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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 mainly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology firms that are starting to make online businesses more viable.
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For years, mobile payments stopped working to take off in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have fostered a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish internet speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering companies says the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their websites are altering mindsets towards online deals.

"We have seen considerable growth in the variety of payment options 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 choose whoever is faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less problems and problems," he said, including that taxes from sports betting 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 data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the reserve bank and licensed 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 nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing mobile phone use and falling information expenses, Nigeria has long been viewed as a fantastic chance for online organizations - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming companies say that is occurring, though reaching the 10s of countless Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online sellers.

British online wagering firm Betway opened its first African organization 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 industry is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya said.

"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has actually assisted the service to grow. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms cashing in on the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup state they are discovering the payment systems produced by regional start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are providing competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by organizations running in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment options with no excitement, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the primary most used payment alternative on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's 2nd most significant sports betting company, now had 2 million regular customers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment alternative given that it was included in late 2017.

Paystack was established by two Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.
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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 frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, stated 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 every month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

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

Paystack said it allows payments for a variety of wagering firms however likewise a wide variety of businesses, from utility services to transfer business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program along with endeavor capitalists 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 intending to take advantage of sports betting wagering.

Industry professionals state the sector creates 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 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 said its sales were split in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and capability for customers to prevent the preconception of sports betting in public indicated online deals would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was very important to have a shop network, not least since many customers still stay reluctant to invest online.

He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting stores typically serve as social centers where clients can enjoy soccer totally 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 final heat up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He stated he started gambling 3 months ago and bets as much as 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," stated Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos