GitLab

bet9ja.com
By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
bet9ja.com
LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is flourishing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation companies that are starting to make online companies more viable.
bit.ly
For several years, mobile payments stopped working to take off in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have actually cultivated a culture of cashless payments.

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

"We have seen considerable development in the number of payment services that are offered. All that is certainly changing 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 connect to their platform with less concerns and problems," he stated, 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 central 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 nearly 190 million, rising smart phone use and falling information expenses, Nigeria has long been seen as a great opportunity for online organizations - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming firms state that is happening, though reaching the 10s of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays an obstacle for pure online retailers.

British online sports betting company Betway opened its very first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It released in Nigeria in January.
bet9ja.com
"There is a steady shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya said.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer frenzy whipped up by Nigeria's participation in the World Cup say they are discovering the payment systems produced by regional startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.
bet9ja.com
Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are providing competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform utilized by companies running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment choices without any excitement, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it soared to the top most secondhand payment option on the site," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's second biggest sports betting firm, now had 2 million routine consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment choice since it was included in late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got 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 frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the number of regular monthly deals 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 single month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He stated an ecosystem of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, producing software to integrate the platform into websites. "We have seen a growth in that community and they have brought us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it makes it possible for payments for a number of sports betting companies but also a wide variety of companies, from energy services to transport business to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program in addition to 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 financiers hoping to tap into sports betting.

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

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have both set up in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet led the trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split in between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and capability for customers to prevent the preconception of gambling in public implied online deals would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and of Bet9ja - stated it was essential to have a shop network, not least since many clients still stay reluctant to spend online.

He stated the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting stores frequently function as social hubs where customers can enjoy soccer complimentary of charge while placing bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to watch Nigeria's final heat up game before the World Cup.
bet9ja.com
Richard Onuka, a factory employee who makes 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He stated he began gambling three months earlier and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have actually been playing I have actually not won anything but I believe that one day I will win," said Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; editing by David Clarke)
bet9ja.com