The History of Skrill
Skrill has been around in some form or another for around twenty years. Its story is complex, and one of constant upheaval. It has seen frequent changes in ownership and management, completed and undergone a number of takeovers and acquisitions. This is in addition to a complete re-brand.
Skrill began life as a service called Moneybookers, which was set up in the United Kingdom in 2001. It was one of numerous similar services set up to take advantage of the boom in online trading which was facilitated by the growth of the internet. It was a virtual overnight success and grew extremely quickly. So much so that by 2007 it was valued at over €100 million.
However, the early years of the internet saw many rival services also competing for a slice of this rapidly expanding market. Investors also saw the potential for future growth. This made the new and highly successful Moneybookers service a target for takeover, and so in 2007 it was acquired by a Bahraini based international corporate investment and hedge fund company called Investcorp Technology Partners (now Investcorp).
Investcorp’s confidence in the fledgling e-payment service was well founded, as the company continued to grow. By 2011, it had acquired around 25 million customers and was being used by people in virtually every country on the planet. It was this international coverage that persuaded its operators to re-brand the service from the Anglo-centred Moneybookers to the more generic Skrill. The new name was felt to be simpler, a more attractive and memorable brand which would be more easily recognised across the world, whereas the old brand was suitable only for English speaking regions.
In 2013, Skrill was sold on again to another corporate investment company. This time it was Luxembourg based CVC Capital Partners who stepped in, snapping up the service for around €600 million. This represented a growth in value of 600% in just six years – an excellent rate of return for the previous owners.
In 2015, the new operators added to their portfolio by acquiring the rival e-payment service Ukash. The two services were then merged under the Skrill brand. 2015 was a busy year for corporate mergers and acquisitions though, so the action continued when Isle of Man headquartered Optimal Payments PLC stepped in.
Optimal Payments were the operators of another rival e-payment service called Neteller. They paid around €1.1 billion for the newly merged Skrill / Ukash service.
The re-branding was still not quite over though, as the new parent company itself underwent a change of name, becoming Paysafe Group the same year. The new name is derived from the one of the group’s own services, the pre-payment card Paysafecard.
At the time of writing, Paysafe Group are responsible for the operation of several different payment services, including Neteller, Skrill and Paysafecard, all of which operate independently as separate brands within the Paysafe corporate umbrella.
How does Skrill Work?
All Skrill accounts can be opened for free. All you need to do is provide an e-mail address and deposit funds into your new account. Your new account can be loaded via your credit or debit card, directly from your bank account or via a selection of other alternative methods, such as Paysafecard or Trustly. These funds can then be used to make a deposit at your chosen Betable casino.
When you sign up to a Betable casino you will see a list of deposit options. One of these options is Skrill. All you need to do is enter an amount you wish to deposit, select Skrill as your deposit method and then following the instructions on screen. It simple and hassle free.
You can also use your Skrill account to transfer funds to friends, family or indeed any other account holder almost anywhere in the world. All you need is their e-mail address, and funds are transferred in seconds. If the recipient does not have an account, they too can open one for free to enable them to receive the funds.
You can also use Skrill to send funds directly to an overseas bank account. This service is also free to the sender, with no transfer fee being applied, using the real existing exchange rate.
Skrill also issue pre-paid cards. These are issued via MasterCard, so you can also use your account to pay for goods and services in real world shops and stores too. And because you are using your own money, there are no additional credit checks and no interest charges either. Just load your card via your Skrill account and they’re ready to use. You can also use your pre-paid card to withdraw cash at millions of ATMs across the world.
Of course, there are fees to pay, although these can often be avoided if you use your account carefully. It’s free to upload funds if you use your bank account, debit or credit card. Some other methods result in a 1% fee. There are also no additional charges when spending your Skrill funds online, nor when sending to and receiving funds from other account holders.
International money transfers to a bank account are also generally free. Domestic money transfers are charged at 2%. Transfers to a Skrill account are also free, so long as the funds were loaded via credit or debit cards, or direct from your bank account. Other loading methods may result in an additional fee of up to 1.45% at the time of writing. Transfers which involve a currency conversion are charged at 3.99%.
The account itself is also free provided that you use it at least once during a rolling twelve month period. Failure to do this will result in a monthly service fee of €5 being applied.
Skrill also have a cryptocurrency service, which was introduced in 2018. This enables you to convert your balance into a variety of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. A variable fee is added to each transaction, depending on the size of the conversion. For amounts above €100, this amounts to 1.5% per transaction.
Summary
Skrill remains a very popular way for players to fund their casino account. Indeed, most online casinos accept it as a payment method. All Betable casinos feature Skrill as one of their convenient deposit options.