If there's one
thing that Neteller is known for, it's the high stakes
battle it had with the U.S. Department of Justice
shortly after the passing of the Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act. Despite the fact that Neteller
has long been the most reliable and widely used third
party eWallet for transferring funds to and from online
casinos the ugly and unfair persecution brought on by
the US DOJ is what caught most of the "Neteller"
headlines for the world to see.
This is precisely
why Neteller has decided to change its name to Neovia
Financial and disassociate itself from its raucous past.
Although the company has not officially said its U.S.
affairs were the reason for the name change (no need to
draw more attention to the matter), the rumor
circulating within the gaming and financial industries
bespeaks that to be case.
According to CEO,
Ron Martin, Neteller isn't just changing its name. In
actuality, the company is being re-branded and adopting
a parent company name with the aim of rebuilding
credibility with merchants, customers and regulators.
All three financial products - Neteller, Netbanx and
Net+ (a new financial card) will be retained by the
company.
"Moving beyond the
U.S. situation", said Martin, the company wants to show
the financial services community that it is ending its
dependence on internet gambling revenues (Neteller was
the AIG of the online gambling industry at one point in
time). And the company is already ahead of schedule in
diversifying its revenue stream so that 18.5% will come
from non-online gaming sources. With continued focus on
the European and Asian markets, Neteller seeks to reach
30% non-gaming revenue by the year 2010.
And so starting
November 17, Neteller will be referred to as Neovia
Financial (maybe just Neovia for short). Heck, even
NeoWallet has a nice ring to it.
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