Bet9JA Promotion Code YOHAIG

Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria

By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) – Online sports betting is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown technology companies that are starting to make online businesses more viable.

For many years, mobile payments stopped working to take off in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom’s M-Pesa cash transfers have actually cultivated a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and slow internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back however sports betting firms says the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are changing mindsets towards online deals.

“We have seen significant growth in the variety of payment options that are available. All that is definitely altering the gaming space,” stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria’s business capital.

“The operators will choose whoever is much faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less concerns and problems,” he said, adding that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development has been matched by a rise in web payments, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the main bank and licensed banks.

In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth a total 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions jumped to 29 million worth 185 billion in 2017 and in the first quarter of 2018 there were nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing smart phone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been seen as a terrific opportunity for online services – once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online gambling firms state that is happening, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains an obstacle for pure online retailers.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its first African business in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced in Nigeria in January.

“There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the industry is going,” Betway’s Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya stated.

“The development in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually assisted the organization to grow. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to start operating in Nigeria,” he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies capitalizing the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria’s involvement in the World Cup say they are discovering the payment systems developed by local start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria’s Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by organizations running in Nigeria.

“We included Paystack as one of our payment alternatives without any fanfare, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it shot up to the top most used payment alternative on the site,” said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country’s 2nd most significant wagering firm, now had 2 million regular clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment option given that it was added in late 2017.

Paystack was set up by two Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early stage funding in Silicon Valley’s Y-Combinator program.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from financiers including China’s Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety of monthly deals it processed increased from about 8,000 in early 2016 to more than 900,000 as of June 2018.

“In early 2016 we were processing about $3,000 a month. Today we process well over $11 million each and every single month,” stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack’s head of growth.

He stated an environment of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, developing software application to integrate the platform into sites. “We have actually seen a growth because neighborhood and they have actually carried us along,” stated Quartey.

Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a number of wagering firms but also a wide range of organizations, from utility services to transfer business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with endeavor capitalists Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million in 2015.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria’s payment culture have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign investors wishing to use sports betting wagering.

Industry professionals say the sector creates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to than in South Africa and Kenya where the organization is more established.

Russia’s 1XBet and Slovakia’s DOXXbet have actually both set up in Nigeria in the last two years while Italy’s Goldbet led the trend, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company launched in 2015.

NairaBET’s Alabi stated its sales were split between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running shops and capability for consumers to avoid the stigma of sports betting in public indicated online transactions would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname – chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja – stated it was necessary to have a shop network, not least since lots of clients still remain reluctant to spend online.

He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria’s sports betting market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting shops typically serve as social centers where consumers can watch soccer complimentary of charge while placing bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to see Nigeria’s last heat up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory employee who makes 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a television screen inside. He said he started sports betting three months back and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

“Since I have been playing I have not won anything but I think that one day I will win,” said Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; modifying by David Clarke)