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Yaspa Review

6.4/10

Yaspa handles open banking deposits for online casinos and sportsbooks in the UK, 18 European countries and the US. Players fund their balance from their bank account and approve the payment in their banking app, with no card and no bank details to type in. As part of the deposit, Yaspa can verify the account holder and, if the player grants access to their bank data, use that data to assess affordability and AML risk.

  • Founded 2017
  • London, United Kingdom
  • B2B only
  • Updated October 27, 2026
Our take

The best fit is a licensed operator in the UK, Europe or the US that wants deposits straight from the bank for under 1%, instead of up to 3% on cards, and affordability checks without a separate request for documents. When that check runs inside the deposit, it completes almost six times as often as a standalone one. Each deposit brings the account holder's verified name and account details, and winnings go back to that same account. In the US, Yaspa also takes on the risk of ACH returns on approved payments. It does not handle cards at all, though, so card deposits need a second payment provider. Open banking has no chargebacks, but operators handle player refunds and deposit disputes through their own support teams. Onboarding requires a license.

countries
20
employees
70
in business
9 years
Pricing
Category
Payment provider
Best for
Small operators
Pricing
Up to 1% per transaction
Products
Intelligent PaymentsInstant PaymentsGuaranteed PaymentsAccount Verification
Verticals
CasinoSportsbookLotteryPrediction marketsSkill gamesE-commerceOnline trading
Regions
EuropeNorth America

Our take

Strengths
  • Affordability checks built into the deposit have a 70% completion rate, against just 12% for standalone checks that ask for documents
  • Yaspa resolves 90% of banks' PEP and sanctions queries without involving the operator
  • US clients saw open banking reach 20% of total deposit volume three months after launch
  • Listing the Yaspa button first among cashier methods brought 58% more new users to the method and 74% more deposits overall
  • The UK contract commits to 99.9% monthly availability, a clause the European contract does not include
Watch-outs
  • Support handles tickets from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, so at night and on weekends it is up to operators to watch the cashier via the status page
Best for

Licensed casinos and sportsbooks in the UK, Europe and the US that need affordability checks to satisfy their regulator and want players to deposit from their bank account. Yaspa also suits US operators looking to offer ACH to every player without the risk of returns.

Not for

Operators without a license and brands in offshore markets or anywhere outside the UK, the EEA and the US. Nor does Yaspa suit anyone who needs cards from the same provider.

Markets & licensing

In the UK, Yaspa Limited has been a payment institution supervised by the FCA since 2019, with permissions for payment initiation (PIS) and account information (AIS) services. In Europe, Yaspa works with two partners. Yapily Connect gives it access to players' banks, and Via Payments UAB (Vialet) operates the payment accounts that receive, hold and settle operators' money. The US business runs through Yaspa Inc., which is registered with the NMLS. Operators need no payment license of their own to take payments through Yaspa.

Compliance

. Yaspa verifies the account holder through bank data and answers 90% of banks' PEP and sanctions queries directly, but player KYC and due diligence stay with operators.. Yaspa uses bank data to flag loss chasing and sharp rises in deposit frequency and amounts, but limits and blocks are up to operators.. Bank data lets Yaspa spot multi-accounting, refund abuse and chargeback attempts.Anti-fraud: Machine learning

Regulated markets
United KingdomEU & EEAUnited States

Yaspa operates in these EEA countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.

At the KYB stage, Yaspa asks operators for their license and checks that it is valid in every market their traffic comes from and that none of those markets is high-risk. Yaspa takes on high-risk businesses only after enhanced due diligence and can decline an application without giving a reason. It can suspend a live operator without notice, including at the request of its partner bank or the operator's own bank.

Licenses
United KingdomFCA. Payment initiation and account data access in the UK, and in Europe through Yapily Connect and Vialet. Yaspa Limited, authorized payment institution.United StatesNMLS. Deposits and payouts in the US over Same-Day ACH and RTP. Yaspa Inc., NMLS registration, Delaware entity.

In short: FCA payment institution in the UK, NMLS registration in the US.

Responsible gaming
Affordability checksVulnerable player detectionAML signals

Methods & rails

What's available

Card acquiringNo
Bank reachAll UK banks
Cash acceptanceNo
In-house e-walletNo
APIREST API & webhooks
DocumentationPublic

A2A rails

Faster PaymentsSEPASEPA InstantSame-Day ACHRTPFedNow

Payout rails

Faster PaymentsSEPA InstantRTP

Processing features

Instant payoutsNot offered: Stablecoin payouts

Integrations & engineering

Unified API

Operators choose one of three levels: no-code payment links from the dashboard, Yaspa's hosted flow in an iframe or a new window, or the full REST API called from their own backend. Those already on PaymentIQ, Praxis or Hexopay need no separate integration and switch Yaspa on in the aggregator's settings with minimal extra development. Yaspa sends payment statuses and insight events by webhook. In the dashboard, operators give team members roles from Site Admin to Cashier Engineer, approve payouts from a queue, export data to CSV and manage several legal entities under one login. Anyone can read the API docs and the business help center, which comes in six languages. The sandbox, with a test account, keys and dashboard access, is self-serve, and Yaspa's status page shows it separately from production.

Cashiers & orchestrators
PaymentIQPraxis

Platforms where operators switch Yaspa on with no separate integration

Client testimonials
Playbook EngineeringASK Global SolutionsISX FinancialPaolo Sanvido
Payments
Faster Payments in the UKSEPA Instant in EuropeRTP and FedNow in the US

Instant payment rails for deposits and payouts in the UK and Europe, and for US payouts

Stack:REST APIHosted flowSDKSandbox

Products

All Yaspa products work directly with the player's bank account. In the UK and Europe, operators collect deposits through Instant Payments. In the US, they plug in Guaranteed Payments, and Yaspa carries the risk of ACH returns. Operators that also want the player's bank data for affordability and AML checks pick Intelligent Payments. Account Verification is for those that only need to confirm the account holder, with no deposit.

01Pay by Bank

Intelligent Payments

Operators get the player's bank account data along with a Pay by Bank deposit and run affordability and AML checks on it.

Banks
1,200
Deposit settlement
About 8 seconds
Bank data
AffordabilityTransaction historySource of fundsGambling spendVulnerability indicators
Payment ProvidersOpen banking
02Pay by Bank

Instant Payments

Pay by Bank for the UK and Europe, with players paying from their bank account and operators sending winnings back to the same account.

Price
up to 1% per transaction
Countries
18
Banks
1,200
Deposit settlement
About 8 seconds
Bank data
NameAccount number
Payment ProvidersOpen banking
03Pay by Bank

Guaranteed Payments

US ACH deposits for which Yaspa takes on the risk of returns once it approves them.

Bank data
Account balance
Deposit reversal risk
Yaspa
Payment ProvidersOpen banking
04KYC

Account Verification

Players log in to their bank, and Yaspa verifies the account in under a minute.

Verification time
Under a minute
Checks
eID & bank ID
KYC & ComplianceIdentity verification

Track record

Yaspa started out in 2017 under the name Citizen. Its two founders came from tech companies, and one of them, James Neville, had been CTO at Worldpay and Just Eat. The current CTO, Dr. Toby Sucharov, ran innovation at Playtech before joining Yaspa.

~70employees. September 2025 · The team grew from about 15 people in a year and a half.
$13–15Mfunding raised. July 2025 · Investors include Discerning Capital, Techstars Ventures, SGH, Metavallon and Fin Capital.
20markets for deposits and payouts. Yaspa works in the UK, 18 European countries and the US.
Under 10 secondsfor funds to land in the UK and Europe
~70employees. September 2025 · The team grew from about 15 people in a year and a half.
$13–15Mfunding raised. July 2025 · Investors include Discerning Capital, Techstars Ventures, SGH, Metavallon and Fin Capital.
20markets for deposits and payouts. Yaspa works in the UK, 18 European countries and the US.
Under 10 secondsfor funds to land in the UK and Europe
Company
Legal entityYaspa Limited (England and Wales), Yaspa Inc. (Delaware)
Also known as. The Citizen name still shows up here and there in the integration code.Citizen
Countries served. The UK, 18 EEA countries and the US.20
Offices
United KingdomUnited States
Leadership
James NevilleCo-founder · since 2017
Dr Toby SucharovCTO · since 2017
Kate MarsdenCMO · since 2023
Justin FraserCRO · since 2025
Milestones
  1. 2017

    The company started operating as Citizen

  2. 2019

    On August 5, the company, then still called Citizen, became an FCA-authorized payment institution

  3. 2022

    In May Citizen integrated with PaymentIQ and won Best Open Banking Product at the Open Banking Expo Awards

  4. 2023

    In October Citizen rebranded as Yaspa. In December it went live at Casino Lugano, a land-based casino in Switzerland

  5. 2024

    Yaspa started opening business accounts for operators together with ISX Financial, went live in ASK Global's PINTO kiosks in the UK and renamed its legal entity Yaspa Limited. It won a SiGMA award for best innovation in responsible gaming and an Innovate UK grant

  6. 2025

    In February Playbook Engineering chose Yaspa as its exclusive instant payments provider. In July Yaspa raised $12 million in a round led by Discerning Capital to fund its entry into the US and started working with Vialet. The company set up a legal entity in Atlanta and in October launched guaranteed ACH at G2E

  7. 2026

    In April Yaspa integrated with Paysecure, launched RTP and FedNow payouts in the US and expanded its US team. In June it added a dedicated page for the Netherlands built around the KSA's requirements for checking players' financial risk, and in July it updated its European terms with Vialet and Yapily Connect

Growth markets
United States. Regulated iGaming, DFS and prediction marketsNetherlands. Checks built for KSA rulesUK & Europe
Awards
Open Banking Expo AwardsBest Open Banking ProductWin · 2022. The company won under its old name, Citizen.
The Card & Payments AwardsBest Payment FacilityWin · 2025
Payments AwardsReal-time Payments InnovationWin · 2025
Open Banking Expo AwardsBest Use of DataWin · 2025. Consumer
SBC Awards EuropeBest Payment SolutionWin · 2026
EGR B2B AwardsAI Solutions Provider, Safer Gambling SupplierWin · 2026. Yaspa won in both categories.
European iGaming AwardsBest Payment Solution ProviderWin · 2026
SBC AwardsPayment Solution of the YearWin · 2026

Yaspa alternatives

AttributeYaspaTrustlyBrite PaymentsVolt
Founded2017200820192019
Team70900160202
SportsbookYesYesYesYes
LicensesUnited Kingdom, United StatesSweden, United States, United KingdomSweden, United KingdomUnited Kingdom, Poland, Romania +1
US marketNMLS registration onlyCore marketNot activeNot live
PricingUp to 1% per transaction€1 per transaction0.5–1.5% of deposits£1.60 per transaction on average
Methods & rails—11—
Currencies—13——
EMI / PI licensesUnited KingdomSweden, United KingdomSweden, United KingdomUnited Kingdom, Poland
PayoutsInstant, daily or weekly—Under 60 secondsWithin seconds
Instant payoutsYesYesYesYes

Fees & payouts

Transactions through Yaspa cost less than 1%, while card and e-wallet fees run as high as 3%. Payouts carry a separate low processing fee. The parties set the exact rates in the commercial agreement exclusive of tax, and operators pay taxes on top. There are no chargebacks or interchange fees, and in the US there are no return fees either. The service is free for players, though their bank may charge its own fee for the transfer or for insufficient funds. In the UK and Europe, operators choose whether to receive their money instantly, daily or weekly, and Yaspa settles within 5 business days at the latest. Until settlement, Yaspa holds the funds for the operator alone, through Vialet accounts in Europe, and returns everything it holds right away if the contract ends. If an operator gets the bank details wrong, Yaspa tries to recover the money at the operator's expense. Yaspa can deduct an operator's debt from its payouts to that operator after giving 10 days' written notice. Under the UK contract, late payments accrue interest at 2% a year above the Barclays base rate, and after 30 days of non-payment Yaspa cuts off access and charges a separate fee to reconnect.

Terms

Processing feeUp to 1% per transaction
Contract lengthNo fixed term, 30-day exit notice

Money movement

Merchant settlementInstant, daily or weekly
Player payout timeSeconds to days

Onboarding path

  1. 1Send a request and sign the commercial agreement. At Yaspa, the contract comes even before KYB.
  2. 2Fill out the KYB questionnaire, and Yaspa's compliance team will use it to decide whether a full review is needed. They will also check that your website lists your contact details, owners and licenses.
  3. 3Put together a document pack certified by an independent lawyer or accountant: passports and proof of address for directors and beneficial owners, a business bank statement no older than 3 months, a corporate structure chart, articles of association and corporate certificates. Business documents must have been certified within the last 6 months. If your business is regulated, add your license to the pack.
  4. 4Hold a kickoff meeting with Yaspa's customer success team, integration manager and UX team. You get a shared Slack channel from the start of onboarding.
  5. 5Build the integration in the sandbox with a test account and test keys. Yaspa connects the live accounts once the contract and KYB are done, so you do not need to set them up.
  6. 6Pass Yaspa's acceptance testing. For the test, set a minimum deposit of no more than £1 or €1 and make payment references unique and shorter than 15 characters.
Available as add-ons:Instant Payouts: GBP, EUR and USDVirtual Accounts: e-money accounts with virtual IBANsQR cashier for land-based casinos

Support

Dedicated account manager
Support channels
Email