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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
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LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is booming in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation companies that are starting to make online companies more practical.
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For many years, mobile payments stopped working to remove in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa money transfers have fostered a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic scams and slow web speeds have held Nigerian online customers back but sports betting firms says the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering mindsets towards online transactions.

"We have actually seen substantial development in the number of payment services that are offered. All that is absolutely changing the gaming space," said 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 link to their platform with less problems and glitches," he said, including 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 data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the central 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 first quarter of 2018 there were nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing mobile phone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been seen as a fantastic chance for - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online sports betting firms state that is occurring, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays an obstacle for pure online sellers.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its first African organization 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 manager Lere Awokoya said.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms cashing in on the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's participation worldwide Cup say they are discovering the payment systems developed by regional startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

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

"We included Paystack as one of our payment choices without any excitement, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the top most used payment option on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's second most significant wagering company, now had 2 million regular customers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment alternative considering that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by two 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 financiers consisting of China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the number of monthly deals 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," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He stated a community of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software application to integrate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a development because community and they have carried us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a number of wagering companies but also a wide variety of companies, from utility services to carry business to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program as well as investor Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million in 2015.
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FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually corresponded with the arrival of foreign investors hoping to use sports betting wagering.

Industry professionals state the sector generates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the company 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 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were split between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and ability for clients to avoid the stigma of gaming in public indicated online deals 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 since many consumers still stay unwilling to spend online.
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He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting shops frequently serve as social hubs where customers can view soccer free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to watch Nigeria's last heat up game before the World Cup.
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Richard Onuka, a factory employee who earns 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He said he began gambling three months back and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.

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