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Opened Dec 22, 2024 by Van Butcher@jykvan61341713
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Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria

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

Fear of electronic scams and slow internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering firms says the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online transactions.

"We have actually seen considerable growth in the variety of payment options that are offered. All that is definitely changing the video gaming space," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will go with whoever is much faster, whoever can link to their platform with less issues 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 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 certified 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 almost 190 million, rising cellphone use and falling information costs, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a fantastic opportunity for online companies - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online sports betting companies state that is taking place, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains a challenge for pure online merchants.

British online wagering company Betway opened its first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced 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 said.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms cashing in on the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup state they are finding the payment systems produced by local startups such as Paystack are showing 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 main platform used by businesses running in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment options with no excitement, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the top most secondhand payment alternative on the website," said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's 2nd biggest wagering company, now had 2 million routine clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment option given that it was included late 2017.

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

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

Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number of monthly deals it processed increased 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 growth.

He stated a community of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, developing software to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have seen a development because neighborhood and they have brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack said it enables payments for a number of sports betting firms however likewise a wide range of companies, from utility services to carry companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program along with venture 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 accompanied the arrival of foreign investors hoping to tap into sports betting.

Industry professionals say the sector creates 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 established in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet was ahead of the trend, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were divided in between stores and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running stores and ability for clients to prevent the preconception of sports betting in public indicated 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 customers still stay reluctant to spend online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of wagering market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting shops typically function as social centers where consumers can enjoy soccer 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 video game before the World Cup.
bet9ja.com
Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a television screen inside. He stated he began sports betting 3 months earlier and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have actually been playing I have actually not won anything however I believe that one day I will win," stated Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; modifying by David Clarke)
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Reference: jykvan61341713/bet9ja-promo-code-yohaig#2