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 booming in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown technology companies that are beginning to make online services more viable.
For several years, mobile payments failed to take off in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have actually fostered a culture of cashless payments.
Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but sports betting companies states the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online transactions.
"We have actually seen considerable development in the number of payment services that are available. All that is certainly altering the gaming area," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's commercial capital.
"The operators will opt for whoever is quicker, whoever can link to their platform with less issues and problems," he said, including that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.
That growth 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 a total 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions leapt to 29 million worth 185 billion in 2017 and in the first quarter of 2018 there were almost 10 million worth 61 billion.
With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing cellphone usage and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been seen as an excellent chance for online services - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.
Online sports betting companies state that is occurring, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays an obstacle for pure online merchants.
British online sports betting company Betway opened its first African business in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It released in Nigeria in January.
"There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya said.
"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has helped the organization to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start running in Nigeria," he stated.
FINTECH COMPETITION
sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer frenzy whipped up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup state they are discovering the payment systems produced by local start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.
Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are offering competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform used by businesses running in Nigeria.
"We added Paystack as one of our payment alternatives with no excitement, without revealing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the top most used payment choice on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.
He stated NairaBET, the nation's 2nd greatest sports betting firm, now had 2 million routine consumers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment alternative because it was included late 2017.
Paystack was established by two Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase 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 variety of monthly transactions 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 stated an environment of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, producing software to integrate the platform into sites. "We have seen a growth in that neighborhood and they have carried us along," stated Quartey.
Paystack stated it enables payments for a variety of wagering firms but likewise a wide variety of businesses, from energy services to transport business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.
Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator programme in addition to investor 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 corresponded with the arrival of foreign financiers wanting to tap into sports betting.
Industry professionals say the sector creates about $1 billion a year and is likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the company 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 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.
NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and capability for customers to avoid the preconception of gaming 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 important to have a store 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 market, had an extensive network. Nigerian wagering stores frequently act as social centers where consumers can watch soccer totally free of charge while positioning bets.
At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to enjoy Nigeria's last heat up game before the World Cup.
Richard Onuka, a factory worker who makes 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a television screen inside. He stated he started sports betting 3 months earlier and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.
"Since I have been playing I have actually not won anything but I believe that a person day I will win," stated Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; editing by David Clarke)
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