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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online businesses more viable.

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

Fear of electronic fraud and slow internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting firms says the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online deals.

"We have seen considerable growth in the variety of payment options that are available. All that is definitely altering the gaming space," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's business capital.

"The operators will choose whoever is faster, whoever can link to their platform with less problems and problems," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth has been matched by an increase in web payments, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the main 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 nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of nearly 190 million, rising mobile phone use and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been viewed as a terrific opportunity for online services - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online sports betting firms say that is occurring, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains a challenge for pure online sellers.
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British online wagering company Betway opened its first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It released in Nigeria in January.

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

"The development in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has assisted business to prosper. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he stated.
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FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's participation worldwide Cup state they are finding the payment systems produced by local start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are offering competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform utilized by services running 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 top most pre-owned payment option on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the country's 2nd greatest wagering company, now had 2 million routine customers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment alternative since it was included in late 2017.

Paystack was set up by two Nigerian computer system science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early stage financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

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

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety of regular monthly deals it processed rose 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 each and every single month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

He said an ecosystem of developers had emerged around Paystack, developing software application to integrate the platform into sites. "We have actually seen a development because community and they have brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack said it enables payments for a variety of sports betting firms however likewise a wide variety of companies, from utility services to transfer business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.
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Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program as well as investor Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million last year.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT
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Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers wishing to tap into sports betting.
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Industry experts state the sector generates 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 both established in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet led the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were divided in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and ability for clients to prevent the preconception of sports betting in public meant online deals would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and of Bet9ja - said it was very important to have a store network, not least since many customers still stay reluctant to spend online.
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He stated the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a substantial network. Nigerian wagering stores often serve as social hubs where consumers can watch soccer complimentary of charge while placing bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected to enjoy Nigeria's last 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 ago and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

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