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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
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LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation firms that are beginning to make online companies more viable.
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For many years, mobile payments failed to take off in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have actually fostered a culture of cashless payments.

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

"We have seen substantial development in the variety of payment services that are offered. All that is definitely altering the video gaming space," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's business capital.

"The operators will opt for whoever is faster, whoever can link to their platform with less issues and glitches," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth 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 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 smart phone use and falling information costs, Nigeria has long been viewed as a fantastic opportunity for online services - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online sports betting firms state that is occurring, though reaching the 10s of countless Nigerians without access to banking services remains an obstacle for pure online sellers.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its first African business 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 stated.

"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has actually helped business to prosper. These technological shifts motivated Betway to begin running 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 developed by regional start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are supplying competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by organizations operating in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options with no fanfare, without announcing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the primary most used payment alternative on the site," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the country's 2nd most significant wagering firm, now had 2 million regular clients on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment alternative given that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was set up by two 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 financiers consisting of China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety of month-to-month transactions 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 single month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

He said an ecosystem of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software to integrate the platform into sites. "We have actually seen a growth in that neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," said Quartey.

Paystack said it allows payments for a number of wagering firms however likewise a large range of companies, from energy services to transport companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.
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Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program as well as venture capitalists 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 wanting to use sports betting.

Industry experts say the sector produces about $1 billion a year and is likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the organization is more developed.
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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 half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company released in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were split in between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and capability for consumers to prevent the stigma of sports betting 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 store network, not least since numerous clients still stay unwilling to spend online.

He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering shops frequently act as social centers where clients can watch soccer free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the busy Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected to watch Nigeria's last warm up video game before the World Cup.
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Richard Onuka, a who makes 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He stated he began gambling three months earlier and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

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