Skrill

History

Early history (2001 to 2015)

Skrill, formerly known as Moneybookers, was founded in 2001 in the United Kingdom as a digital wallet provider. By 2007, it had become established as one of the top three e-payment solution providers in Europe when it was purchased by Investcorp in March of that year. 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. In September 2011, Moneybookers announced that they would rebrand their service as Skrill, completing the rebrand in 2013. As Skrill, they completed the acquisition of Austrian-based prepaid payment method paysafecard in February 2013, before being acquired by CVC Capital Partners for €600 million in August 2013.

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.

Paysafe subsidiary (2015 onwards)

In 2015, Skrill was acquired by Optimal Payments, the parent company of rival digital wallet NETELLER, for €1.1 billion. 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. In November 2015, Optimal Payments rebranded as Paysafe.

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

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.

In July 2013, English football's National League signed a one-year sponsorship deal with Skrill 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.

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

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.

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.

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

References

References

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8. "Skrill taps football legend to publicise its prepaid Mastercard Skrill prepaid".
9. (2015-03-23). "Optimal Payments to buy e-wallet rival for $1.2 billion". Reuters.
10. "Skrill Account Terms of Use".
11. (2020-06-08). "Skrill Launches Free International Money Transfer Service In U.S.".
12. "Company information for SKRILL LIMITED (04260907) incorporated 27-07-2001".
13. (2 Feb 2011). "Investcorp and the Moneybookers Bid".
14. (28 March 2007). "Investcorp Technology Partners Undertakes Buyout of Moneybookers Limited for EUR105 Million".
15. (14 October 2010). "WikiLeaks says funding has been blocked after government blacklisting". The Guardian.
16. (6 Nov 2011). "Moneybookers to rebrand as Skrill - hopes to become a verb".
17. Moss, Karen. (11 February 2013). "Skrill acquires paysafecard.com".
18. Williams, Christopher. (19 August 2013). "CVC buys PayPal rival Skrill for £500m".
19. "Gambling Darling Paysafe Confirms 7.8 Million Customers Hit In Epic Old Hacks".
20. PYMNTS. (2015-03-24). "Optimal Payments' Billion Dollar Bet On Online Gaming".
21. (1 April 2015). "Skrill Group completes Ukash acquisition".
22. (11 November 2015). "Optimal Payments Becomes Paysafe in Game-Changing Global Rebrand".
23. (2 May 2018). "Paysafe – Money transfers made easy with Skrill Send Direct".
24. (25 July 2018). "Skrill opens crypto wallet".
25. (22 November 2019). "Skrill launches customer reward programme: Skrill Knect".
26. (8 June 2020). "Paysafe launches Skrill money transfer in US".
27. (3 July 2013). "Skrill returns as Official Payment Provider Sponsor of European Poker Tour for Season 10".
28. (26 July 2013). "Skrill is the new title sponsor for the Football Conference Leagues".
29. (12 May 2020). "AC MILAN ANNOUNCES SKRILL AS ITS OFFICIAL GLOBAL PAYMENTS PARTNER". AC Milan.
30. (12 March 2021). "LEEDS UNITED ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH SKRILL".
31. "Leeds United announces partnership with Skrill".
32. Miller, George. (2019-11-04). "Skrill named Best Digital Wallet 2019 by Juniper Research".
33. Simmons, Fiona. (2023-05-01). "EGR Announces 2023 EGR North America Award Winners".
34. "2022 Global Regulatory Award Winners {{!}} VIXIO GamblingCompliance Global Regulatory Awards".
35. "SBC Events".
36. (2022-07-20). "Paysafe wins 'Payment Innovation of the Year' award".