Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria > 자유게시판

• 목록
• 답변
• 글쓰기
• 게시판 리스트 옵션
  • 수정
  • 삭제

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 established by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online companies more viable.

For years, mobile payments stopped working to take off in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have actually cultivated a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online customers back but sports betting companies states the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering mindsets towards online deals.

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

"The operators will go with whoever is much faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less issues and problems," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth has actually been matched by an increase in web payments, according to information 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 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 almost 190 million, rising smart phone usage and falling data expenses, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a fantastic opportunity for online services - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gambling firms say that is happening, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services remains a challenge for pure online merchants.

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 federal government as an enabler, has actually assisted the service to thrive. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start operating in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria's participation in the World Cup state they are finding the payment systems produced by regional start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another regional start-up Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are offering competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform utilized by organizations running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment alternatives without any excitement, without announcing to our clients, and within a month it soared to the top most secondhand payment alternative on the site," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the nation's second greatest wagering company, now had 2 million regular consumers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment option since it was added in late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early stage funding 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.

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 month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

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

Paystack stated it makes it possible for payments for a number of sports betting companies but likewise a wide variety of businesses, from utility services to transfer business to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with 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 coincided with the arrival of foreign investors hoping to take advantage of sports betting wagering.

Industry professionals say the sector produces 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 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 firm 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 capability for consumers to avoid the preconception of sports betting in public suggested online transactions would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was essential to have a shop network, not least because many customers still remain reluctant to invest online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian sports betting stores often function as social centers where customers can enjoy soccer free of charge while placing bets.

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

Richard Onuka, a who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a television screen inside. He said he began sports betting 3 months back and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.

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