Skrill

Last updated
Skrill, a Paysafe company
Company type Public company
Industry Online payments
Founded27 July 2001;22 years ago (2001-07-27)
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Bruce Lowthers (CEO) [1]
Products Payment gateway
Digital wallet
Prepaid card
PSP
Cryptocurrencies
Money transfer
RevenueIncrease2.svg US $1.496 billion (Paysafe’s FY 2022 revenue) [2]
Number of employees
3,300
Parent Paysafe
Website skrill.com

Skrill is part of Paysafe Limited, a global payments platform. It is one of Paysafe's digital wallet brands and was established in 2001 to offer multiple online payment and money transfer services. [3] Skrill operates in more than 100 countries with the digital wallet offered in more than 40 currencies. [4] [5] The company facilitates multiple payment options including card payments, bank transfers and local payment methods. The funds in a Skrill account can then be used to pay merchants and other Skrill users or converted into cryptocurrency.

Contents

Skrill also has cross-border payments accessible to users via its remittance service. [6] The service enables users to send money to a bank account overseas using their bank card.

In 2015, Skrill was acquired by Paysafe [7] [8] along with former competitor NETELLER and prepaid payment provider paysafecard. [9]

Skrill is operated by Paysafe Payment Solutions Limited, a company incorporated in Ireland and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, [10] for its European regulated activities. Skrill's activities outside the European Economic Area are operated by Skrill Limited – a company incorporated in the United Kingdom and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. [11]

History

Early history (2001 to 2015)

Skrill, formerly known as Moneybookers, was founded in 2001 in the United Kingdom as a digital wallet provider. [12] By 2007, it had become established as one of the top three e-payment solution providers in Europe [13] when it was purchased by Investcorp in March of that year. [14] In August 2010, Skrill blocked an account operated by WikiLeaks as a donation collection account, citing the organisation's addition to Australian blacklists and American watchlists. [15] In September 2011, Moneybookers announced that they would rebrand their service as Skrill, completing the rebrand in 2013. [16] As Skrill, they completed the acquisition of Austrian-based prepaid payment method paysafecard in February 2013, [17] before being acquired by CVC Capital Partners for €600 million in August 2013. [18]

In 2009, Skrill, then known as Moneybookers, suffered a large security breach which exposed the data of almost 4.5 million customers. The breach was not discovered until October 2015 and included names, e-mail addresses, home addresses and IP addresses. [19]

Paysafe subsidiary (2015 onwards)

In 2015, Skrill was acquired by Optimal Payments, the parent company of rival digital wallet NETELLER, for €1.1 billion. [20] During this period, Skrill Group announced in April 2015 that it had completed the acquisition of Ukash, a UK-based competitor of paysafecard, which was merged during the same year. [21] In November 2015, Optimal Payments rebranded as Paysafe. [22]

In 2018, Skrill began to extend the amount of services offered to its users, launching an international money transfer service in February 2018, [23] and a crypto service in July 2018 allowing users to buy and trade cryptocurrencies. [24] This was followed by the launch of Skrill's customer loyalty programme, KNECT, in November 2019 [25] and the extension of the international money transfer service to US users in June 2020. [26]

Sponsorship and relationships

In 2011, Skrill first sponsored the PokerStars owned European Poker Tour for its eighth season, sponsoring the event again in 2013 for its tenth season. [27]

In July 2013, English football's National League signed a one-year sponsorship deal with Skrill [28] with the Conference's divisions being known as The Skrill Premier, The Skrill North and The Skrill South.

In May 2020, Skrill announced a four-year AC Milan sponsorship deal. [29]

In March 2021, Skrill announced a new partnership with the English Premier League football team Leeds United. [30] [31]

Service

Skrill is a digital multi-currency wallet that handles online payments and money transfers.[32]

Awards

Skrill was named ‘Best Digital Wallet’ at The Digital Banker’s Global Payments Innovation Awards 2023 and the Juniper Research Future Digital Awards 2019. [32]

Paysafe, Skrill's parent company, was named one of CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2023. Paysafe also won the ‘Payments Provider of the Year’ award at the 2023 EGR North America Awards – its third consecutive win in the category. [33]

In 2022, Paysafe was named Payment Service or Solution Provider of the Year at the VIXIO Gambling Compliance Global Regulatory Awards, [34] won in the ‘Payment Solution & Innovation of the Year’ category at the 2022 SBC Awards Latinoamérica [35] for a second consecutive year, and won ‘Payment Innovation of the Year’ at the 2022 SBC Awards North America. [36]

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References

  1. ↑ "Paysafe org chart" . Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  2. ↑ "Paysafe anual results 2022" (PDF). Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  3. ↑ "Skrill Holdings Limited: Private Company Information". Bloomberg News . Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "E-Wallet Comparison: Skrill serviced countries list" . Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  5. ↑ "Sending money with Skrill made easier than ever with new send to phone number feature" . Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  6. ↑ "Skrill Money Transfer Review: Is it safe? How does it work? What are the rates?" . Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  7. ↑ "Board of Directors". Paysafe. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  8. ↑ "Skrill taps football legend to publicise its prepaid Mastercard Skrill prepaid". Cards International. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  9. ↑ "Optimal Payments to buy e-wallet rival for $1.2 billion". Reuters. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  10. ↑ "Skrill Account Terms of Use" . Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  11. ↑ "Skrill Launches Free International Money Transfer Service In U.S." www.businesswire.com. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  12. ↑ "Company information for SKRILL LIMITED (04260907) incorporated 27-07-2001" . Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  13. ↑ "Investcorp and the Moneybookers Bid". hbr.org. 2 February 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  14. ↑ "Investcorp Technology Partners Undertakes Buyout of Moneybookers Limited for EUR105 Million" (Press release). 28 March 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  15. ↑ Leigh, David; Evans, Rob (14 October 2010). "WikiLeaks says funding has been blocked after government blacklisting". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "Moneybookers to rebrand as Skrill - hopes to become a verb". 6 November 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  17. ↑ Moss, Karen (11 February 2013). "Skrill acquires paysafecard.com". retail-systems.com. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  18. ↑ Williams, Christopher (19 August 2013). "CVC buys PayPal rival Skrill for £500m". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  19. ↑ "Gambling Darling Paysafe Confirms 7.8 Million Customers Hit In Epic Old Hacks". Forbes . Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  20. ↑ PYMNTS (24 March 2015). "Optimal Payments' Billion Dollar Bet On Online Gaming". www.pymnts.com. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  21. ↑ "Skrill Group completes Ukash acquisition" (Press release). Finextra. 1 April 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  22. ↑ "Optimal Payments Becomes Paysafe in Game-Changing Global Rebrand". 11 November 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  23. ↑ "Paysafe – Money transfers made easy with Skrill Send Direct". 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  24. ↑ "Skrill opens crypto wallet". 25 July 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  25. ↑ "Skrill launches customer reward programme: Skrill Knect". 22 November 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  26. ↑ "Paysafe launches Skrill money transfer in US". 8 June 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  27. ↑ "Skrill returns as Official Payment Provider Sponsor of European Poker Tour for Season 10". 3 July 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  28. ↑ "Skrill is the new title sponsor for the Football Conference Leagues". 26 July 2013. Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  29. ↑ "AC MILAN ANNOUNCES SKRILL AS ITS OFFICIAL GLOBAL PAYMENTS PARTNER". 12 May 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  30. ↑ "LEEDS UNITED ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH SKRILL". Leeds United. 12 March 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  31. ↑ "Leeds United announces partnership with Skrill". Skrill. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  32. ↑ Miller, George (4 November 2019). "Skrill named Best Digital Wallet 2019 by Juniper Research" . Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  33. ↑ Simmons, Fiona (1 May 2023). "EGR Announces 2023 EGR North America Award Winners". GamblingNews. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  34. ↑ "2022 Global Regulatory Award Winners | VIXIO GamblingCompliance Global Regulatory Awards". gamblingcomplianceawards.com. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  35. ↑ "SBC Events".
  36. ↑ "Paysafe wins 'Payment Innovation of the Year' award". Gaming International Online. 20 July 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2023.

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