By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

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

For several years, mobile payments failed to take off in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom’s M-Pesa money transfers have cultivated a culture of cashless payments.
bet9ja.com
Fear of electronic fraud and slow internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering firms states the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering mindsets towards online transactions.

"We have actually seen considerable growth in the number of payment solutions that are available. All that is definitely altering the gaming area,” said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria’s business capital.

"The operators will choose whoever is quicker, whoever can connect to their platform with less issues and glitches,” he stated, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State increased 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 reserve 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 nearly 190 million, rising mobile phone use and falling information costs, Nigeria has long been viewed as a fantastic chance for online businesses - once customers with electronic payments.

Online sports betting firms say that is occurring, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains a challenge for pure online merchants.
bit.ly
British online wagering company Betway opened its first African organization 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 market is going,” Betway’s Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya said.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms cashing in on the soccer frenzy whipped up by Nigeria’s involvement in the World Cup say they are discovering the payment systems developed by regional start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria’s Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by services operating in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment choices with no excitement, without announcing to our clients, and within a month it soared to the primary most pre-owned payment alternative on the site,” said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.
bet9ja.com
He stated NairaBET, the country’s second biggest sports betting firm, now had 2 million regular consumers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment choice given that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was set up by two Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early stage 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.
bet9ja.com
Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the variety of regular monthly deals it processed rose 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 each and every single month,” said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack’s head of growth.

He said a community of developers had emerged around Paystack, creating software to integrate the platform into sites. “We have seen a development in that community and they have actually brought us along,” said Quartey.
bet9ja.com
Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a variety of sports betting firms however also a broad range of organizations, from utility services to carry business to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program in addition to 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 accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers wanting to use sports betting wagering.

Industry experts say the sector generates 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 established in Nigeria in the last two years while Italy’s Goldbet led the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company released in 2015.

NairaBET’s Alabi stated its sales were divided between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running shops and capability for clients to prevent the preconception of gambling in public implied online deals would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was necessary to have a shop network, not least because numerous customers still stay hesitant to spend online.
bit.ly
He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria’s sports betting wagering market, had an extensive network. Nigerian wagering shops typically act as social centers where clients can enjoy soccer totally free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the busy Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to view Nigeria’s final heat up game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory employee who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a television screen inside. He stated he began sports betting 3 months earlier and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

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