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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is flourishing in soccer-mad Nigeria mainly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown technology companies that are starting to make online businesses more viable.

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

Fear of electronic scams and slow web speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back but sports betting companies states the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

"We have seen substantial development in the variety of payment solutions that are available. All that is definitely altering the video gaming space," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria's business capital.
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"The operators will go with whoever is quicker, whoever can connect to their platform with less concerns and problems," he said, adding that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth 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 a total 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions jumped 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 almost 190 million, rising smart phone usage and falling information expenses, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a great chance for online businesses - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.

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

British online wagering company Betway opened its first African service 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 market is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya stated.
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"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually assisted the organization to grow. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies capitalizing the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup state they are discovering the payment systems developed by local startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform utilized by services running in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment choices with no fanfare, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the number one most pre-owned payment alternative on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.
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He said NairaBET, the country's second greatest wagering company, now had 2 million routine consumers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment alternative because it was added in late 2017.

Paystack was set up by 2 Nigerian computer 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 investors including China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety of monthly deals it processed increased from about 8,000 in early 2016 to more than 900,000 since June 2018.
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"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, creating software to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have seen a growth in that community and they have brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it allows payments for a variety of sports betting firms however likewise a wide variety of businesses, from utility services to transfer companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program along with 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 investors intending to take advantage of sports betting wagering.

Industry professionals state the sector generates about $1 billion a year and is likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the business is more developed.

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually both established in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet was ahead of the trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company released in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were divided between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and capability for consumers to prevent the stigma of sports betting in public suggested online deals 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 because lots of clients still remain unwilling to spend online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a substantial network. Nigerian wagering shops typically function as social centers where clients can enjoy soccer complimentary of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans collected to enjoy Nigeria's last warm up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory employee who makes 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a television screen inside. He said he began sports betting three months back and bets as much as 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," stated Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos