Paysafe announces Lowthers as new chief executive

Lowthers will take on his new role by 1 May and succeed Philip McHugh, who is stepping down as CEO and as a member of Paysafe’s board of directors. 

Lowthers joins the group having spent the last 14 and a half years working for fintech business FIS, where he most recently served as president for the past year. His other senior roles at FIS included co-chief operations officer, president of banking solutions and senior vice-president.

Prior to joining FIS in August 2007, Lowthers worked for eFunds, Penley Presideo, Towne Services, Quest Group International and Ernst & Young.

“Paysafe has a highly differentiated and innovative payments offering and is at the forefront of enabling improved payments experiences for both businesses and consumers around the world,” Lowthers said.

“I am excited by the significant growth opportunities ahead for Paysafe and by the financial outcomes and value we can achieve for our customers, employees and shareholders as we scale the global business.”

Daniel Henson, who was last month appointed non-executive chairman of Paysafe, added: “Bruce is an exceptional executive whose proven track record of driving sustained results and enterprise value is second to none. In particular, he has successfully scaled and transformed many global organisations.

“Paysafe is at an exciting inflection point on its journey and we are confident Bruce is the right leader to take it to the next level of growth.”

Henson also paid tribute to the outgoing McHugh, who led the group through the pandemic and oversaw the business going public.

“On behalf of the board, I want to thank Philip for his leadership over the past three years,” Henson said. “He has taken Paysafe public, expanded its footprint and established value-added relationships while upgrading the company’s product and tech capabilities. 

“The strong foundation Philip and team have put in place sets Paysafe up for sustainable, long-term growth. We are very grateful for his dedication to the company and thank him for his service.”

McHugh added: “It has been a real privilege to lead the transformation at Paysafe over the past few years and work with so many talented colleagues. Bruce and I know each other well, he’s a great leader and I’m excited to see where he can take Paysafe.”

Meanwhile, Paysafe announced that it expanded its partnership with Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment-owned betPARX into Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Paysafe had previously been providing payments for the Play Gun Lake brand in Michigan, which is powered by betPARX, and will now deliver a similar service for the betPARX mobile apps in the other two states.

Players can make deposits to fund their betPARX accounts with their credit or debit card, as well as fund wagers using Paysafe’s alternative payment solutions such as the Skrill USA digital wallet, Paysafe’s Paysafecash and Paysafecard eCash solutions.

“We are proud to extend betPARX’s partnership with an industry-leading payment technology provider,” betPARX senior vice-president of interactive, Matthew Cullen, said.

“We constantly look for features that will round out our service to users and make betPARX the simplest and fastest app, and Paysafe delivers easy and user-friendly deposit and cash-out options.”

Paysafe’s chief executive of North America igaming, Zak Cutler added: “We’re delighted to extend our partnership with betPARX into two major states in the US igaming space – New Jersey, the cornerstone of the whole market since 2013, and Pennsylvania. 

“We look forward to facilitating payments for betPARX and its players in both states to strengthen the two brands’ customer conversions and retention.”