By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is flourishing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown technology companies that are starting to make online organizations more feasible.

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

Fear of electronic fraud and slow internet speeds have held Nigerian online customers back however wagering companies states the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering mindsets towards online transactions.
"We have seen substantial growth in the number of payment services that are readily available. All that is definitely altering the video gaming area," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's commercial capital.
"The operators will go with whoever is quicker, whoever can link 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 development has actually been matched by an increase in web payments, according to information 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, increasing mobile phone usage and falling information costs, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a great opportunity for online companies - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.
Online sports betting companies state that is occurring, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online merchants.
British online wagering firm Betway opened its very first African organization in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It released in Nigeria in January.
"There is a gradual shift to online now, that is where the industry is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya said.
"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually assisted business to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start operating in Nigeria," he stated.
FINTECH COMPETITION
sports betting companies capitalizing the soccer frenzy whipped up by Nigeria's involvement on the planet Cup say they are finding the payment systems developed by regional start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.
Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are providing competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by companies operating in Nigeria.
"We included Paystack as one of our payment choices with no excitement, without revealing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the top most secondhand payment option on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.
He stated NairaBET, the country's second most significant 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 option because it was included late 2017.
Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase 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 mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety of month-to-month transactions it processed increased 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," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.
He said an environment of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software application to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have seen a growth in that community and they have brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack said it allows payments for a variety of wagering firms however likewise a large range of businesses, from energy services to carry companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.
Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme as well as 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 accompanied the arrival of foreign investors wanting to use sports betting wagering.
Industry specialists state the sector generates about $1 billion a year and is likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where business is more established.
Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have 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.
NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were divided in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running shops and capability for clients to avoid the preconception of gambling in public implied online transactions would grow.
But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was very important to have a store network, not least due to the fact that lots of clients still remain reluctant 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 shops typically serve as social centers where clients can watch soccer totally free of charge while putting bets.
At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans gathered to see Nigeria's last 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 gambling three months earlier and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.
"Since I have 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; modifying by David Clarke)