Online payment provider Ukash has broadened its horizons via a partnership with UK-listed payment systems outfit PayPoint. Ukash is a prepaid system in which customers exchange money for a unique 19-digit code that can then be used to make online payments or purchases and has proven a popular method of funding online gambling accounts. The deal with PayPoint will now allow Ukash users to make cash withdrawals of their online gambling winnings at over 24k PayPoint locations across the UK and Ireland. PayPoint retail director Andrew Goddard says Ukash is already popular with customers and with PayPoint’s retail partners for the foot traffic it generates. UKash CEO David Hunter says the partnership will benefit any online gambler who wants a quick way “to turn their winnings into cash.”
Pan-European online gambling operator Bwin.party digital entertainment has decided to spin off its payments platform into an independent entity dubbed Kalixa. The Kalixa Group intends to operate in Europe, the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. Kalixa CEO Ed Chandler says the company’s focus will be on ‘trimming the fat’ in the traditional payment chain by eliminating the middlemen standing between the merchant and the customer.
The company will provide a suite of products including Kalixa Pay, a digital wallet tool funded by a Kalixa-issued prepaid Mastercard; Kalixa Pro, a mobile chip-and-PIN reader-equipped point-of-sale solution tied to Kalixa Pay accounts; and Kalixa Accept, an acquiring solution enabling merchants to accept payments via more than 200 online methods. The spinoff comes about 15 months after Bwin.party publicly mused about taking its payments platform down the initial public offering (IPO) route with an aim to “monetize the business.” No word on whether the IPO’s still a go, given Bwin.party’s own IPO happened two years ago this month, and the company has yet to come within 35p of its 205p peak on the day of its IPO.
