Two countries of the same continent that might be thousands of miles apart, though which share numerous traits when it comes to one of the biggest growing industries in numerous African nations.
Online gambling in Nigeria and South Africa is enjoying a considerable boom, with a significant amount of investment being committed to the countries to provide their eager customers with the necessary infrastructure that is needed.
Both of these countries have a particularly thriving online sports betting scene, while the popularity of online casino (slots and table games) is also increasing. However, there are slight differences between the two countries from a regulatory standpoint.
What are the regulatory differences between Nigeria and South Africa?
Most notably, South Africa was the first country on the continent to establish legitimate gambling regulations, with officials working hard to make sure that these were clear and easy to understand.
It means that the National Gaming Board in the country keeps an eye on gambling activity, meanwhile, there are individual gambling boards that have been established in each of the nine provinces in South Africa.
Online sports betting is highly sought after in the country – especially horse racing which has soared in popularity over the years, with numerous events taking place across the nation every year. This, of course, attracts considerable wagering interest from customers and, ultimately, is one of the major sports.
From an online casino standpoint, these are only allowed to set up if they have a legitimate licence in place from the National Gaming Board. As a result, this has helped the country to on-board a number of online casinos, however, only a few of these have become very popular.
One of the ways in which South Africa based casino operators have incentivised new customers is with non-deposit bonuses, which have become increasingly rare in the industry over the last few years, though can act as a good hook.
In Nigeria, all sports betting activities are subject to scrutiny from the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for the approval and issuance of gambling licences to interested parties.
As opposed to South Africa though, the country is prohibited from offering online casino activities (slots and table games), however sports betting and lotteries are allowed.
The former is considerably popular in Nigeria, with football in particular being the main sports betting market.
What infrastructure is in place to support online gambling in both countries?
Over the last few years, both countries have witnessed a significant amount of change – especially with the amount of investment that has been committed towards supporting such industries like online gambling.
In particular, the telecommunications sector has been the subject of considerable change, with multiple international investors pouring capital into both countries to support related industries such as fintech. Payment technology has been central to the development of online gambling over the last decade and these are two countries that are almost leading the way in this sector.
Nigeria, certainly, has witnessed major growth, accounting for most of the continent’s telecommunication infrastructure, with this playing a vital part in supporting the online gambling industry.
Mobile betting has become increasingly popular over the last few years and Nigeria is a country that has seen major development of devices that enables this.
South Africa, meanwhile, perhaps does not quite have the same level of investment, however, mobile gambling is still prevalent across the country.
In terms of population, Nigeria dwarfs South Africa significantly, with the former boasting over 200 million, compared to just 60 million of its rival, signalling that in terms of revenue, Nigeria has infinitely more potential to become the largest online gambling market on the continent.
Could legislation emerge for online casinos in Nigeria?
There is currently a question mark as to how likely the country is to develop legislation surrounding online casinos. While South Africa has this in place, in addition to sports betting, Nigeria is still somewhat behind.
What will be interesting, is to see how much demand is generated for this in the country over the next couple of years, though there is no doubting the potential that it has, when taking into account all of the different variables.
Certainly, developing markets over the last few years have demonstrated particular proclivity to online slots and table games, with this sector of the industry often being more popular than sports betting.
The demand for these in South Africa has grown since it became legal for online casinos to operate in the country and there is no reason why Nigeria won’t follow suit.
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