Anna Enake on SPAYZ.io’s Payment Strategy Ahead of SBC Lisbon

Anna Enake, Strategic Partnerships Team Lead at SPAYZ.io, works at the centre of the payment provider’s expansion across complex and emerging markets. As SPAYZ.io heads to SBC Summit Lisbon 2026, the company is focusing on deeper localisation, stronger payment orchestration and greater operational control for merchants, while also showcasing its P2P Agent Dashboard, shortlisted for Payment Innovation of the Year at the SBC Awards.

In this CasinoRank interview, Enake discusses how operator expectations are shifting from basic payment coverage toward intelligent routing, real-time transaction visibility and resilient infrastructure. She also explores SPAYZ.io’s expansion across Africa, the importance of adapting payment strategies to local behaviour and regulation, and why merchants increasingly judge payment partners on overall performance rather than processing fees alone.

With SBC Summit Lisbon 2026 approaching, what are SPAYZ.io’s key priorities for the event, and what would you like operators, merchants and industry partners to take away from your presence this year? 

Anna Enake: This will be SPAYZ.io’s third year at SBC Summit Lisbon, and it remains one of the key events for connecting with operators, partners and industry leaders.

This year, we are bringing our P2P Agent Dashboard, which has been shortlisted for Payment Innovation of the Year at the SBC Awards. It was developed to give merchants greater visibility and control over agent-based P2P operations, from transactions and balances to commissions and reporting.

Africa will also be a major focus. We are presenting our latest expansion, including new markets and payment solutions across the continent.

The key message we want people to take away is that SPAYZ.io is not simply expanding coverage. We are building flexible payment infrastructure around the realities of each market and helping merchants scale into complex GEOs with local expertise, reliable technology and greater operational control.

SPAYZ.io recently highlighted payment orchestration as a key growth tool for high-risk merchants. What are operators asking for most today that wasn’t as important a year ago?

Anna Enake: The biggest change is that operators want much more control over payment performance. Previously, conversations often started with coverage: which countries and payment methods can you provide? Today, operators increasingly ask what happens after integration. They want to understand how traffic is routed, what happens when a route starts underperforming, how quickly traffic can be redirected and whether problems can be identified in real time. This reflects a broader shift from simply connecting multiple PSPs to orchestrating them effectively. Multiple providers alone do not guarantee resilience. Operators need intelligent routing, cascading and fallback mechanisms that respond to actual payment performance.

There is also greater demand for localisation. Operators understand that the same payment setup cannot simply be replicated across every market. At SPAYZ.io, localisation is part of the payment strategy from the beginning. Overall, payment orchestration in 2026 is becoming less about adding integrations and more about building infrastructure that can continuously adapt to changing conditions.

Your 2026 expansion has included Zambia, Tanzania and new payment methods in Nigeria. What are these markets teaching SPAYZ.io about building payment infrastructure for emerging iGaming markets?

Anna Enake: The biggest lesson is that localisation needs to be part of the payment strategy from the beginning. Across Africa, payment habits, trusted methods and user expectations can differ significantly from one country to another.

Nigeria is a good example. Bank transfers are deeply embedded in everyday payment behaviour, while familiar solutions such as OPay and PalmPay can help create a more relevant local payment experience. Simply bringing an international payment model into a new market is rarely enough.

Regulation is equally important. Requirements across African markets are evolving, so expansion needs to consider KYC and AML requirements, payout controls and local banking realities alongside conversion.

It’s also crucial to choose your partners wisely when you’re expanding to new countries. 

SPAYZ.io has recently focused on payment failures, routing and real-time transaction visibility. Where do you see the biggest opportunities to improve payment performance for iGaming operators?

Anna Enake: One of the biggest opportunities is understanding why payments fail rather than treating every decline as an unavoidable lost transaction. Failures can result from an underperforming route, provider downtime, unsuitable local methods, technical issues or unnecessary friction in the payment journey.

Real-time visibility is equally critical. Payment teams need to identify issues as they happen and understand whether they are connected to a particular provider, payment method or market.

Finally, operators should look at the entire payment journey. Checkout, local payment methods, routing, fraud controls and payouts influence each other. The biggest performance improvements happen when these elements are optimised as one interconnected system.

You’ve also been highlighting the need to look beyond processing fees when choosing a PSP. What factors are becoming decisive for merchants when selecting a payment partner in 2026?

Anna Enake: Price matters, but the cheapest processing rate does not necessarily mean the lowest overall cost. A lower fee quickly loses its advantage if the provider delivers poor success rates, unstable routes, limited local coverage or slow incident resolution. That is why the merchants’ question shifts from “What does each transaction cost?” to “What value does this payment partner create for the business?”

Support is another decisive factor, particularly in iGaming. Payment problems do not happen only during office hours, so merchants need a partner that can respond quickly, investigate incidents and adjust payment flows when conditions change.

Flexibility is also becoming increasingly important. Different GEOs require different approaches, and merchants need providers capable of adapting infrastructure to their business rather than forcing every operation into the same model.

Operators now are looking more closely at overall payment performance, local methods, routing and fallback capabilities, settlement options, fraud controls, compliance and API flexibility.

As you head into the final months of 2026, which markets, technologies or payment trends will be the biggest priorities for SPAYZ.io?

Anna Enake: Many of the trends identified in our 2026 Payment Methods Forecast have become even more relevant as the year has progressed. Localisation remains central, particularly across Africa, Asia and MENA, where payment behaviour varies significantly between individual markets.

Africa will remain a prospective region for iGaming. Mobile Money, bank transfers and local wallets continue to shape how users access digital services, while operators increasingly recognise that international payment methods alone are not enough. We also expect merchants to demand greater real-time visibility and more automation, while AI will continue influencing fraud detection and risk management.

For SPAYZ.io, the focus is practical: deeper localisation, stronger regional coverage, smarter orchestration and infrastructure that delivers measurable improvements for merchants.