Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria > 자유게시판

By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown technology companies that are beginning to make online organizations more practical.

For years, mobile payments failed to remove in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have fostered a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic scams and slow web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering companies states the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online transactions.

"We have actually seen significant growth in the variety of payment services that are available. All that is absolutely altering the gaming space," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's business capital.

"The operators will opt for whoever is faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less problems and problems," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development has been matched by a rise in web payments, according to information 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 an overall 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions leapt 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 almost 190 million, increasing mobile phone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a fantastic chance for online organizations - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gambling companies state that is occurring, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online merchants.

British online sports betting company Betway opened its very first African organization in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched in Nigeria in January.

"There is a steady shift to online now, that is where the industry is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya stated.

"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has actually helped business to thrive. These technological shifts motivated Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement on the planet Cup state they are discovering the payment systems developed by local startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the primary platform used by companies running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment choices without any fanfare, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the number one most pre-owned payment option on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's second biggest sports betting company, now had 2 million routine clients on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment alternative because it was included late 2017.

Paystack was set up by 2 Nigerian computer system science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who early stage financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from investors consisting of China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the mad 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 each and every single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He stated a community of designers had emerged around Paystack, producing software application to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a growth because neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it allows payments for a number of sports betting companies but also a wide variety of organizations, from energy services to carry companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program along with 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 coincided with the arrival of foreign financiers hoping to tap into sports betting wagering.

Industry specialists say the sector produces about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the business is more developed.

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually both established 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 divided in between stores and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running stores and capability for consumers to avoid the preconception of gambling in public meant online deals would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was essential to have a shop network, not least because many clients still stay hesitant to spend online.

He stated the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a substantial network. Nigerian sports betting shops often act as social centers where customers can watch soccer free of charge while placing bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to watch Nigeria's final heat up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker 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 been playing I have actually not won anything however I believe 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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