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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 mainly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology firms that are beginning to make online organizations more practical.

For several years, mobile payments failed to remove 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 internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back however wagering firms says the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

"We have seen substantial development in the variety of payment services that are offered. All that is certainly changing the video gaming area," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will opt for whoever is much faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less problems and problems," he said, adding 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 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 nearly 190 million, rising cellphone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a terrific opportunity for online businesses - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.
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Online gaming firms say that is happening, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains a difficulty for pure online merchants.

British online wagering company Betway opened its first African organization in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It released in Nigeria in January.
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"There is a steady shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya stated.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement on the planet Cup state they are finding the payment systems developed by regional startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another regional start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are supplying competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform utilized by companies running in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment options without any fanfare, without announcing to our clients, and within a month it soared to the number one most secondhand payment choice on the site," said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's second most significant wagering company, now had 2 million regular clients 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 established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early stage funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

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, said the variety of month-to-month transactions it processed increased 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 each and every single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He said a community of designers had emerged around Paystack, producing software application to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have seen a growth in that community and they have actually brought us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it allows payments for a variety of wagering firms however also a wide variety of businesses, from utility services to transport business to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program 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 have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign investors intending to tap into sports betting.
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Industry specialists say the sector generates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where business is more developed.

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have both established in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet was ahead of the trend, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm released in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were divided between stores and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and capability for clients to avoid the stigma of gaming in public implied online transactions would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was essential to have a shop network, not least due to the fact that many clients still remain unwilling to invest online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting shops often function as social centers where consumers can watch soccer free of charge while placing bets.
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At a BetKing hall deep inside the busy Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to watch Nigeria's final heat 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 said he began gambling 3 months earlier and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have been playing I have 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