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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
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LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria mainly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown innovation firms that are beginning to make online businesses more viable.

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

Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but sports betting firms says the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their websites are altering mindsets towards online transactions.

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

"The operators will opt for whoever is quicker, whoever can link to their platform with less issues and glitches," he said, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development 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 reserve bank and certified banks.

In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth a total 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 smart phone use and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been seen as a terrific chance for online services - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.

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

British online sports betting 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 steady shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya said.
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"The growth in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has helped business to grow. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start running in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement worldwide Cup say they are discovering the payment systems produced by regional startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

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

"We added Paystack as one of our payment alternatives without any fanfare, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the number one most secondhand payment option on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the nation's 2nd greatest sports betting firm, now had 2 million routine consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice considering that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who early stage funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

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 frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the number of 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 every single month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

He said an environment of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, producing software application to integrate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a growth in that community and they have actually brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it allows payments for a variety of sports betting companies but likewise a large range of businesses, from energy services to carry business 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

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign investors wishing to take advantage of sports betting.

Industry experts state the sector produces about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where business 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 was ahead of the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split in between stores and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and capability for customers to avoid the preconception of gambling in public meant online deals would grow.

But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was crucial to have a store network, not least because many clients still remain unwilling to spend online.
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He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering shops typically function as social centers where consumers can watch soccer totally free of charge while positioning bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to enjoy Nigeria's final heat 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 stated he began sports betting three months earlier and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have actually 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