Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria > 자유게시판

By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online services more feasible.

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 slow internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back but sports betting firms says the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

"We have actually seen significant growth in the number of payment services that are readily available. All that is definitely altering the gaming area," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will opt for whoever is much faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less issues and glitches," he stated, adding that taxes from sports betting wagering 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 central bank and licensed 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 almost 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing cellphone use and falling data expenses, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a fantastic chance for online services - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming firms say that is taking place, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services remains a challenge for pure online sellers.

British online wagering firm Betway opened its very first African organization 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 market is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya said.

"The development in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually helped business to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start operating in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup state they are finding the payment systems produced by local start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

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

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options with no excitement, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it shot up to the number one most pre-owned payment option on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the country's 2nd biggest sports betting company, now had 2 million routine consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment option given that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by two Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early phase financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

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 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 development.

He stated an ecosystem of designers had emerged around Paystack, developing software application to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a development in that community and they have actually brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a number of wagering companies but likewise a wide variety of organizations, from utility services to transfer companies to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program as well as 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 hoping to tap into sports betting wagering.

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

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually 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 released in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were divided in between stores and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and ability for to avoid the stigma of gambling in public indicated online transactions would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was very important to have a shop network, not least due to the fact that many consumers still stay reluctant to invest online.

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

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected to enjoy Nigeria's last warm up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory employee who earns 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He said he started sports betting 3 months back and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have been playing I have actually not won anything however I think that one day I will win," said Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; modifying by David Clarke)