1 Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer mad Nigeria
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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

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

For many years, mobile payments failed to remove in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have promoted a culture of cashless payments.

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

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

"The operators will go with whoever is faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less problems and glitches," 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 a rise in web payments, according to data 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 a total 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions leapt to 29 million worth 185 billion in 2017 and in the first quarter of 2018 there were almost 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing smart phone use and falling information expenses, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a great chance for online services - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.
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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 sports betting firm Betway opened its first African organization in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced in Nigeria in January.
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"There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the industry is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya said.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's participation worldwide Cup state they are discovering the payment systems produced by local startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are offering competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform used by services operating in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment options without any excitement, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the top most pre-owned payment choice on the website," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's second biggest wagering company, now had 2 million regular clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice because it was included in late 2017.

Paystack was set up by two Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early phase funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

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 mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number of monthly 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 single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.
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He said an environment of designers had emerged around Paystack, developing software to integrate the platform into websites. "We have seen a growth because community and they have actually carried us along," said Quartey.

Paystack said it enables payments for a variety of sports betting firms however likewise a wide variety of services, from energy services to transport companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.
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Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program along with investor Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million in 2015.
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FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually coincided with the arrival of foreign financiers hoping to take advantage of sports betting.

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 business is more established.

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have both set up in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet was ahead of the trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were split in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running stores and capability for clients to avoid the stigma of gambling in public suggested online transactions would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was necessary to have a store network, not least because lots of consumers still remain unwilling to spend online.

He stated the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a substantial network. Nigerian wagering stores often act as social centers where clients can enjoy soccer totally free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to enjoy Nigeria's final warm up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who makes 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a inside. He stated he began sports betting 3 months earlier 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," stated Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos