From firefighter to strategist: how the iGaming payment manager role is changing

Head of payments job ads at iGaming operators often ask for two roles in one: running daily payment operations and setting optimisation strategy. In this PaymentIQ round table, the host talks with KP, head of product at PaymentIQ, and Tatiana, a product director who covers provider integrations, about what the role demands and how to move from fixing problems to planning.

In this episode

• Operational duties are urgent and important while strategy is important but not urgent, a guest says, so the operational side usually takes the bigger toll (4:29, 4:39).

• Whatever the reporting line, the head of payments works close to the CEO day to day, the guests say, because when payments go wrong company revenue goes away (6:24, 6:46).

• Building a strategy means getting your hands dirty in transaction details; reading reports or asking ChatGPT or Claude is not enough (23:31, 23:46).

• One detail that can hit conversion: a Mastercard change means a transaction ID must be stored and reused in recurring payments, refunds and chargebacks, or the transaction is declined (17:58, 18:09).

• For hiring, they want someone who likes payments complexity, and an interview question could be how 3D Secure or an Apple Pay transaction works (20:51, 25:36).

• To shift toward strategy, KP suggests tools such as payment orchestration and AI; Tatiana adds extending the team (29:16, 29:46).

Episode from The Breakpoint by PaymentIQ, published on YouTube.