AstroPay Review
6.1/10A Uruguay-founded player wallet with 17 years in LatAm behind it, carried in operator cashiers as an APM through Nuvei, Ecommpay, Corefy, or SoftGamings, licensed by Brazil's central bank as a payment institution and repositioned toward consumer fintech in 2024.
Our read
- Own Brazilian regulatory ground: AstroPay holds a BCB payment-institution authorization as e-money issuer and payment initiator (decision November 29, 2024) and operates as an indirect Pix participant.
- A wallet players already know: 17 years in LatAm, app ratings of 4.8 across 179K Google Play reviews and 4.7 across 11K on the App Store, and years of shirt-level football branding from Wolves to Tottenham reinforcing recognition with betting audiences.
- A full deposit-and-withdrawal loop: One Touch covers repeat deposits after a single wallet link, the flow bet365 runs in its own cashier, plus cash-outs back to the wallet, while the legacy voucher this brand grew up on was deposit-only.
- Low-commitment distribution: the wallet is already carried as a connector, so an operator can enable it through an existing PSP without signing a direct contract.
- Larstal Limited resumed UK onboarding on July 28, 2025 under an updated FCA voluntary undertaking, a conditioned resumption after new UK business had been paused from April 2024.
- Gambling is the de-emphasized legacy: the October-December 2024 'New Era' repositioning recast AstroPay as a global consumer multicurrency wallet.
- Nothing on the operator side is for sale: no Pix acquiring, no routing or acceptance tooling, and no betting-grade same-CPF payout product for Brazil's 2025 regulated market.
- Merchant pricing and settlement schedules are quoted in sales.
- The custodial wallet model means player withdrawals can pause during wallet-level compliance reviews, friction that reaches the operator's support desk first.
Operators building Brazil and wider LatAm cashiers who want a wallet players already recognize as an additional deposit and withdrawal option, switched on through an existing PSP connector, with the One Touch repeat-deposit flow earning its keep on VIP and returning-player segments.
Anyone shopping for a primary LatAm processing partner, operator-side Pix acquiring, betting-grade CPF-matched payouts under Brazil's regime, published pricing and SLAs, or a vendor whose roadmap still centers on gambling.
Markets & licensing
Five entities carry the group. The core one is Astro Instituição de Pagamento Ltda, the Brazilian payment institution authorized by the BCB on November 29, 2024 and operating as an indirect Pix participant. The UK EMI, the Danish EMI, and the two Isle of Man entities round out the stack.
US processing is unavailable: no AstroPay entity holds a money-transmitter license or a state gaming approval.
Larstal Limited (FRN 901001) has held the EMI authorization since December 2019 and has onboarded UK customers again since July 28, 2025 under an updated voluntary undertaking that replaced the April 2024 original, which had paused new UK business.
- Brazil (BCB) payment institutionBrazil
- E-money issuer and payment initiator, with indirect Pix participation as an account provider · Astro Instituição de Pagamento Ltda · CNPJ 34.006.497/0001-77 · decision November 29, 2024, DOU December 5, 2024
- UK (FCA) EMIUnited Kingdom
- Electronic money institution, held by Larstal Limited · FRN 901001 · authorized December 3, 2019 · UK onboarding resumed July 28, 2025
- Denmark (Finanstilsynet) EMIDenmark / EEA
- Electronic money institution and the EEA passporting entity · Larstal Denmark ApS · FTID 40514, CVR 42457590
- Isle of Man (FSA) money transmissionIsle of Man
- Class 8(2)(4) money transmission license · AstroPay Global (IOM) Limited, 135497C · Financial Services Licence since May 24, 2023
- Isle of Man (FSA) crypto registrationIsle of Man
- Designated Business Act registration for convertible virtual currency, covering the wallet's USDT · AP Digital (IOM) Limited, 135889C
Licensing tier: Mid-tier, with a Brazilian payment-institution authorization and a UK EMI onboarding again since July 2025, plus the Danish EMI and the Isle of Man licenses.
These are payments authorizations under which the wallet itself operates, which is different from gambling-market approvals: as an APM the wallet reaches operators wherever their PSPs enable it.
Methods & rails
What you can reach
A2A rails
Card schemes
Flagship local methods
Payout rails
Processing features
Integrations & engineering
One contract and one API instead of a separate deal per studio, feed, or PSP. Here's what connects, how fast, and on what stack.
Two routes exist. The low-commitment one runs through a PSP or platform that already carries the wallet: Nuvei offers it as an APM with One Touch deposits and withdrawals, and Ecommpay, Corefy, and SoftGamings ship it as a connector. The direct route is a merchant contract against the REST API at developers.astropay.com, covering deposits and One Touch cash-outs with an official npm SDK, where the player links a wallet once and then deposits from balance. Player KYC and funding of local rails (Pix, CVU, cards, cash) happen on AstroPay's side in both routes, and merchant settlement terms are set in sales.
Products & tools
Everything hangs off the consumer wallet: operators accept it as a deposit and withdrawal method, One Touch handles linking and cash-outs, and the 2025 AstroPay Platform rents the licensing stack out to fintechs.
AstroPay Wallet Acceptance
Acceptance of the AstroPay consumer wallet at the cashier. Players fund the wallet with Pix, CVU, cards, and cash, then deposit from balance, so the local rails run on AstroPay's side of the flow.
- 12 wallet currencies including USDT
- Wallet funding rails: Pix in Brazil, CVU in Argentina, IBAN in Europe, UK sort codes
- 11 countries served
- 500+ business customers
- Consumer app ratings of 4.8 across 179K Google Play reviews and 4.7 across 11K on the App Store
- Balance-funded payments carry structurally low chargeback exposure, a property of the wallet model
One Touch
The merchant-facing flow behind the wallet: a REST API covering deposits and cash-outs, with a one-time wallet link that turns every later deposit into a single tap, the mechanic running in bet365's cashier.
- Deposits and player cash-outs in one merchant API, with an official npm SDK (@astropay/astropay-sdk)
- Wallet linking for repeat deposits without reopening the app
- Legacy AstroPay Card vouchers remain deposit-only
AstroPay Platform
AstroPay's B2B arm, launched in July 2025 and sold as embedded finance.
- Global accounts, card issuing, online payments (wallet acceptance), and checkout modules (July 29, 2025)
- White-label financial infrastructure: own-brand wallets and cards on AstroPay's licensing and KYC stack
- Target customers: fintechs, super apps, marketplaces, creator and payroll platforms
The history
Longevity in this industry usually comes with a change of owner somewhere in it.
Sergio Fogel and Andrés Bzurovski founded AstroPay in Uruguay in 2009, and for years the prepaid AstroPay Card voucher was the product that carried LatAm gambling deposits. The processing ventures born inside the group left it: dLocal was spun off in 2016 and listed its way to making the founders Uruguay's first billionaires by 2021 (they remain major dLocal shareholders, with no operational relationship between the firms), and D24/Directa24 followed in 2020. A 2023-2024 leadership change brought in CEO Marc Sacal, who co-founded Arcus before its acquisition by Mastercard. In April 2024 an FCA voluntary undertaking paused new UK business, the Brazilian central bank authorized the group's payment institution in November, and December brought the 'New Era' repositioning and multicurrency wallet launch aimed at consumers rather than gambling. July 2025 delivered both the UK resumption under an updated undertaking and the AstroPay Platform. The group is bootstrapped and profitable, and had about 320 staff at the end of 2024.
Brands & clients on the platform
Corporate
Leadership
Milestones
- 2009
Founded in Uruguay by Sergio Fogel and Andrés Bzurovski, with the prepaid AstroPay Card voucher as the flagship product for LatAm deposits.
- 2016
dLocal spun off, taking the cross-border processing business that would later IPO and make the founders Uruguay's first billionaires (2021).
- 2020
D24/Directa24 spun off, the second processing arm to leave.
- 2021
Peak betting-brand era: Wolves principal shirt sponsorship (2021-2023), Newcastle deal, following earlier Burnley sponsorships, with Tottenham payment partner following in 2023.
- 2024
An FCA voluntary undertaking takes effect April 11, pausing new UK business for the Larstal entity.
- 2024
Brazil's central bank authorizes the group's local payment institution (decision November 29, DOU December 5), and December brings the 'New Era' consumer pivot and multicurrency wallet launch under CEO Marc Sacal.
- 2025
July double: UK onboarding resumes under an updated FCA undertaking (announced July 28) and the AstroPay Platform launches (July 29) targeting fintechs.
Where they're pushing next
- Consumer EEA expansion via the Danish EMI: Denmark, Spain, and Portugal first, then Germany, France, Italy, and Poland
- Brazil under its own BCB authorization, as a consumer wallet rather than operator processing
Longevity and ownership
Switching vendors is expensive, which makes the company's staying power part of the purchase. What the contract says about your data decides how expensive an exit gets.
AstroPay vs alternatives
Most buyers in this market shortlist three or four vendors long before they take a single sales call.
| Attribute | AstroPay | PayRetailers | Pay4Fun |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Team | 320+ | 265+ | 150+ |
| US market | Restricted | Restricted | Restricted |
| Pricing | — | On request | On request |
| Methods | — | 300+ | — |
| Currencies | 11+ | 24+ | 1+ |
| Coins | 1+ | 0+ | 0+ |
| EMI / PI licenses | UK, Denmark, Brazil +1 | Brazil | Brazil |
| Settlement | — | — | Full amount funded to the merchant account on Pay4Fun GO |
| Instant payouts | Yes | — | Yes |
Settlement & commercials
AstroPay prices per deal, so exact figures land in the contract rather than on a public rate card.
The revenue model is card interchange, yield on wallet balances, and merchant fees when users pay from balance.
On the player side, bet365 deposits via AstroPay run $10 to $10,000 with no player fees, and the wallet sells a paid Infinite tier with FX perks.
The deal
Money movement
Onboarding path
- 1Pick the route first: enable the wallet through a PSP or platform already carrying the connector, or pursue a direct merchant contract
- 2On the PSP route, switch the method on in your existing cashier and go straight to testing
- 3On the direct route, contact merchant sales for terms and clear KYB with the relevant regional entity
- 4Verify the licensing stack for your markets, including the current FCA undertaking status on Larstal's FRN 901001
- 5Integrate deposits and One Touch cash-outs against the merchant API or the @astropay/astropay-sdk npm package, confirming sandbox access with sales
- 6Test the wallet-linking flow for repeat deposits, negotiate settlement currency and cadence into the contract, and brief player support on wallet-side compliance holds before go-live