The owners of popular payment processor Neteller have announced some pretty significant changes, including a change to the name of the company itself.
“Effective immediately, the company formerly known as NEOVIA will now be called Optimal Payments PLC,” writes Earl Burton at Poker News Daily. “In addition to the name change, several aspects of the company will be altered.”
“In January 2011, NEOVIA Financial PLC announced the acquisition of Optimal Payments,” a statement on the company’s website reads. “With the acquisition of Optimal Payments, we created a truly international player in card and alternative payments. The combination of our online consumer payment account business, Neteller, our existing NetBANX payment processing business, and the Optimal merchant account and card processing business has brought together an unparalleled comprehensive offering for our customers.”
As Poker News Daily explains, Neteller has a long history with the Internet business world. Neteller was launched back in 1999 after operating as NetBANX since 1996. The company then went public in 2004, expanding its market reach even further.
Unfortunately, the company curbed much of its U.S.-facing business after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. At that point, it had been one of the leading e-wallet options for U.S. Internet poker players. But because of the UIGEA, two of the company’s founders were arrested, and the company stopped processing American online gambling payments.
In 2008, before the newest name change, the company re-named itself NEOVIA, “in an attempt to re-brand as more than an online gaming payment processing operation,” Burton writes. “Under the NEOVIA banner, the company acquired Optimal Payments, which lead to the name change late last week.”
The name may have changed, but the service is still largely the same. The service is available to some 180 nations worldwide, and is accepted by most leading online poker rooms, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and CEREUS poker rooms UB.com and Absolute Poker. “In addition to these U.S.-facing operations, such sites as PartyPoker, 888, Everest Poker, and Mansion Poker actively use the Neteller deposit option,” Burton writes.