GitLab

bet9ja.com
By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
bet9ja.com
LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is flourishing in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology firms that are starting to make online companies more feasible.
bit.ly
For several years, mobile payments failed to remove in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have fostered a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and slow internet speeds have held Nigerian online customers back but wagering companies states the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their websites are changing mindsets towards online transactions.

"We have actually seen substantial development in the variety of payment options that are readily available. All that is definitely altering the gaming space," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, 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, including that taxes from in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth 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 main bank and certified banks.

In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth an overall 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, rising mobile phone use and falling information costs, Nigeria has actually long been viewed as a great chance for online businesses - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gambling firms state that is occurring, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains a difficulty for pure online merchants.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its very first African business in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced in Nigeria in January.

"There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the industry is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya said.

"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has assisted business to thrive. These technological shifts motivated Betway to begin running in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer frenzy whipped up by Nigeria's participation on the planet Cup state they are finding the payment systems developed by regional start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by businesses running in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment options without any fanfare, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it soared to the primary most used payment alternative on the website," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's second greatest wagering firm, now had 2 million routine consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment alternative given that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was set up by 2 Nigerian computer technology 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 investors 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 month-to-month 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 said an ecosystem of designers had emerged around Paystack, producing software application to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a development because neighborhood and they have actually brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it makes it possible for payments for a variety of sports betting companies but also a vast array of businesses, from utility services to transfer companies to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur 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 last year.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers intending to tap into sports betting.

Industry specialists 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 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 launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were split in between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and ability for clients to prevent the stigma of sports betting in public implied online transactions would grow.

But regardless 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 numerous clients still remain hesitant to invest online.

He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a substantial network. Nigerian sports betting shops often function as social centers where consumers can watch soccer free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to see Nigeria's final heat up game before the World Cup.
bet9ja.com
Richard Onuka, a factory worker who makes 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He stated he started gambling three months ago 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 a person day I will win," said Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; editing by David Clarke)
bit.ly