Yaspa partners The Big Leagues on open banking payments

Yaspa has partnered with The Big Leagues to bring open banking payments to the UK sports prize draw platform.

The integration adds Pay by Bank deposits and withdrawals, alongside automated player verification. It is intended to reduce delays in payments and onboarding for users of the platform's prize draws and sports prediction games.

The Big Leagues operates in the UK sports prize draw market, where operators have sought to stand out through compliance as scrutiny of consumer protection and transparency has increased. The company says it places player trust and governance at the centre of its model and follows the sector's voluntary code of good practice.

Yaspa provides payment and identity products to gambling operators and other businesses using open banking. Its system combines bank transfers with account authentication, allowing users to move funds directly from bank accounts while enabling operators to verify identity in real time.

For The Big Leagues, the change means customers can use bank-based payments instead of card-based methods for deposits and withdrawals. The setup is designed to reduce administrative work and avoid some of the costs and abandonment associated with older payment gateways.

The Big Leagues launched earlier this year as a multi-sport platform for British fans. Its offering includes free-to-play prediction games and prize draws linked to major sporting events, including the UEFA Champions League, Cheltenham Festival and the Masters.

The business is led by Founder Adam Shaw, a former sports betting executive. His background reflects a wider pattern across adjacent gaming and entertainment markets, where operators with betting industry experience have moved into regulated or self-regulated prize draw models aimed at sports audiences.

Payments focus

The agreement also expands Yaspa's presence in sectors linked to gambling and fan engagement, where payment speed and customer checks have become more important competitive factors. Open banking has gained traction in these markets as operators look for alternatives to cards and tools that can support identity checks at the point of transaction.

That trend has been driven by broader investment in fintech infrastructure and regulatory pressure for tighter customer due diligence. For platforms handling paid entries, withdrawals and user verification, the payment journey has become closely tied to trust and retention.

Chief Executive Officer James Neville outlined the rationale for the tie-up. "The Big Leagues is building an exciting, forward-thinking brand for sports fans in the UK, and we are thrilled to power their payments infrastructure. By integrating our open banking and Intelligent Payments solutions, The Big Leagues can provide their growing community with effortless, instant transactions while ensuring the highest levels of verification and trust behind the scenes," Neville said.

Shaw said the company views payments and verification as central to the user experience. "Trust, speed, and simplicity are paramount to us and our players. Partnering with Yaspa allows us to remove the usual friction from the payments journey, and give our players complete confidence with instant, secure open banking transactions. We are setting the highest standard in the sports prize draw sector, and Yaspa is the perfect technology partner to help us deliver that," he said.

Growth backdrop

The partnership comes during a period of expansion for Yaspa. The fintech has been building its profile in gambling-related payments and identity verification, and recently won industry recognition for its products in that market.

It also secured a USD $12 million investment round led by Discerning Capital in 2025. That was followed by the opening of an office in Atlanta in the US and a technology hub in Leeds, adding to its base in London.

Founded in 2017 by a former Chief Technology Officer at Worldpay, Yaspa now operates across the UK, Europe and the US. It is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.

For The Big Leagues, the partnership signals an effort to build credibility in a growing but still developing segment of sports entertainment, where operators are under pressure to show robust payment controls and verification standards from the outset.

The platform offers fans access to sports-related prizes and prediction games under a single brand. As Shaw put it: "Trust, speed, and simplicity are paramount to us and our players."