bet9ja.com
By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
bit.ly
LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria mainly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation companies that are beginning to make online businesses more practical.
bet9ja.com
For many years, mobile payments failed to remove in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have fostered a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish internet speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting firms states the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

"We have seen considerable development in the variety of payment services that are readily available. All that is absolutely changing the video gaming area,” said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria's .

"The operators will opt for whoever is faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less concerns and problems,” he said, adding that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth has actually 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 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 nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, rising cellphone usage and falling information expenses, Nigeria has actually long been viewed as an excellent opportunity for online organizations - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online gaming companies say that is taking place, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays an obstacle for pure online sellers.

British online sports betting company Betway opened its very first African service 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 manager Lere Awokoya said.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms cashing in on the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup say they are discovering the payment systems created by local start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are offering competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform used by organizations operating in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment alternatives with no excitement, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the number one most pre-owned payment alternative on the site,” stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the country's second greatest sports betting firm, now had 2 million routine clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment choice because it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by two Nigerian computer technology 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 investors including China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.
bit.ly
Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety of regular monthly deals 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 single month,” stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

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

Paystack stated it enables payments for a variety of sports betting companies however likewise a wide variety of companies, from energy services to carry companies 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 actually coincided with the arrival of foreign investors wanting to take advantage of sports betting wagering.

Industry experts state the sector produces 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 two years while Italy's Goldbet was ahead of the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split between stores and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and capability for customers to avoid the stigma of sports betting in public suggested online transactions would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was essential to have a store network, not least due to the fact that lots of clients still remain hesitant to invest online.

He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering shops frequently function as social centers where clients can watch soccer free of charge while placing bets.
bit.ly
At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to see Nigeria's final warm up video game before the World Cup.
bet9ja.com
Richard Onuka, a factory employee who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He said he began gambling 3 months back and bets as much as 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,” stated Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos