Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria
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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown technology firms that are beginning to make online businesses more viable.
For many years, mobile payments stopped working to remove in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have promoted a culture of cashless payments.
Fear of electronic fraud and slow web speeds have held Nigerian online customers back but sports betting companies states the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online deals.
"We have actually seen substantial growth in the variety of payment services that are available. All that is certainly altering the gaming space," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's business capital.
"The operators will choose whoever is quicker, whoever can link to their platform with less problems and problems," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.
That development has actually been matched by an increase in web payments, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the reserve bank and licensed banks.
In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth a total 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions leapt to 29 million worth 185 billion in 2017 and in the very first quarter of 2018 there were almost 10 million worth 61 billion.
With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing smart phone usage and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been seen as a terrific chance for online organizations - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.
Online gambling companies say that is occurring, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a challenge for pure online sellers.
British online wagering company Betway opened its first African business in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched 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 said.
"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has helped business to prosper. These technological shifts motivated Betway to begin running in Nigeria," he said.
FINTECH COMPETITION
sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's involvement on the planet Cup state they are finding the payment systems created by local startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.
Paystack and another regional start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are supplying competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by services operating in Nigeria.
"We included Paystack as one of our payment options without any excitement, without announcing to our clients, and within a month it shot up to the top most secondhand payment option on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.
He stated NairaBET, the country's second most significant wagering company, now had 2 million routine consumers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice since it was included late 2017.
Paystack was set up by two Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early stage financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.
In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from financiers consisting of China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.
Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number of regular 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 every month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.
He said a community of developers had emerged around Paystack, developing software to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a growth in that community and they have actually brought us along," stated Quartey.
Paystack said it enables payments for a number of sports betting companies but likewise a vast array of businesses, from utility services to carry companies to insurance company Axa Mansard.
Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program as well as investor Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million last year.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually coincided with the arrival of foreign financiers wishing to take advantage of sports betting wagering.
Industry experts say the sector produces about $1 billion a year and is likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where business is more developed.
Russia's 1XBet and have both established in Nigeria in the last two years while Italy's Goldbet was ahead of the pattern, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm released in 2015.
NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were divided in between stores and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and ability for clients to avoid the stigma of gaming in public meant online deals would grow.
But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was essential to have a shop network, not least since many clients still stay reluctant to invest online.
He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a substantial network. Nigerian wagering stores typically act as social centers where customers can watch soccer totally free of charge while putting bets.
At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to watch Nigeria's final warm up game before the World Cup.
Richard Onuka, a factory employee who makes 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He said he began gambling three months ago and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.
"Since I have actually been playing I have actually not won anything however I think that a person day I will win," said Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; editing by David Clarke)
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