Skrill, formerly known as MoneyBookers, has set its eyes on the online gambling industry in the US, following the steps of PayPal and Neteller. It has already been accepted by the New Jersey state to process money transactions.
Although online gambling is legal in some of the states, the slow transactions that credit cards, such as Visa and Master Card offer are causing a negative effect on the online gambling experience of US players.
These drawbacks are said to be some of the major factors that influence the low income of the New Jersey’s iGaming Revenue, which is much lower than the ones initially expected by analysts. This is about to change, as two major online money transferring companies have returned to the US market.
Neteller, operating in over a hundred and eighty countries around the world, offering online transactions exclusively to online gambling firms and PayPal, the largest online payment firm which operates in over two hundred markets, and has over a hundred and fifty million active users have both re-entered the US online gambling business. Skrill plans to join the party as well.
Formerly named MoneyBookers, Skrill is targeting a ninety nine percent penetration rate trying to duplicate the success it has in Europe. In order to do that, it will have to stand against the combined power of Neteller and Paypal, which goes to over three hundred million worldwide users.
Skrill’s vice president has identified two phases that need to be executed perfectly for the market entrance to work out. First, the company needs to launch its brand, implementing and carrying out the needed regulations and restrictions set by the above mentioned states. It has successfully completed that phase in New Jersey, partnering with PartyPoker, Virgin Casino and the Tropicana.
The second phase requires “blending in” with the ways of the US business environment. Each step of this phase must be considered carefully, as it differs from the way it would be done in Europe for example. Establishing strong business connections with US businesses, altering the style, language and appearance of its brand image, and adding a US based online application and platform to ease the online transactions process, are all part of this phase.
Mr. Hall, Skrill’s Vice President has put those steps into a realistic scenario: “Long term we want to be the payment solution of choice for the person who wakes up in New Jersey, plays a $20 SNG on Stars, finished in 1st and then sips his entire roll to DraftKings for tonight’s fantasy baseball $50,000 guaranteed”.
The most important part of this process has been, and still is the brand image and reaching the mind among more and more potential US customers. However, the dominance of Paypal, the most renowned name in the market, is still something Skrill will have to deal with in order to reach its goals.
Paypal currently looks strong, as most US citizens use its services to pay for all of their online payment transactions, including online gambling payments.
