Important news to all online players was announced today: Optimal Payments, Neteller’s owner, agreed to pay approximately $1.2 billion in order to take over its main competitor the Skrill Group.
Online casino fans are familiar with the Skrill Group thanks to its two very popular products – Skrill e-wallet and pre-paid card Paysafecard. The group reported last year a fantastic profit of $89 million and it is known as one of the most popular payment providers in Europe.
Optimal Payments and its Neteller brand had a good year as well. The results of Optimal are constantly improving thanks to their e-wallet and North America revenues made 27% of the total income.
Neteller and Skrill have been the two most popular e-wallets among online casino players thanks to their convenient and fast way of transferring funds from and to casino accounts.
Joel Leonoff, Optimal Payment’s Chief Executive, revealed the company’s plan to expand its online payment and Internet wallet services. Furthermore, he said Optimal Payments was aware of the reopening and re-evolving of the US gaming market. According to him, Optimal Payments was waiting for other US states such as California and Pennsylvania to regulate iGaming and help establish the company as a highly relevant supplier in the industry.
Under the deal, Optimal Payments is supposed to buy the Skrill Group from Sentinel Group Holdings. The company is set to pay 720m Euros in cash as well as to issue new shares whose value is around 135m Euros.
Optimal Payment also is expected to take over Skrill’s debt of 256m Euros. When all of these amounts are summed up, the final price Neteller’s owner will pay for Skrill goes up to fantastic 1.1m Euros. The taking over process is expected to be done by the 3rd quarter of 2015.