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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 developed by homegrown innovation companies that are starting to make online organizations more feasible.

For several years, mobile payments stopped working to remove in Nigeria as they have in countries such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have actually fostered a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish internet speeds have actually held Nigerian online customers back however wagering companies says the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering attitudes towards .

"We have seen considerable growth in the variety of payment options that are available. All that is certainly altering the video gaming area," said 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 concerns and glitches," he stated, adding that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State rose 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 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 almost 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, rising mobile phone use and falling data costs, Nigeria has long been viewed as a great opportunity for online companies - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming companies say that is taking place, though reaching the 10s of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a challenge for pure online sellers.

British online wagering firm 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 industry is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya said.

"The development in the number of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has helped business to flourish. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin running in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

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

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are offering competition for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform utilized by services operating in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment choices with no excitement, without announcing to our clients, and within a month it shot up to the primary most used payment alternative on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the nation's second most significant sports betting company, now had 2 million regular consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment choice because it was included in late 2017.

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

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 mad Ikeja district of Lagos, said the number of month-to-month 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 growth.

He said a community of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, developing software application to incorporate the platform into sites. "We have actually seen a growth because neighborhood and they have brought us along," said Quartey.

Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a variety of wagering firms however also a wide range of businesses, from energy services to transport business to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator program 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 accompanied the arrival of foreign investors wishing to use sports betting wagering.

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 developed.

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 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi stated its sales were divided in between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, expense of running shops and ability for customers to prevent the preconception of gambling in public suggested online transactions would grow.

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

He stated the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian sports betting stores frequently serve as social centers where consumers can watch soccer complimentary of charge while positioning bets.

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

Richard Onuka, a factory employee who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He stated he started gambling three months earlier and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

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