How Skills & Slots Built a Fully Automated Bitcoin Payment and Payout System with LightningPay

Company

Skills & Slots is a US-based online gaming platform that aggregates a wide range of sweepstakes and skill-based games, including Fish Tables, slots, and multi-software titles from providers such as Orion Stars, Fire Kirin, VBLink, Ultra-Panda, Game Vault, and more.

Players deposit in Bitcoin, receive credits across any supported game software, and redeem winnings back to their Bitcoin wallet. The platform operates on a no-limits payout promise; players withdraw what they win, whenever they choose, with no restrictions.

Running that model at scale requires a payment backend that is fast, automated, and available at all hours.

Challenge

Skills & Slots' entire player experience depends on Bitcoin. Deposits fund gameplay, and payouts are how players realise their winnings. Any friction in either direction affects trust directly.

• The platform needed Bitcoin deposits to confirm fast enough that players could transfer credits and begin playing without a waiting period

• Payouts had to run automatically, around the clock; players should not need to message the team or wait for manual processing during off-hours

• With 13+ game software titles on the platform, managing payment flows across all of them through a fragmented or unreliable system was not viable

• The team also needed the ability to intervene and process a payout manually when the situation required it, without that becoming the default workflow

• Every transaction needed to trigger an automatic player notification, keeping the experience transparent without adding operational overhead

Skills & Slots needed a Bitcoin payment infrastructure that ran itself, with room for manual control when needed.

Solution

Skills & Slots integrated LightningPay's Payments API to handle BTC Lightning deposits and player payouts across the entire platform.

• LightningPay's Lightning Network integration brought deposit confirmations down to under two seconds, allowing players to fund their accounts and transfer credits to any game title without delay

• Automated payouts ran through LightningPay's payout infrastructure, processing player withdrawals continuously, including outside business hours, with no manual trigger required

• For cases requiring review or operator discretion, the team retained the ability to process payouts manually through the same system, giving them control without disrupting the automated flow

• Every deposit and withdrawal triggered an automatic email update to the player, maintaining transaction visibility without requiring the team to communicate each one individually

• The API consolidated payment handling across all 13+ game software titles into a single operational layer

Results

• Bitcoin deposits began confirming in under two seconds via Lightning, removing the wait between funding and gameplay that had previously interrupted the player journey

• Automated payouts ran reliably around the clock, honouring the platform's no-limits payout promise without requiring the operations team to be available at all hours

• Manual payout handling dropped significantly as the automated system covered the large majority of withdrawal requests without intervention

• Players received email confirmations on every transaction automatically, reducing inbound support queries about payment status

• The payment infrastructure scaled across all 13+ game titles without requiring separate integrations or operational changes per software

How they did it

Skills & Slots connected to LightningPay through its Payments API, building Bitcoin Lightning deposit and payout logic directly into the platform's cashier and player dashboard flows.

Deposit requests generate a Bitcoin Lightning payment for the player to complete, with credits available for game transfer immediately on confirmation. The payout system runs on an automated schedule, processing withdrawal requests as they come in and pushing Bitcoin directly to the player's wallet address.

For edge cases like disputes, verification holds, or high-value manual reviews, the team processes payouts directly through the same API without switching systems or workflows.

The integration went live without changes to the underlying game software architecture.

"Our players expect to deposit and get playing straight away, and to receive their winnings the moment they request them. LightningPay's Lightning integration made both of those things true. Deposits are instant, payouts run on their own, and when we do need to step in manually, everything is in one place. It removed the operational weight from a process we need running every hour of the day."

James Caldwell, Operations Lead, Skills & Slots