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

Fear of electronic fraud and slow web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering firms says the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering mindsets towards online .

"We have seen considerable development in the number of payment services that are offered. All that is certainly altering the video gaming space," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will opt for whoever is quicker, whoever can link to their platform with less concerns and problems," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development has actually been matched by an increase 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 an overall 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 almost 190 million, rising mobile phone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been viewed as an excellent chance for online services - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming companies state that is occurring, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online merchants.

British online wagering company Betway opened its very first African organization in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched in Nigeria in January.

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

"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has assisted the service to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start running in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies capitalizing the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria's participation in the World Cup say they are discovering the payment systems developed by regional startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another regional start-up Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are providing competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by companies operating in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options without any fanfare, without announcing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the number one most pre-owned payment alternative on the site," said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.
bet9ja.com
He stated NairaBET, the nation's second most significant wagering company, now had 2 million routine consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice considering that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received 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, said the variety of month-to-month deals it processed rose 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 each and every single month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

He said an ecosystem of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software application to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have seen a development because community and they have actually brought us along," stated Quartey.
bet9ja.com
Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a variety of sports betting firms however likewise a vast array of companies, from utility services to transport business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program as well as 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 financiers wishing to take advantage of sports betting wagering.

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 the service 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 led the trend, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split in between stores and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running stores and capability for customers to prevent the stigma of gaming in public implied online transactions would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was important to have a store network, not least due to the fact that numerous clients still remain reluctant to spend online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering stores typically function as social hubs where clients can enjoy soccer free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to view Nigeria's final heat up video game before the World Cup.
bit.ly
Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He stated he started gambling three months back and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have actually been playing I have 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