The customer

Online gaming newcomer Racing Stars’ points-based pool betting concept is exciting, entertaining and sociable – but also affordable. Players bet on multiple horse races over the course of a day and use a token-based staking system which keeps it fair for all and caps any potential overspending.

This innovative approach saw it win Start-up of the Year 2021 at the SiGMA Europe Gaming Awards, the world’s largest iGaming festival.

The challenge

Racing Stars’ unique points-based betting game guarantees sociable and affordable online gambling.

Ensuring that players can gamble safely is a key priority for gambling operators.

Racing Stars wanted to put responsible gambling at the heart of its business model, allowing players to win big while also ensuring they only gamble with what they can afford to spend.

Racing Stars’ website went live in mid-2021. It featured automated ID checking, with a link to the GamStop self-exclusion scheme API – now mandatory for UK gaming licensees.

With low per-user income, Racing Stars needs to acquire as many customers as possible, so maximising onboarding pass rates is vital. But it must also carefully check age and other identity elements to comply with stringent UK Gambling Commission licence requirements.

However, its original ID verification supplier simply passed or failed new customers with no other information available. It was impossible to fine-tune matching results or follow up on rejected applicants.

As well as fast, friction-free onboarding, Racing Stars wanted an audit trail for every customer and, ideally, other tools to make manual follow-ups as efficient as possible. It was time to look for a new identity verification partner that really understood online gaming.

“GBG is respected in the gaming industry and our partnership gives us instant credibility with new investors and affiliates.”

Racing Stars

The solution

In late 2021, Racing Stars switched to our solutions – GBG ID3global ID verification combined with Loqate Address Capture.

Trusted by multiple global gaming operators, ID3global runs identity checks in seconds. It ensures compliant ID verification while speeding up onboarding and maximising customer approval rates. Real-time dashboard reports provide a clear picture of every check, allowing swift and targeted follow-up action if required.

After reviewing matching results in late 2021, our experts decided to optimise match rules to better fit the data

Our Loqate Address Capture solution helps customers enter their addresses quickly and accurately. Its standardised, error-free address data helps improve match rates too. provided by Racing Stars’ customers. That included extending fuzzy matching to deal with challenges like abbreviated first names and misspellings.

Further optimisation involved adding GBG Multi Bureau, increasing the volume of unique credit records available for GBG ID3global to match new customers against. By deduping the source credit files against each other, we ensure each reference credit event is unique and there’s no risk of double matching (matching to the same credit event like a loan or mortgage application on different credit source files).

The outcome

Following the comprehensive upgrade and rule customisation, Racing Stars’ match rates have almost doubled - increasing by 89%. Many more new customers can now move to the next stage of onboarding straightaway.

With comprehensive reporting and dashboarding information at their fingertips, staff can see immediately if manual follow-ups are needed. However, as Racing Stars grows, manually checking documents is becoming too time-consuming.

That’s why the next phase of optimisation will involve using GBG ProID to validate individual customers. Staff simply send a ProID link which, when opened on the applicant's mobile phone browser, checks their identity with automated document scanning, biometric matching and other techniques.

A self-contained app, ProID requires no web coding and results can automatically flow back through GBG ID3global. As new customer volumes rise further, Racing Stars intends to move to GBG IDscan which integrates and automates document scanning and checking within the online onboarding process.

With more punters discovering its unique blend of traditional betting, gamification and sociable gambling, Racing Stars is set for continued growth and plans to expand to other sports and territories.

“GBG optimised our matching and our customer pass rate nearly doubled.”

Racing Stars