Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria

By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

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

For years, mobile payments failed to take off in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have cultivated a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting companies states the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

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

"The operators will choose whoever is faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less issues and glitches," he said, including that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 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 central bank and licensed 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 nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing mobile phone usage and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been seen as an excellent opportunity for online services - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online gaming firms state that is taking place, though reaching the 10s of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online merchants.

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

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

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's participation on the planet Cup say they are discovering the payment systems created by local startups 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 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 fanfare, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the top most secondhand payment alternative on the website," said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the second greatest wagering firm, now had 2 million regular consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment option since it was added in late 2017.

Paystack was established by two Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early stage funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from financiers consisting of China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the number 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 every month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He stated a community of developers had emerged around Paystack, developing software application to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have seen a development because neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a number of sports betting firms but also a vast array of businesses, from utility services to transport business to insurer Axa Mansard.

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

Industry professionals say the sector generates 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 2 years while Italy's Goldbet led the trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were divided in between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and ability for clients to prevent the preconception of gambling in public meant 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 store network, not least because numerous consumers still remain unwilling to invest online.

He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering stores typically act as social centers where consumers can see soccer totally free of charge while positioning bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the busy Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to enjoy 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 TV screen inside. He said he began sports betting 3 months ago and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

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