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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

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

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

Fear of electronic fraud and sluggish internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back but sports betting companies says the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online deals.

"We have seen substantial development in the number of payment services that are offered. All that is definitely changing the video gaming area," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, gaming regulator in Nigeria's commercial capital.
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"The operators will go with whoever is quicker, whoever can link to their platform with less problems and glitches," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That development has actually been matched by an increase in web payments, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the central bank and licensed 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 usage and falling information costs, Nigeria has long been seen as an excellent opportunity for online organizations - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online sports betting companies state that is happening, though reaching the tens of countless Nigerians without access to banking services remains a difficulty for pure online retailers.

British online wagering company Betway opened its first African company 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 industry is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya stated.

"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has helped the organization to thrive. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms cashing in on the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup say they are finding the payment systems created by local startups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are offering competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by services running in Nigeria.
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"We included Paystack as one of our payment alternatives with no fanfare, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the number one most pre-owned payment option on the website," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's second most significant wagering firm, now had 2 million routine clients on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment alternative because it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 computer system science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early stage financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

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 frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number of month-to-month deals it processed rose from about 8,000 in early 2016 to more than 900,000 as of June 2018.
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"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 stated an environment of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a growth because community and they have actually brought us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it makes it possible for payments for a number of sports betting firms but likewise a wide variety of businesses, from utility services to carry companies to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner 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.
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FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have accompanied the arrival of foreign investors wanting to tap into sports betting.

Industry specialists say the sector generates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the company 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 pattern, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm released in 2015.
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NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were split in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and capability for consumers to prevent the stigma of gaming in public implied online transactions would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was necessary to have a store network, not least because many consumers still stay hesitant to invest online.

He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian sports betting shops frequently serve as social hubs where clients can watch soccer complimentary of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected to watch Nigeria's final warm up 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 stated he started sports betting three months ago 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 one day I will win," stated Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos