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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is growing in soccer-mad Nigeria mainly thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown innovation companies that are starting to make online companies more viable.

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

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting firms states the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are altering mindsets towards online deals.

"We have actually seen substantial development in the number of payment options that are available. All that is absolutely altering the video gaming area," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's commercial capital.

"The operators will go with whoever is quicker, whoever can link to their platform with less issues 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 an increase in web payments, according to information 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 a total 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 nearly 190 million, increasing smart phone usage and falling data expenses, Nigeria has actually long been seen as a terrific opportunity for online businesses - once consumers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gaming companies say that is occurring, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services stays a challenge for pure online retailers.

British online wagering firm Betway opened its first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It released in Nigeria in January.

"There is a progressive shift to online now, that is where the industry is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya said.

"The growth in the number of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has helped the business to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start operating in Nigeria," he stated.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze worked up by Nigeria's involvement in the World Cup state they are discovering the payment systems produced by regional start-ups such as Paystack are proving popular online.

Paystack and another local startup Flutterwave, both founded in 2016, are supplying competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was established in 2002 and was the main platform utilized by businesses operating in Nigeria.

"We added Paystack as one of our payment alternatives without any fanfare, without revealing to our consumers, and within a month it soared to the primary most pre-owned payment alternative on the site," said Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He stated NairaBET, the nation's 2nd biggest sports betting firm, now had 2 million regular consumers on its site, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice because it was included late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who got early phase funding in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator program.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from financiers including 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 each and every single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of development.

He said an ecosystem of developers had actually emerged around Paystack, developing software to integrate the platform into websites. "We have seen a development in that neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," said Quartey.

Paystack stated it enables payments for a variety of sports betting companies however likewise a large range of services, from utility services to transport companies to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Aboyeji, is also backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with investor 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 coincided with the arrival of foreign financiers wishing to use sports betting.

Industry experts state the sector generates 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 set up in Nigeria in the last two years while Italy's Goldbet led the pattern, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split between shops and online however the ease of electronic payments, cost of running shops and capability for customers to prevent the stigma of gambling in public suggested online transactions would grow.

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was essential to have a store network, not least due to the fact that lots of clients still remain hesitant to invest online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had an extensive network. Nigerian wagering stores typically function as social hubs where customers can see soccer totally free of charge while placing bets.

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

Richard Onuka, a factory employee who makes 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He said he began gambling three months back and bets up to 1,000 naira a day.

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