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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 developed by homegrown innovation companies that are starting to make online services more practical.

For years, mobile payments failed to remove in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have cultivated a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish web speeds have actually held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting companies states the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online deals.

"We have actually seen considerable development in the number of payment solutions that are offered. All that is certainly altering the video gaming space," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will go with whoever is much faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less issues and glitches," he said, adding that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development 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 central bank and certified banks.
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In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth an overall 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions jumped to 29 million worth 185 billion in 2017 and in the very first quarter of 2018 there were nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.
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With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing cellphone use and falling information costs, Nigeria has long been viewed as a fantastic opportunity for online businesses - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.
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Online gambling firms say that is happening, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online merchants.
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British online sports betting company Betway opened its first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced in Nigeria in January.

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

"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually assisted business to thrive. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to start operating in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup say they are finding the payment systems created by local startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are offering competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by services operating in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options without any excitement, without announcing to our customers, and within a month it shot up to the primary most pre-owned payment alternative on the site," said Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the country's 2nd most significant sports betting company, now had 2 million routine customers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained 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 got early phase funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

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 of Lagos, said the number of monthly transactions 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 every single month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He said a community of developers had emerged around Paystack, developing software to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have seen a development in that neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," stated Quartey.
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Paystack said it allows payments for a number of sports betting companies however also a large range of companies, from utility services to carry business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme as well as 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 accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers wanting to tap into sports betting.

Industry specialists state the sector creates about $1 billion a year and is likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where business is more established.

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually both set up in Nigeria in the last two years while Italy's Goldbet was ahead of the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were divided in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and ability for clients to prevent the stigma of sports betting in public implied online deals would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was necessary to have a shop network, not least because numerous customers still stay unwilling to spend online.

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

At a BetKing hall deep inside the busy Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans collected to view Nigeria's last heat up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who makes 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He said he began gambling 3 months earlier and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.

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