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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is expanding in soccer-mad Nigeria mainly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown innovation companies that are starting to make online organizations more viable.

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

Fear of electronic fraud and slow web speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back however wagering companies says the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering mindsets towards online transactions.
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"We have actually seen significant growth in the variety of payment options that are offered. All that is certainly 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 much faster, whoever can link to their platform with less problems and glitches," 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 actually 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 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 almost 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of nearly 190 million, rising mobile phone usage and falling information costs, Nigeria has long been seen as a terrific opportunity for online companies - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.
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Online sports betting companies state that is taking place, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a challenge for pure online retailers.
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British online sports betting company Betway opened its very first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched in Nigeria in January.

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

"The growth in the variety of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has assisted business to grow. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup state they are finding the payment systems produced by local startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are supplying competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by companies running in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment choices with no fanfare, without revealing to our clients, and within a month it soared to the number one most secondhand payment choice on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's 2nd greatest wagering company, now had 2 million regular clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment option because it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early stage financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.
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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, stated the number of regular monthly deals it processed rose 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 environment of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, producing software to integrate the platform into sites. "We have seen a growth because neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a number of sports betting firms but likewise a wide range of companies, from utility services to transport companies to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator program in addition to 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 coincided with the arrival of foreign investors intending to tap into sports betting.

Industry professionals say the sector produces about $1 billion a year and is 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 trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were split between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and capability for customers to avoid the stigma of gaming in public indicated online deals would grow.
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But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was important to have a store network, not least since numerous consumers still stay reluctant to invest online.

He stated the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a substantial network. Nigerian wagering shops often function as social centers where customers can view soccer complimentary of charge while placing bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the busy in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected to view Nigeria's final warm up game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a television screen inside. He said he started sports betting 3 months earlier and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have actually been playing I have 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