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By Ken Devoe on November 21, 2017 officialsPrint

In recent years, schools, leagues, sports associations and event venues have had at their disposal the option of using an online system to pay sports officials and other game-site personnel. The presumed benefits of such a system – for the payer – include:

• Simplifying the payment process
• Ensuring that the right people are paid the right amount at the right time
• Making tax compliance and issuing tax forms to payees easier

The presumed benefits of such a system – for the payee (i.e., officials) – include:

• More timely payments
• Choice of convenient, secure payment options
• Ease of keeping track of game fee payments

One issue that online payment can address is the safeguarding of officials’ confidential information – such as Social Security numbers – versus the lack of security that comes with having to fill out a form at the game site and hoping someone collects and secures that form so that no unauthorized personnel can see it. With the rapid rise of identity theft – a problem we’ve covered elsewhere on the NFHS officials’ web site – protection of officials’ information is something that needs to be addressed, and on-line payment systems offer potential solutions.

Not all online systems are alike, and payers interested in such systems have options.

One is a system that’s been around for a number of years and is fairly well known to the sports and officiating communities, namely: ArbiterPay™ (formerly RefPay). Another is a system that was launched in April of 2017 called Payball™.

The purpose of this article is not to compare the two systems or make any recommendations. The goal is to provide you with knowledge that may help you make an informed decision on whether to use an online payment system and to evaluate for yourself which systems are better suited to your needs.

ArbiterPay™ – a closer look

ArbiterPay™ was created by Daren Jackson, a basketball official in Utah. He initially named the system RefPay.

Here’s how and why it came about.

In the early 2000’s, while working as a banker, Jackson received training on identity theft. The idea for a secure on-line sports officials payment system came to him after a particularly tough high school game. “The game didn’t go well for our crew, and there were some unhappy people waiting to give us a hard time after the game. We hung out in the locker room for an hour. When we came out, the forms we filled out were still sitting on the scorer’s table,” Jackson said. “I didn’t like it that my Social Security number was exposed and called our state association to tell them that this was a liability waiting to happen. They responded that many people complained, but nobody did anything about it. They said that if I could come up with a solution, they would be my first client.”

He did, and they were. Jackson started RefPay in 2004 and in 2006 integrated his system with Arbiter. In 2009, the NCAA bought a majority stake in Arbiter, and the payment system became known as ArbiterPay™.

In order to get paid by an entity that uses ArbiterPay™ to pay game officials, you must create an ArbiterPay™ account. To do so, you go on-line to: www.arbiterpay.com or www.refpay.com and follow the on-screen instructions, filling in the information the system asks for, including your Social Security number, your bank’s routing number and your bank account number. You can select one of three methods by which to get paid:

• By bank transfer, which is the easiest way to do it. This service is free.
• By transfer to an ArbiterPay debit card that you can request from Arbiter. This service is also free.
• By Check. There is a fee for this service.

ArbiterPay™ doesn’t actually hold anyone’s money. It doesn’t have the legal authority to do so. Instead, funds are held in escrow at a Trust Bank. The system pays and records game fees electronically and expedites payments to officials without sharing their personal or financial information.

As of this writing, more than 5,200 schools across the country use ArbiterPay™ to pay officials and athletic event workers.

Payball™ – a closer look

Game Pigeon Paid

Payball™ was created by Peter Makover, a Syosset, Long Island native and current Norwalk, Connecticut resident. Makover is a long-time lacrosse coach and league volunteer. He approached the idea for an online payment system from the perspective of the payers – schools, leagues, etc.

“Administering the process of paying officials was a nightmare,” Makover said. “It might involve distributing cash to the coaches who in turn pay the refs at the game site. In other cases, it involved writing and mailing hundreds of checks. Most of these leagues are run by volunteers, and this cumbersome process took a lot of their time over and above the duties of running the leagues and seeing that tournaments and other events run smoothly.”

Makover felt strongly that there needed to be a resource to simplify the process for all concerned. He didn’t see anything on the market that did what he felt needed to be done as simply and efficiently as possible, so he took it upon himself to design such a system. Peter drew upon his 20-plus years of experience in software application development and created Payball™.

The Payball™ app is designed to make it as easy as possible for leagues and other organizations to set up accounts and to make and track payments to game officials. Similarly, the app is designed to make it easy for officials to set up their profiles and links to their banks in order to receive game fee payments.

Some features of note to officials include the following:

• You do not need to provide personal data such as your Social Security number in order to get paid. You only need to provide your banking information.
• The Payball™ app is mobile for easy access from anywhere at any time on your smart phone or other mobile device. The app download is free.
• Because of how the app simplifies the payment process for leagues and event organizers, you may find that these entities can and will pay you at the game site.

One element unique to Payball™ is the handling of tax reporting. Payball™ uses a payment engine called Dwolla. Without getting too technical, Dwolla is considered a Payment Settlement Entity, or PSE, much like a credit card, and operates under a different section of the tax code from what a school or league would be required to do. As a result, under IRS guidelines, leagues and organizations don’t have to send out 1099 MISC forms to game officials. Payball™ is responsible for reporting using 1099-K forms. One major difference here is that instead of the $600 reporting threshold for a 1099-MISC, under the IRS code, the payee will only receive a 1099-K form if he or she earns over $20,000 in a year and is the recipient or over 200 transactions.

Recently, Payball™ was selected by the new Women’s Pro Lacrosse League to be their payment provider for all league members and by a major national chain, the Connecticut Rush Soccer Club, to pay over 150 officials who worked a sizable tournament in Wilton, Connecticut.

To learn more about Payball™ go on-line to www.payballapp.com.

The bottom line

Online payment systems offer the opportunity to simplify the process of paying game officials and other game-site personnel and to provide an added level of security to protect officials’ information. No matter who the payer is – a school, a state association, a recreational league, a youth league, or a sports venue that stages hundreds of tournaments and pays thousands of officials and game personnel – until the advent of on-line payment systems, the payment process has been overly complex and time consuming. On-line systems such as those described above are intended to reduce that complexity.

As a sports official, you have no say in how you get paid. That is up to the entity that hires and pays you. If that entity uses one of these on-line systems, you are required to set up an account within that system in order to receive payment. Ideally you will find that you get paid in a more timely manner by those who utilize these systems. Plus you can more easily track your payments – including who owes you what and for how long, and whether you in fact have been paid.

One other note. Many of you who officiate sports are also involved in helping run youth, travel and recreational leagues and, as such, you have a vested interest in finding a system that will help you and your organization simplify the process of paying officials. In short, it pays (pun intended) to be well informed.

E-Commerce is a huge topic in this digital age. It allows people to purchase items straight from their computers, smartphones, and tablets, all without having to get dressed and drive to the store. In fact, according to CPStrategy, 96% of Americans shop online now, with 44 percent of those sales being digital goods, like ebooks, movies, and yes, video games.

And yet, nothing that makes life easier comes at a low price. With the rise of E-Commerce, came the rise in privacy concerns. An astonishing 29% of online shoppers worry about things like stolen identity, over sharing personal information, and handing out credit card numbers.

For these reasons, game development studios have taken to using payment processors to conduct their business online. As a result, selling digital games, Steam keys, and game merchandise through official websites has never been easier. With payment processors, players can purchase their games and game logo t-shirts without fear of their identity being stolen—or at least less of a fear.

The process is simple, much like any other checkout system, but developers have a lot to benefit from through these processors. While some are just that, payment processors, others are more game service providers, conducting business through all sorts of helpful services, including payment processing. Here are 5 of the most prominent payment processors and service providers in gaming (in no particular order).

Based out of Minnetonka, Minnesota, Digital River began processing payments back in 1994. What began as a scrappy company stepping into a young gaming industry quickly developed into one of the largest, most popular payment solutions used by companies like Pokemon, Vive, and Take Two Interactive. Every day, tens of thousands of companies—both large and small—rely on Digital River for cloud commerce and marketing and payment solutions on a global scale.

Known for their online commerce intensive resources, global reach, and local-market savvy, the company has helped pave the way in revenue-driving marketing tools and clear, powerful thinking over the last 23 years.

Despite the fact that they work with multiple industries, including branded manufacturing, software and services, technology, Digital River is by far mostly recognized for their work in the gaming industry. They consistently help developers get to market quicker, expand faster and capitalize on the full revenue potential for their games. They feature game launch expertise as well as platform solutions.

But what game studios use the popular payment processors? Well, for starters ZeniMax Media, Inc., owners of Arkane Studios, BattleCry Studios and Bethesda Softworks uses Digital River. That means the payment processor handles payments for games like Fallout 4, Skyrim, Dishonored 2, Prey, Doom, and Quake, to name a few.

NCsoft, the South Korean video game development studio and creators of Lineage, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Aion also use Digital River to process payments. Of course, this also includes Carbine Studios, the subsidiary of NCsoft known for making the science fiction MMORPG Wildstar.

While Digital River may be well-known and lucrative, with some of the biggest names in the industry, Xsolla, a global distributor and publisher of video games, has quickly taken the stage in terms of affiliate and influencer networking, key generation, and distribution—as well aspayment processing. It’s actually a very popular company and the one with the largest number of clients on this particular list.

The company’s objective has stayed the same for the last 11 years: provide a multitude of services beyond just payment processing, so as to provide a one-stop, streamlined solution for all their clients. Think of them as an entire niche store, providing something for every developer’s needs. Rather than just process payments, the game services provider offers a whole plethora of services.

For instance, with their PayStation, they provide comprehensive in-game store management where players can purchase items right from within the game. With Unity SDK, they facilitate in-game billing and store management specifically for Unity games. Meanwhile, Pay2Play, their widget, easily makes it possible for developers to sell their games from their own official websites, while even offering things like promotions, discounts, coupons, and even bundles.

The company offers their services through their Xsolla Publisher Account, which gives developers full access to things like analytics, support, anti-fraud, coupon and discount generation, etc.. In fact, clients can manage any promotional package tied to their in-game packages within their account, which means things like bundle sales and pre-launch campaigns become a little less intense.

And the list of game studios that process payments through Xsolla is a hefty one: Crytek, Gaijin Entertainment, Epic Games, Bluehole, and Ubisoft—which they acquired from Digital River. This means Xsolla processes payments for everything from Crytek’s The Climb, to the entire Assassin’s Creed series from Ubisoft. Some of the games they work with include Infinity Blade, the Watch Dogs series, Enlisted, Shadow Complex, and the upcoming Far Cry 5. They’ve even partnered up with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the Early Access massively multiplayer online survival game that’s made waves on Twitch.

Most recently, Xsolla teamed up with Ubisoft for the game For Honor, the hack and slash fighting game for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This is notable since it was the top-selling game of February 2017 in the U.S. and Japan. The game is ranked 7th worldwide in digital sales.

In fact their relationship with the developer runs deep. Whenever Ubisoft gives anything away or creates a new game, it’s a safe assumption that Xsolla is involved to some degree.

PayPal Holdings, Inc., the American online payments system founded in 1998 has grown exponentially in the last 18 years. They support money transfers on a global scale. Commonly used by just about anyone and everyone who wishes to purchase goods in a safer manner, without having to use their debit or credit card, PayPal has become a bit of a staple. Grocery stores take PayPal as a payment alternative. People even wire each other money to split the check at a restaurant.

It’s no surprise that the company has record-breaking numbers. In 2014, they moved $228 billion in 30 currencies across more than 190 nations. Their total revenue for that year alone was $7.9 billion. In January 2017 they reported more than 203 million active accounts worldwide.

These days, their revenue is higher, their client list is longer, and their list of services goes far beyond just being able to pay online. Pay on websites, pay in apps, send money to loved ones, pay in stores, all without sharing your credit card number or personal information.

Due to its popularity and ease of use, game developers like Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games use PayPal. This means the company manages all incoming and outgoing payments for games like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and League of Legends—which has now become an eSports staple.

Now, obviously PayPal, while popular, doesn’t offer the services that companies like Digital River or Xsolla do. PayPal doesn’t cater to any niches and certainly isn’t anything more than a payment processor. Why would large game studios opt for PayPal? Shouldn’t they benefit from more than just one business solution?

Well, PayPal may do one thing, but it does it extraordinarily well. It’s convenient, it’s a direct solution to a specific need (payment processing), and it’s used by generally everyone. Finding someone who doesn’t use PayPal is like finding a relic these days. It’s just an easy, simple, and precise solution to a massive business need.

Using Blizzard as an example, PayPal is the payment method and processor of all Battle.net purchases—for all their games. It’s how players reload their account funds. You simply reload your Blizzard account using PayPal, then you make your purchase in the store. Or, if you rather pay directly with PayPal, you can do that too, all without loading a balance.

It was also a payment service partner for the auction house in Diablo III when it first came out. While controversial due to gameplay reasons, the auction house once served as the principal means of both trading and acquiring gear in the game.

There were two types of methods for retrieving funds won in the game’s Real Money Auction House (RMAH), the primary being PayPal. It was in charge of distributing action house proceeds to translate into real-life funds. When a player won an auction and sent it to their PayPal account, they could choose to send it to a valid credit card, checking account, or just use it to purchase items anywhere PayPal is accepted, which is basically anywhere on the internet for Western players.

To explain their choice, Blizzard stated that over 70% of gamers are PayPal users. It was a logical choice for the large developer, simply for the sake of usability. By partnering up with a service that most players already used, they managed to streamline their auction house as much as possible.

Ingenico ePayments acquired GlobalCollect back in 2014, and nothing but good things have come of it. Ingenico is known for being a global expert in all things payment processing, and has been leading the charge for more than 30 years. They provide smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce in-store, online and on mobile. Their clients can accept any means of payment, from credit cards to alternative payment methods.

To cater to more client needs, Ingenico has even added some services, and now boasts unrivalled geographical coverage, as well as a comprehensive global network of financial institutions and payment methods. In other words, they are available anywhere in the world, and know just about anyone you’d likely work with. Transitioning, or setting up a payment processing method with them is simpler, solely because of their large size and influence.

GlobalCollect processes payments for a large array of e-commerce websites, banks, well-known stores, hotels and catering, hospitals and clinics, to name a few. Some of the industries they work with include digital goods, banking, retail, hospitality, health, and even petrol.

Zoning in on their global payments for gaming, the company processes more payments for MMO’S, online game publishers, and casual gaming platforms than just about any payment processor. One of the major reasons behind this is that they provide international payment products that aid in localization strategies. Any games are welcome, including free-to-play, download to own, subscription models, pay-to-play or virtual item selling.

Perhaps the most prominent game studio working with Ingenico’s GlobalCollect is Valve, creators of Portal and Portal 2, the iconic Half-Life series, Left 4 Dead, and Counter Strike.

When asked for a testimonial, Valve leaders had this to say about GlobalCollect:

“Valve has benefited from GlobalCollect’s extensive experience of worldwide payment processing as well as in-depth knowledge of alternative payment methods, cultural payment preferences, and the video gaming industry.

So it was a logical choice to go with GlobalCollect as a PSP to help Valve tap into the huge potential of BRIC gaming markets.”

Being one of the largest game developer names in the industry—and the creators of Steam, the most popular online gaming platform known to man—Valve had a lot riding on their payment processor choice. They work with business partners to help them realize their global growth ambitions, such as their aspiration of reaching the Russian market.

To facilitate this, GlobalCollect localized Valve’s approach by offering domestic alternative payment methods, stepped up fraud protection, and advised on cultural payment preferences. In Russia, consumer confidence in financial institutions is low, so opting for eWallets was the best approach.

After PlaySpan, Inc. got acquired by Visa Inc., players thought the company had gone completely under. However, Visa is one of the largest, most recognized companies in the world, and as such, anyone who works with them is guaranteed success. Visa is a global payments technology company that works to enable consumers, businesses, banks, and governments to use digital currency. As industry leaders, their objective is to improve the lives and economies around the world.

Visa, Inc. advances financial inclusion to help during times of crisis, making philanthropy a major focus. It makes sense too, considering they work with just about everyone, from the common Joe with a Visa card, to fortune 500 companies. Their market cap, according to Forbes, is $206.4 billion.

In terms of game development, Visa, Inc. provides developers and content producers of online games a trusted monetization platform for safe, convenient purchases. They work with in-app and online purchases, and allow their clients to accept well over 100 payment methods all across the globe.

The only trouble is that Visa, Inc. isn’t niche. It doesn’t cater specifically to the industry, nor does it help with anything else like metrics tracking, or coupon/discount generation. Because they largely work with basically all industries, they cater to everyone’s common need: payment processing. So, assuming you’re a developer who just wants a safe, proven way for players to purchase your game, Visa is enough.

One of the companies that’s using Visa Checkout for their games and game merchandise is Square Enix Co.. The Japanese video game developer, publisher, and distribution company uses Visa’s safe payment processing on a global scale, ensuring their customers get games and merchandise without hassle.

At first glance, considering a payment processor to incorporate into your website may seem rather mundane. An easy choice, one that solves a single problem: accepting payments. However, payment processors are so much more. They provide a safe method for players, your customers, to pay for your games and merchandise. They’re the ones who help track all incoming finances, so the process is much more streamlined for you.

And depending on who you select as a payment processor, you might just get a few additional resources. For instance, with Xsolla, developers get a payment processor, direct access to affiliate and influencer networks, white label authentication system and game launcher, along with the ability to track high-level business KPI’s.

On the other hand, large developers who have global growth aspirations, like Valve, benefit from highly specialized processors like GlobalCollect. They not only process payments, they advise on strategies to make growth a possibility.

Game Pigeon Payment System Online

Selling digital games, Steam keys, and game merchandise through official websites is what helps game developers of today make their own mark in the industry. While selling on third party platforms is smart due to the exposure potential, selling on your own website allows you to put a stamp on your own method of selling. Being able to cultivate your brand is invaluable. And payment processors can help support that goal.

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