external frame(Image: [[https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-18.jpg|https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-18.jpg)]] By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is expanding in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology firms that are beginning to make online companies more practical. (Image: [[https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/bet9ja-mobile-how-to-register-13.gif|https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/bet9ja-mobile-how-to-register-13.gif)]]

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.

Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back however sports betting firms states the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

external site “We have actually seen considerable development in the variety of payment services that are readily available. All that is certainly changing the gaming space,” 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 link to their platform with less issues and glitches,” he stated, adding that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development 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 a total 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 nearly 10 million worth 61 billion. (Image: [[https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-17.jpg|https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-17.jpg)]]

With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing smart phone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a terrific opportunity for online organizations - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming firms state that is happening, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services remains an obstacle 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 launched in Nigeria in January.

“There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the industry is going,” Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya stated.

“The growth in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has assisted business to prosper. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to start operating in Nigeria,” he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

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

Paystack and another regional start-up Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform utilized by businesses operating in Nigeria. (Image: [[https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-6.jpg|https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-6.jpg)]]

“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 top most secondhand payment choice on the website,” said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET. (Image: [[https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-8.jpg|https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bet9ja-mobile-registration-8.jpg)]]

He stated NairaBET, the nation's 2nd 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 given that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from investors including China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States. (Image: [[https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/bet9ja-mobile-app-banner-1.gif|https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/bet9ja-mobile-app-banner-1.gif)]]

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number 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 every month,” stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

He stated an environment of designers had emerged around Paystack, developing software to integrate the platform into sites. “We have seen a development in that community and they have actually brought us along,” said Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a number of sports betting companies however also a large range of companies, from utility services to transport companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program along with endeavor capitalists Greycroft 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 investors intending to use sports betting wagering.

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

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually both established in Nigeria in the last two years while Italy's Goldbet led the pattern, taking a 50 percent 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, cost of running shops and ability for consumers to prevent the preconception of gambling in public indicated online deals would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was necessary to have a shop network, not least due to the fact that many clients still remain reluctant to spend online. (Image: [[https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/bet9ja-mobile-app-banner-6.gif|https://www.yohaig.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/bet9ja-mobile-app-banner-6.gif)]]

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had an extensive network. Nigerian wagering shops typically function as social centers where clients can view soccer free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans collected to view 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 TV screen inside. He stated he began sports betting three months earlier and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

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