a single merchant account.
Compliance & approval
What keeps fantasy sports merchant accounts stable
Acquirers that support fantasy sports expect certain operational standards before approving (and to keep approving) an account, and the regulatory patchwork adds requirements ordinary ecommerce never sees. Meeting them lowers chargeback risk and keeps you in good standing. With orchestration, you apply these standards once and carry them across every connected processor.
Website & policy basics
- Clear contest rules, scoring, and prize terms published per format
- Bonus and promotion terms stated plainly at signup
- Responsible-play resources and self-exclusion options
- Privacy policy, terms of service, and visible support contacts
Operational standards
- State eligibility and geolocation checks before entry
- Age verification matched to each state’s requirement
- KYC on payouts and withdrawal processing
- Fraud monitoring, 3DS, and PCI-compliant checkout