Spreedly Acquires Dodgeball to Bolster Fraud Prevention

Open payments platform Spreedly acquired fraud orchestration company Dodgeball.

The deal is designed to combine payments optimization and fraud management in one platform and advance Spreedly’s artificial intelligence and open payments strategy, the companies said in a Wednesday (Sept. 17) news release. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“For most merchants, payments and fraud aren’t separate challenges—they’re two sides of the same coin,” Spreedly CEO Justin Benson said in the release. “You can’t optimize payments without addressing fraud, and you can’t fight fraud without understanding the payment flow. This acquisition brings these critical functions together, allowing us to deliver immense value to our customers and accelerate our vision for an AI-powered, open payments future.”

The acquisition will give Spreedly’s customers a “new layer of reliability and insights” to eliminate fraud and make smarter eCommerce choices, the release said. The acquisition will also bolster Spreedly’s workflow engine and build the foundation for an AI-powered payments co-pilot.

Dodgeball’s team will join Spreedly, with Dodgeball’s customers getting access to Spreedly’s support and account management with no service disruption, according to the release.

“We leapt at the opportunity to join forces with Spreedly in order to help more merchants build best-of-breed fraud management solutions while still promoting growth,” Dodgeball CEO Adam Hiatt said in the release.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Protecting Accelerated Disbursements From Fraud” found that more than 170 million consumers in the United States get at least one disbursement per year, leading to a need for quicker transactions. However, the rise in demand for faster payments has led to an increased risk of fraud.

“Fraudsters target real-time payment systems with tactics like social engineering and account takeover,” PYMNTS reported in December. “In 2023, 27% of firms using real-time payments reported a rise in fraud, up from 13% in 2020. Given the speed of these transactions, fraud must be detected and prevented almost instantly to avoid losses.”

A separate PYMNTS Intelligence report, “How Faster Payments Providers Are Reducing Fraud Risks,” revealed that the percentage of financial institutions experiencing increased fraud-related dollar losses jumped from 29% to 40% year over year in 2024.

“These attacks are varied because the fraudsters are nimble and resourceful,” PYMNTS reported in March. “The attacks range from simple scams to sophisticated deepfakes or waves of botnets.”