Stakemate is a simple, easy-to-use social sports betting app built for the UK market.

Founded by Arya Tayebi, the app is all about making betting fun and social, letting players share the experience with friends while enjoying a mobile experience designed from the ground up to remove friction.

Stakemate partnered with TrueLayer to power its full payment and onboarding stack: Pay by Bank, Signup+ and Verified Payouts.

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To describe our relationship with TrueLayer in one sentence — it's all about being a partnership while focusing on the player experience, and removing as much friction as possible.

Arya Tayebi, Founder and CEO, Stakemate

The challenge

For a challenger in the UK's regulated gaming market, the player experience is where Stakemate needed to win. Stakemate recognised early that relying on traditional payment and onboarding methods such as cards and manual KYC, meant accepting friction that directly impacted conversion, retention and cost. There were three key areas that needed addressing: 

• Gruelling KYC journeys that kill conversion: Signing up to a betting app has traditionally been slow and painful for players. Name, address, date of birth, finding the right postcode, clicking through to confirm the address, uploading proof of identity, uploading proof of address. Each step adds friction, and each step loses players. In a market where a player's first 60 seconds define whether they stay, that friction is a direct hit to conversion.

• Slow withdrawals driving player complaints: One of the biggest sources of complaint for betting apps is the wait for winnings to arrive. Being held up for 24 hours, or even 30 minutes, is enough to make players doubt an operator. Stakemate needed a solution that could give every player a rapid withdrawal experience, regardless of whether they deposited by bank or by card.

• Rising card fees in a margin-sensitive market: Card payments come with high acquiring margins, variable interchange fees and scheme fees on both pay-in and pay-out. For a growing operator, that cost base is a constant drag on commercial performance, especially when competing against incumbents for the same players.

The solution

Stakemate's journey with TrueLayer started long before the first line of integration code.

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"At the TrueLayer booth at ICE in London I had a sneak peek into Signup+. I was very impressed with the friction that was being removed on every journey. There are plenty of partners out there, but finding a group of people with the same values, who are knowledgeable and helpful through the integration and after go-live."

Arya Tayebi, Founder and CEO, Stakemate

From launch, Stakemate went all-in on open banking. Pay by Bank launched as a core payment method, and within two to three months the team added Signup+, TrueLayer's identity verification solution, as their preferred onboarding path. Verified Payouts followed soon after, solving the withdrawal problem for players who chose to pay in by card.

The result: Stakemate became one of the first operators in the UK running TrueLayer's full stack. Three products, three touchpoints, one consistent player experience.

The results

Since integrating the TrueLayer Full Stack, Stakemate has seen measurable improvements in player conversion, retention and cost performance:

• Higher signup conversion with Signup+: Stakemate offers players multiple onboarding methods, but Signup+ is the preferred choice: 62% of players choose it over the manual, more friction-based alternative. For an operator, the signal is clear. When given the option, modern bettors overwhelmingly choose the frictionless path.

• Long-term retention uplift: Completing a KYC check or placing a first deposit tells you one thing. Whether the player comes back tells you another. Stakemate sees that Signup+ players are 35% more likely to make a second-time deposit than those who come through the manual flow. For iGaming, where player lifetime value is the metric that matters, that's a meaningful retention lift straight out of the gate.

• Pay by Bank beating the industry benchmark: Pay by Bank now accounts for around 30% of Stakemate's checkout, significantly ahead of the roughly 20% industry average for open banking adoption. It's the recommended option at deposit, and players are choosing it at scale.

• Faster, cheaper withdrawals with Verified Payouts: Verified Payouts gives Stakemate a way to deliver rapid withdrawals to every player, regardless of how they deposited. Unlike Visa Direct or Mastercard Send, Verified Payouts closes the loop by connecting directly to the player's bank, giving an extra layer of validation, cutting out card scheme fees, and making the commercials more sound than card-based alternatives.

• One consistent experience across the stack: Because Signup+, Pay by Bank and Verified Payouts sit with a single provider, Stakemate can ensure all three touchpoints feel like the same experience, with the same guardrails, the same compliance posture and a customisable front end that keeps the player inside Stakemate's brand throughout.

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It really is the one stop shop that allows you to keep great compliance, give the players a great experience — and commercially it's very sound as well.

Arya Tayebi, Founder and CEO, Stakemate

The full stack as a foundation

For Stakemate, the Full Stack approach is a foundation, not a finish line. Arya sees the modern-day user as native to apps that are simple and easy to use, such as Monzo or Revolut. Keeping that preferred experience in mind naturally led to adding Pay by Bank to checkout. 

Having been one of the first movers on Signup+ in the UK, the team sees open banking, and the product development coming out of TrueLayer, as central to how Stakemate will keep evolving the player experience.

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With the TrueLayer partnership, it's all about innovation at the end of the day. We saw that with Signup+, saw that with Verified Payouts — and we're excited to see what comes next.

Arya Tayebi, Founder and CEO, Stakemate