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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
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LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is expanding in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology firms that are beginning to make online companies more feasible.

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

Fear of electronic fraud and slow web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering companies states the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their websites are changing mindsets towards online deals.

"We have actually seen significant development in the number of payment options that are offered. All that is definitely changing the gaming area," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's commercial capital.

"The operators will choose whoever is faster, whoever can link to their platform with less concerns and glitches," he stated, 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 an increase in web payments, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the central 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 almost 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing smart phone usage and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been seen as an excellent chance for online services - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online sports betting firms say that is taking place, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online retailers.

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

"There is a steady shift to online now, that is where the industry is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya stated.
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"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually helped the business to thrive. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin running in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION
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sports betting companies capitalizing the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup state they are discovering the payment systems created by regional start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform used by organizations operating in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options with no excitement, without revealing to our clients, and within a month it shot up to the primary most used payment option on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's second most significant sports betting firm, now had 2 million routine customers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment alternative given that it was added in late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early phase financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from investors including China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the variety 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 every month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.
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He said an environment of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software application to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have seen a development because neighborhood and they have actually brought us along," said Quartey.

Paystack said it enables payments for a variety of wagering companies but likewise a broad variety of organizations, from utility services to carry companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program 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 hoping to use sports betting wagering.

Industry experts state 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 both set up in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet led the trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company introduced in 2015.

stated its sales were split in between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and ability for consumers to prevent the stigma of gambling in public suggested online transactions 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 shop network, not least since many customers still remain hesitant to invest online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering shops often function as social hubs where clients can watch soccer complimentary of charge while positioning bets.

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