Vasilije Lekovic

Early Career and Transition to Trustly

Born in Podgorica, Montenegro, Leković began his career in a region where modern digital infrastructure was still in development. Before joining Trustly, he worked in commercial roles in industries dealing with cross-border payments and compliance-heavy environments.

He moved to Sweden in 2015 to join Trustly, a fintech still early in its trajectory outside the Nordics. At the time, Trustly was gaining traction in e-commerce, but its potential in the gambling sector was largely untapped. Leković joined with a mandate to explore that opportunity.

Shortly after his arrival, Leković played a key role in the formal creation of Trustly’s gaming vertical, aligning product, regulatory, and commercial teams around a single goal: making open banking payments viable for licensed gambling operators.

He worked closely with early-adopting operators to identify pain points in onboarding, KYC, and withdrawals. The result was a dedicated roadmap for gaming-specific payment flows, with full regulatory compatibility in the company’s target markets.

Launch of Pay N Play

In 2016, Trustly introduced Pay N Play®—a solution that allowed users to deposit via bank transfer while simultaneously completing KYC using verified bank data. Leković was instrumental in commercializing and scaling Pay N Play® for the iGaming sector. The product eliminated registration forms and reduced withdrawal friction, while satisfying local AML obligations.

Pay N Play® quickly gained traction in the Nordics and later expanded into the Baltics, Germany, and the Netherlands. Today, it is integrated into over 200 iGaming brands and remains a foundational part of Trustly’s value proposition in regulated markets.

As PSD2 and SCA requirements began reshaping European payment flows, Leković pushed Trustly to adopt biometric approval mechanisms—allowing users to authenticate payments via Face ID or fingerprint within their bank’s app.

More recently, he oversaw the development of tools like NameVerify and AgeVerify, enabling operators to fulfill verification requirements without interrupting the user journey. His approach to regulation has consistently been proactive, treating compliance not as a barrier but as a design constraint to be engineered into the product layer.

Dutch Breakthrough

One of Leković’s most significant achievements has been Trustly’s entrance into the Dutch market following its re-regulation in 2021. While many competitors hesitated or failed to meet local compliance thresholds, Trustly secured partnerships with major operators—including Holland Casino, bet365, and Unibet—by offering instant 24/7 payouts and native integration of AML and player protection tools.

His market-by-market strategy emphasizes legal certainty, technical uptime, and local payout performance over broad marketing pushes. This infrastructure-first mindset has helped Trustly become a trusted partner for Tier 1 operators across multiple jurisdictions.

Leadership Style and Industry Position

Leković is known internally for a low-profile, execution-focused leadership style. He avoids the public spotlight but is closely involved in key product decisions, legal assessments, and operator integrations. His influence is visible in how Trustly is perceived not just as a payments processor, but as a regulatory-grade infrastructure provider.

Under his leadership, Trustly’s gaming segment has scaled significantly. In recent years, the company has reported strong growth in processed annual volume and user numbers, with iGaming remaining a strategic driver of both product development and revenue growth.