GitLab

By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
bet9ja.com
LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is flourishing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology companies that are starting to make online organizations more feasible.

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

Fear of electronic scams and slow web speeds have actually held Nigerian online consumers back but sports betting firms says the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

"We have actually seen significant growth in the variety of payment options that are readily available. All that is certainly changing the video gaming area," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria's commercial capital.

"The operators will go with whoever is quicker, whoever can link to their platform with less issues and problems," he stated, adding that taxes from sports betting wagering 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 an overall 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions jumped 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 mobile phone usage and falling information expenses, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a great opportunity for online companies - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online sports betting companies state that is occurring, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online retailers.

British online wagering firm Betway opened its very first African business in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched in Nigeria in January.
bet9ja.com
"There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya stated.

"The growth in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually helped business to prosper. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to start running in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup say they are finding the payment systems created by regional start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.
bet9ja.com
Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are offering competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform by businesses running in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment choices with no excitement, without revealing to our consumers, and within a month it soared to the top most used payment option on the website," said Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's second most significant 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 choice because it was added in late 2017.

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

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 mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number of monthly transactions it processed rose from about 8,000 in early 2016 to more than 900,000 since 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 development.

He stated an ecosystem of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, producing software application to integrate the platform into sites. "We have seen a development in that neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a variety of wagering firms however also a broad range of services, from utility services to transfer business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with 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 accompanied 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 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 pattern, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company introduced in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were divided between stores and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running stores and ability for clients to prevent the preconception of gaming in public indicated online transactions would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was very important to have a store network, not least due to the fact that many clients still remain reluctant to spend online.

He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a substantial network. Nigerian sports betting shops often function as social hubs where customers can view soccer totally free of charge while positioning bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected to watch Nigeria's final heat up video game before the World Cup.
bit.ly
Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He said he began sports betting three months back and bets as much as 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; modifying by David Clarke)
bet9ja.com