Toto smaže stránku "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 growing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation firms that are beginning to make online companies more feasible.
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 fostered a culture of cashless payments.
Fear of electronic scams and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting companies states the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are changing mindsets towards online transactions.
"We have seen considerable growth in the variety of payment services that are available. All that is definitely changing the video gaming area," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.
"The operators will opt for whoever is quicker, whoever can connect to their platform with less concerns and glitches," he stated, adding that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.
That development has been matched by an increase in web payments, according to information from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the main 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 nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.
With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing cellphone use and falling data costs, Nigeria has actually long been viewed as a fantastic opportunity for online businesses - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.
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Online gaming firms say that is happening, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays an obstacle for pure online sellers.
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British online wagering firm Betway opened its very first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It released in Nigeria in January.
"There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya stated.
"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has actually assisted business to thrive. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin running in Nigeria," he said.
FINTECH COMPETITION
sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup state they are discovering the payment systems created by regional start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.
Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are offering competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by organizations running in Nigeria.
"We added Paystack as one of our payment choices without any fanfare, without revealing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the number one most used payment option on the site," said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.
He stated NairaBET, the nation's second most significant wagering company, now had 2 million routine customers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment choice because it was added in late 2017.
Paystack was set up by 2 Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got 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.
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Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number of 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 month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.
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He said an environment of designers 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 brought us along," stated Quartey.
Paystack stated it enables payments for a number of sports betting companies but also a wide variety of businesses, from utility services to carry companies to insurance company Axa Mansard.
Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program along with 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 corresponded with the arrival of foreign investors wanting to use sports betting.
Industry professionals say the sector generates about $1 billion a year and is likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the service is more developed.
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 released in 2015.
NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and ability for clients to avoid the preconception of gambling in public meant online deals would grow.
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But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was crucial to have a shop network, not least because lots of clients still remain unwilling to .
He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a substantial network. Nigerian sports betting shops often function as social hubs where clients can view soccer free of charge while positioning bets.
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At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans collected to view Nigeria's last warm up game before the World Cup.
Richard Onuka, a factory worker who makes 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a television screen inside. He stated he began gambling 3 months back and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.
"Since I have been playing I have actually 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
Toto smaže stránku "Online Betting Firms Gamble on Soccer-mad Nigeria"
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