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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
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LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is flourishing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online services more feasible.
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For years, mobile payments stopped working to remove in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have actually promoted a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish have actually held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting companies says the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are changing mindsets towards online transactions.

"We have actually seen significant growth in the number of payment services that are readily available. All that is certainly changing the gaming area," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will choose whoever is faster, whoever can link 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 development has 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 certified 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 almost 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing smart phone usage and falling information costs, Nigeria has actually long been viewed as a terrific opportunity for online businesses - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming companies say that is taking place, though reaching the 10s of countless Nigerians without access to banking services remains an obstacle for pure online merchants.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its very first African company in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced in Nigeria in January.

"There is a steady shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya stated.

"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually assisted the service to prosper. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin running in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup state they are discovering the payment systems produced by regional startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are supplying competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by businesses running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options without any excitement, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it soared to the number one most pre-owned payment choice on the site," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's 2nd greatest wagering company, now had 2 million routine clients on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment alternative because it was included 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 consisting of China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the number of regular monthly deals it processed increased 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 each and every single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He said a community of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software application to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have seen a growth because neighborhood and they have brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a variety of wagering companies but also a wide variety of organizations, from energy services to carry business to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with investor Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million in 2015.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers intending to take advantage of sports betting.

Industry specialists say the sector produces 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 actually both set up in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet led the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company introduced in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were divided between stores and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running shops and capability for clients to avoid the preconception of gambling in public meant online deals would grow.

But in spite 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 stay reluctant to spend online.

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

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to watch Nigeria's last heat up video game before the World Cup.
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Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He said he started sports betting 3 months earlier and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

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