Head of Gaming GTM Caleb Sims says identity signals should follow players throughout their lifecycle. However, the company does not disclose how often legitimate players are wrongfully rejected.
Online gambling operators may be losing legitimate players during sign-up because different identity systems can reach different conclusions about the same person, Caleb Sims, Head of Gaming GTM at digital identity verification company Prove, told Gambling Insider.
Sims said the problem often comes down to how player information is handled across the onboarding process. Rather than repeatedly checking the same customer from scratch, he argues that operators should carry trusted identity signals through registration and beyond.
When Identity Systems Do Not Agree
Sims pointed to operators that use one provider to pre-fill a player’s details and another to verify identity. The two may rely on different data sources and matching logic.
So you can have a player whose information was trusted enough to populate the application, only for that same information to be re-evaluated differently a few seconds later. Context gets lost between the two systems, and a legitimate player can end up being challenged or rejected.”
He said identity should instead be treated as infrastructure rather than a series of disconnected checks.
If I already have strong evidence that you possess the phone, that the phone has a trusted reputation and that you’re the owner of that number, I want to preserve that identity context throughout the process rather than effectively starting from zero at every step.”
Prove points to its onboarding metrics as evidence that reducing friction can improve the registration process. The company lists up to 79% faster onboarding, 35% lower onboarding abandonment and a 90% match rate for its gaming solutions.
However, those figures do not establish how often legitimate players are incorrectly rejected, and Prove does not publish a gaming-wide false-rejection rate. Its gaming materials also do not detail the methodology behind those benchmarks.
Verification That Moves With Risk
Asked how operators should balance smoother onboarding with regulatory requirements, Sims said the answer depends on the level of risk a player presents.
I don’t think the line is fixed. It should move with risk.”
For Sims, stronger verification should not automatically mean putting every player through more steps.
If I have strong signals telling me you’re a legitimate player on a trusted device, why should I put you through the same experience as someone presenting multiple risk indicators? That’s not better compliance; it’s more friction.”
That approach also extends beyond registration. Sims said a new device, phone number, SIM or another risk signal could trigger additional authentication, while returning players on trusted devices could largely be recognized in the background.
He described the goal as “persistent identity”: maintaining confidence in a player after sign-up without repeatedly asking them to prove who they are. That fits into a broader shift toward reusable digital IDs, which could reduce the need for repeated verification while maintaining security.
Continuous verification shouldn’t mean asking someone to prove who they are over and over again. Done right, it means maintaining confidence in their identity, so you have to interrupt them less often.”
Sims said there are already public examples of that approach in gaming. He cited Prove’s work with Everi, which includes digital onboarding, account servicing and ongoing authentication. He also referenced an unnamed partner where Prove has discussed combining identity verification and authentication into a single, continuous process.
Prove’s Gaming Partnerships
Sims said betting companies are using Prove’s Pre-Fill to verify identities and streamline registration.
FanDuel announced in May 2023 that it had selected Prove “to offer seamless and secure gaming experiences for its users.” According to the announcement, FanDuel became the first tier-one U.S. online sportsbook to use Pre-Fill.
In April 2024, Prove partnered with BetMGM and in Sept. 2025, it also announced a partnership with Hard Rock Bet.
Sims cautioned against treating Prove’s broader abandonment figure as the result of any individual operator deployment.
We haven’t publicly attributed that 35% reduction rate in abandonment specifically to one partner, so I wouldn’t present it as their individual result,” he said. “But what I can say is that these operators are investing in this approach because getting a legitimate player through registration with fewer unnecessary steps has real value.”
AI Agents Remain an Emerging Threat
Sims said AI is already changing the wider identity-fraud landscape. Deepfakes, voice cloning and AI-generated identity documents can make it easier to impersonate legitimate users. At the same time, automation can enable attacks to operate on a greater scale.
Sims said the longer-term challenge will emerge as AI agents (capable of taking actions on a user’s behalf) increasingly sign up for services, manage accounts and initiate transactions on behalf of users.
It’s no longer just, ‘Is this Caleb?’ It can also be, ‘Is this an agent acting for Caleb, did Caleb authorize it, and is this agent allowed to perform this particular action?’”
He stopped short, however, of suggesting AI agents are already opening gambling accounts in significant numbers.
What I wouldn’t do is claim that we have evidence of AI agents autonomously opening gambling accounts at scale unless we can substantiate that.”
For now, he characterized AI agents as an emerging risk that operators should prepare for.
Moving Beyond Passwords and Text Codes
Looking ahead, Sims expects gambling operators to rely less on passwords and SMS codes and more on trusted devices, passkeys and other forms of authentication tied directly to the user.
He said passwords and one-time text codes became common largely because they were easy to deploy, not because they offered the strongest protection.
The direction we are heading is toward proving possession of something that’s genuinely bound to the user – trusted devices, cryptographic keys, passkeys and other strong authentication signals – and combining those with persistent identity intelligence.”
Sims said operators also have a clear financial reason to make that shift.
Account takeover and fraud cost money. So does making a legitimate player jump through five unnecessary steps before they can place a bet.”
He expects security, regulation and customer experience to increasingly push operators in the same direction.
The operators that master this process will be more secure, be better positioned for changing regulation and have a better product. That’s why I think identity is going to become a competitive advantage in gaming rather than simply a compliance requirement.”
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