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 established by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online services more viable.

For several 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 actually fostered a culture of cashless payments.
Fear of electronic fraud and slow internet speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back but wagering firms says the brand-new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are changing attitudes towards online transactions.
"We have actually seen significant development in the variety of payment solutions that are readily available. All that is definitely altering the video gaming space," 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 concerns and glitches," he stated, including that taxes from sports betting wagering in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

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

With a young population of nearly 190 million, increasing cellphone usage and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been viewed as an excellent opportunity for online services - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.
Online sports betting companies say that is happening, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a difficulty for pure online retailers.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its 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 market is going," Betway's Nigeria manager Lere Awokoya stated.
"The growth in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has actually helped business to thrive. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start operating in Nigeria," he said.
FINTECH COMPETITION
sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup state they are discovering the payment systems produced by local startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.
Paystack and another regional start-up Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are supplying competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the primary platform utilized by businesses operating in Nigeria.
"We added Paystack as one of our payment alternatives with no excitement, without revealing to our consumers, and within a month it shot up to the primary most pre-owned payment choice on the website," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.
He said NairaBET, the country's 2nd biggest wagering company, now had 2 million routine customers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice since it was included late 2017.

Paystack was set up by 2 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 financiers 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," stated Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.
He said an ecosystem of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, creating software to integrate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a development in that neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," said Quartey.
Paystack said it enables payments for a variety of wagering companies but likewise a large range of services, from energy services to transfer business to insurance company Axa Mansard.
Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme as well as endeavor 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 corresponded with the arrival of foreign investors wishing to tap into sports betting.
Industry specialists say 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 both established in Nigeria in the last two years while Italy's Goldbet led the trend, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm released 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 consumers to avoid the stigma of gambling in public implied online deals would grow.
But in spite of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was important to have a store network, not least due to the fact that many clients still stay reluctant to spend online.
He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering stores typically function as social centers where customers can see soccer complimentary of charge while positioning bets.
At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, lots of soccer fans gathered to enjoy Nigeria's last heat up video 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 started 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)