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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is booming in soccer-mad Nigeria mostly thanks to payment systems established by homegrown technology companies that are starting to make online organizations more practical.

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

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish internet speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but sports betting firms states the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing mindsets towards online deals.

"We have actually seen considerable growth in the variety of payment solutions that are offered. All that is certainly changing the video gaming area," stated Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's business capital.

"The operators will opt for whoever is quicker, whoever can connect to their platform with less issues and glitches," he said, 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 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 nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, rising smart phone use and falling information costs, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a terrific chance for online organizations - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online state that is taking place, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains a difficulty for pure online sellers.

British online wagering 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 government as an enabler, has actually helped business to grow. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start running in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's participation in the World Cup state they are discovering the payment systems developed by regional startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another local start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are providing competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform used by organizations running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options without any excitement, without announcing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the number one most pre-owned payment option on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's 2nd biggest wagering firm, now had 2 million routine customers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment alternative given that it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by two Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early stage financing 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, said the number of 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," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He stated an environment of designers had actually emerged around Paystack, developing software application to integrate the platform into websites. "We have seen a development because neighborhood and they have carried us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it makes it possible for payments for a variety of wagering companies but also a broad variety of businesses, from utility services to carry business to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator programme in addition to 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 actually accompanied the arrival of foreign investors intending to use sports betting.

Industry experts state the sector produces about $1 billion a year and is most 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 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 divided between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and ability for customers to prevent the preconception of gaming in public meant online deals would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was crucial to have a store network, not least because numerous clients still remain unwilling to invest online.

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

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans collected 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 focused on a television screen inside. He said he began sports betting 3 months ago and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

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