There have been big changes in the payment method market this year which have a knock on effect for online casino players. If you're a player who uses an eMoney service you may have already noticed some disruption to your usual purchasing processes.
Firstly the Skrill group acquired the popular Ukash payment method and now have plans to take the product off the market all together. They no longer sell the Ukash card online or in stores and players only have until the end of March to use any remaining cards before they become null and void. This has come as a blow to loyal customers of the brand as part of what made Ukash so successful was brand recognition and trustworthiness, which players may be unsure of with Paysafecard.
It had been over half a year since Skrill bought over the company before they announced this change, so this took customers by surprise. Immediately after the buy out customers speculated on what could happen to the Ukash brand but as time passed it seemed less and less likely. The company hopes to now direct users to their Paysafecard option for all of their eWallet needs. Although some users are reluctant to switch over the service that they receive from the new method of transferring funds actually has more benefits than the old one.
The Paysafecard is more accessible, can be bought in more places and comes with an app to let users know how to get started. This might not be enough to retain customers from the Ukash brand as players may simply choose to use another free service, such as PayPal, for all of their online gaming needs.
Many users are still puzzled as to why the Ukash card was removed from the market as the two systems seem complimentary. It may have been Skrill's plan all along to purchase the competition simply to take it off the market to make their Paysafecard more popular.
The tides have turned now and the Skrill group have actually been bought over by Optimal Payments for $1.2 billion. The groups intend to pool their assets and create more growth with their combined ideologies to take a larger share of the market. They hope to expand into more global territories by working as one company and sharing resources. The deal has been in planning for over four months as a plan of action for integration and finance acquisition was fine-tuned by the two entities.
This merger more than doubles the size of Optimal Payments so they can hope to become a larger player in the industry with Skrill's help. They seem to be setting themselves up perfectly for total domination of the alternative payment market but whether they'll be successful remains to be seen.
They've not announced any plans of their intentions so far and industry experts can only wonder if the Skrill brand will become completely defunct in time as they're absorbed.
