bet9ja.com
By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
bet9ja.com
LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is expanding in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown technology companies that are starting to make online services 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 promoted a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back however wagering firms says the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online deals.

“We have seen significant growth in the number of payment solutions that are readily available. All that is certainly altering the 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 faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less problems and glitches,” he said, adding 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 data 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 jumped 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, rising cellphone use and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been seen as an excellent chance for online businesses - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online sports betting firms 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 first African company in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced in Nigeria in January.

“There is a progressive shift to online now, that is where the industry is going,” Betway’s Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya stated.

“The growth in the variety of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has helped the company to grow. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start operating in Nigeria,” he stated.
bet9ja.com
FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms cashing in on the soccer frenzy whipped up by Nigeria’s involvement in the World Cup say they are discovering the payment systems created by regional startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are supplying competition for Nigeria’s Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by 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 shot up to the top most used payment alternative on the site,” stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation’s 2nd greatest wagering firm, now had 2 million regular customers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment option since it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by two Nigerian computer system science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early phase financing 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, stated the variety 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 each and every single month,” said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack’s head of growth.

He stated an environment of developers had emerged around Paystack, creating software application to incorporate the platform into websites. “We have seen a growth in that community and they have brought us along,” stated Quartey.

Paystack said it enables payments for a variety of sports betting firms however also a wide variety of organizations, from energy services to transfer companies to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator programme 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 corresponded with the arrival of foreign investors wanting to use sports betting wagering.

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

Russia’s 1XBet and Slovakia’s DOXXbet have actually both established in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy’s Goldbet was ahead of the pattern, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.

NairaBET’s Alabi stated its sales were split between stores and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running stores and ability for consumers to prevent the stigma of gaming in public suggested online deals would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was necessary to have a shop network, not least due to the fact that lots of clients still stay unwilling to spend online.

He stated the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria’s sports betting market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering stores often act as social centers where customers can see soccer free of charge while positioning bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans collected to watch Nigeria’s final warm up game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a television screen inside. He said he began gambling three 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 a person day I will win,” said Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos