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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation firms that are beginning to make online businesses more viable.

For several years, mobile payments stopped working to remove 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 slow internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online consumers back however wagering companies says the brand-new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are changing attitudes towards online transactions.

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

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

That growth 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 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 almost 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing mobile phone usage and falling information costs, Nigeria has actually long been viewed as a fantastic opportunity for online companies - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online gaming companies state that is occurring, 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 first African company in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced 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 stated.

"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually assisted the company to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's participation worldwide Cup state they are discovering the payment systems developed by local start-ups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are supplying competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform utilized by organizations running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment options without any fanfare, without announcing to our consumers, and within a month it soared to the primary most secondhand payment alternative on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the country's second biggest sports betting firm, now had 2 million routine clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained 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 phase financing 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, stated the number of monthly deals 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 each and every single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

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

Paystack stated it makes it possible for payments for a number of wagering firms but likewise a vast array of companies, from energy services to carry business to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with venture capitalists Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million last year.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers hoping to take advantage of 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 established.

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually both established in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet led the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split in between shops and online but the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and ability for clients to avoid the stigma of gaming in public indicated online deals would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was essential to have a shop network, not least because lots of consumers still stay unwilling to spend online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian sports betting shops often serve as social hubs where customers can view soccer complimentary of charge while placing bets.

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

Onuka, a factory employee who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a television screen inside. He said he started gambling 3 months back and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have been playing I have actually 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; modifying by David Clarke)