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 wagering is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology companies that are beginning to make online organizations more practical.
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For several years, mobile payments stopped working to take off in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have actually cultivated a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish internet speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering companies states the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are altering attitudes towards online deals.
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"We have seen substantial development in the variety of payment services that are available. All that is certainly changing the video gaming area," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video 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, including that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development 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 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 smart phone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been viewed as a great opportunity for online businesses - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online gaming firms state that is happening, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains an obstacle for pure online sellers.

British online wagering company Betway opened its first African business in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched in Nigeria in January.

"There is a progressive 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 actually assisted the service to thrive. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's participation worldwide Cup say they are discovering the payment systems created by regional startups such as Paystack are showing 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 primary platform used by companies running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment alternatives with no fanfare, without revealing to our clients, and within a month it shot up to the primary most secondhand payment choice on the website," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the country's 2nd greatest wagering firm, now had 2 million routine consumers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment option considering that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer system science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

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

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the variety of regular monthly transactions 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.

He said an environment of designers had emerged around Paystack, producing software to integrate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a growth because neighborhood and they have actually brought us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a variety of wagering companies however likewise a wide variety of organizations, from energy services to carry business to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator programme in addition to venture capitalists Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million in 2015.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT
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Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers hoping to use sports betting wagering.
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Industry specialists say the sector creates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the service is more established.
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Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually both set up in Nigeria in the last two 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 split in between stores and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and ability for consumers to avoid the preconception of gambling in public implied online would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was essential to have a store network, not least due to the fact that many consumers still remain reluctant to spend online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting stores typically function as social hubs where clients can watch soccer complimentary of charge while placing bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected to watch Nigeria's final warm up game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory employee who earns 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a television screen inside. He said he began sports betting three months back and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

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