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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
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LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is booming in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown innovation companies that are beginning to make online services more viable.
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For 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 scams and slow internet speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but sports betting firms states the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering attitudes towards online deals.

"We have actually seen considerable growth in the number of payment services that are readily available. All that is definitely changing the gaming area," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's business capital.

"The operators will go with whoever is much faster, whoever can connect to their platform with less problems and glitches," he stated, adding that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth 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 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 first quarter of 2018 there were nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing cellphone usage and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been seen as a fantastic chance for online services - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gambling firms 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 sports betting company Betway opened its first African organization in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced 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 stated.

"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually helped business to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start running in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's participation on the planet Cup state they are finding the payment systems produced by local start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by organizations operating in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment choices without any excitement, without announcing to our clients, and within a month it shot up to the primary most used payment option on the site," said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the nation's second greatest wagering firm, now had 2 million regular clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice since it was included in late 2017.

Paystack was set up by two Nigerian computer system science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from investors consisting of China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the variety of regular monthly transactions 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," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

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

Paystack stated it makes it possible for payments for a number of wagering companies but also a vast array of businesses, from utility services to transport companies to insurer Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program in addition to investor 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 investors hoping to use sports betting.

Industry experts state the sector creates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where business is more established.

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 half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian company launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were split in between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running shops and capability for customers to prevent the stigma of gaming in public suggested online deals would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was essential to have a store network, not least because many customers still to spend online.

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

At a BetKing hall deep inside the bustling Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to watch Nigeria's final heat up video game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who makes 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He stated he started sports betting 3 months earlier and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.

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