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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

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

For several 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 fostered a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and slow internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering firms says the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing mindsets towards online deals.

"We have actually seen substantial growth in the variety of payment services that are offered. All that is definitely changing the video gaming area," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will opt for whoever is much faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less problems and problems," he said, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.
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That development has been matched by a rise 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 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 almost 190 million, rising cellphone use and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been viewed as a fantastic opportunity for - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.
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Online sports betting firms say that is taking place, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services remains a difficulty for pure online retailers.

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 progressive shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya said.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION
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sports betting companies capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's participation worldwide Cup say they are finding the payment systems created by local start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are supplying competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform utilized by companies 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 shot up to the top most used payment alternative on the site," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's 2nd biggest sports betting firm, now had 2 million regular consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment alternative given that it was included late 2017.
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Paystack was set up by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early stage funding 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 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 every month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He said an ecosystem of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, producing software to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have actually seen a growth because community and they have carried us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a variety of wagering firms however also a wide variety of services, from energy services to carry business to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with venture 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 actually coincided with the arrival of foreign financiers hoping to take advantage of sports betting.

Industry specialists state the sector creates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the business 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 trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm released in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were divided between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and ability for consumers to prevent the preconception of gaming in public meant online transactions would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was very important to have a store network, not least because lots of customers still stay hesitant to invest online.

He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a substantial network. Nigerian sports betting stores typically act as social centers where customers can watch soccer free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans collected to view 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 TV screen inside. He said he began sports betting 3 months back and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

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