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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure
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LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is expanding in soccer-mad Nigeria mainly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online organizations more feasible.

For many years, mobile payments stopped working to take off 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 held Nigerian online consumers back however wagering companies says the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their websites are changing attitudes towards online deals.

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

"The operators will choose whoever is much faster, whoever can link to their platform with less problems and problems," he said, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth has been matched by a rise in web payments, according to information from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the main bank and licensed banks.

In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth an overall 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions jumped 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 nearly 190 million, rising cellphone use and falling data costs, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a great opportunity for online businesses - once customers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online gaming firms state that is happening, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains an obstacle for pure online sellers.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its very first African company in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched 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.

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

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer frenzy worked up by Nigeria's participation on the planet Cup state they are finding the payment systems developed by local start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are providing competitors 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 choices without any excitement, without announcing to our clients, and within a month it soared to the number one most used payment choice on the website," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

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

Paystack was set up by 2 Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

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

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety of 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 each and every single month," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He stated a community of developers had emerged around Paystack, producing software to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a development because community and they have actually carried us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a variety of sports betting companies but likewise a wide range of companies, from energy services to carry companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme as well as venture capitalists 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 accompanied the arrival of foreign investors wishing to tap into sports betting.

specialists say the sector creates 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 actually both set up in Nigeria in the last two 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 stated its sales were split between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and capability for clients to prevent the stigma of sports betting 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 essential to have a store network, not least due to the fact that numerous customers still stay reluctant to invest online.

He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a substantial network. Nigerian wagering shops often serve as social centers where clients can view soccer free of charge while putting bets.

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

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

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