BetMGM Partners with Identity Security Company Prove Identity

BetMGM is upping the ante in customer security through a new partnership with Prove Identity, according to a Tuesday announcement.

“BetMGM is an innovator in the space, always looking to find new and compelling ways to improve the online gaming experience,” said Tom Hill, Director of Digital Identity and Head of Sports Betting and iGaming at Prove. “Prove Pre-Fill is the latest example of that and allows customers to get access to the content they desire faster than ever before through the identity verification process, enabling them to take full advantage of BetMGM’s vast product offerings.”

The belief is that the new partnership will accelerate the initial sign-up process by up to 79 percent, allowing customers to dive into BetMGM’s betting catalog without a long layover.

It can be difficult for sports betting sites to attract new users because of all of the congestion within the industry, especially in advertising. 

Many businesses that overcome the odds and manage to draw their audience to their product still lose out on many potential customers during the sign-up process. According to research commissioned by several sports betting companies, a long and convoluted sign-up process is one of the biggest reasons prospective customers never actually join the ranks of full-fledged sports bettors. 

The new partnership will simplify and accelerate the account creation process, leading to lower abandonment rates. 

Prove Pre-Fill will help remedy that issue and will also work to stop the abuse of promotional bonuses. Sportsbooks often offer special promo codes for first-time users to entice them to create an account, but these codes have been used multiple times by returning bettors in the face of their primary intention.

“We’re committed to providing customers with a seamless and secure sports betting experience, and our partnership with Prove is a testament to that safe bet,” BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt said. “Prove Pre-Fill adds an extra layer of security, reduces sign-up abandonment, and improves the overall user experience by streamlining the identity verification and authentication processes.”

The Prove tool still needs to receive regulatory approval in the U.S. before it may be used at BetMGM.

Prove’s primary focus is to accelerate the processes that often hamstring companies in a world that is more mobile-focused than ever before.

“As the world moves to a mobile-first economy, businesses need to modernize how they acquire, engage with, and enable consumers,” the company said. “Prove’s phone-centric identity tokenization and passive cryptographic authentication solutions reduce friction, enhance security and privacy across all digital channels, and accelerate revenues while reducing operating expenses and fraud losses.” 

The company claims it processed 20 billion customer requests across more than 1,000 businesses in a variety of industries, including banking, gaming, e-commerce, and more.

BetMGM sportsbook produced $1.96 billion in revenue in 2023 in active states with legal sports betting. MGM as a whole, including its land-based casinos and online casinos, produced $16.2 billion in revenue, a 22% year-to-year increase. 

With that level of money at play, customer security is of the utmost importance.

BetMGM was one of a plethora of companies in and outside of the gaming industry that were victims of cyberattacks last year. 

A hacking group known as Scattered Spider was able to take control of MGM’s technology, resulting in more than $8 million in daily losses while they had access to the company’s backend.

That attack led to a series of lawsuits that alleged the company did not properly protect personal identification information after it was warned by Okta, an identity and access management company, about the dangers of social engineering attacks by hacking groups.