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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is expanding in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems established by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online services more practical.

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

Fear of electronic scams and sluggish web speeds have held Nigerian online consumers back however sports betting firms says the new, fast digital payment systems underpinning their sites are altering mindsets towards online transactions.

"We have seen substantial development in the variety of payment options that are offered. All that is absolutely changing the video gaming space," 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 link to their platform with less problems and glitches," he said, adding that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State rose 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth has 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 licensed banks.

In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth an overall 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 use and falling data expenses, Nigeria has actually long been viewed as a terrific chance for online services - once consumers feel comfy with electronic payments.

Online gambling companies state that is happening, though reaching the tens of millions of Nigerians without access to banking services remains an obstacle for pure online sellers.

British online wagering company Betway opened its very first African company in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It launched 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 stated.

"The growth in the variety of fintechs, and the government as an enabler, has assisted the company to grow. These technological shifts encouraged Betway to begin operating in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting companies cashing in on the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's involvement on the planet Cup state they are finding the payment systems produced by regional startups 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 set up in 2002 and was the primary platform used by services running in .

"We added Paystack as one of our payment options without any excitement, without revealing to our customers, and within a month it soared to the primary most secondhand payment option on the site," stated Akin Alabi, creator of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's 2nd most significant sports betting firm, now had 2 million regular clients on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack remained the most popular payment choice considering that it was included in late 2017.

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

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 frenetic Ikeja district of Lagos, said the variety 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 every single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

He said an environment of designers had emerged around Paystack, producing software to incorporate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a growth in that neighborhood and they have actually carried us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack said it makes it possible for payments for a variety of sports betting firms however likewise a large range of companies, from utility services to transport companies to insurance provider Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur 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 last year.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have corresponded with the arrival of foreign financiers wanting to take advantage of sports betting wagering.

Industry professionals state the sector creates about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where the 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 was ahead of the trend, taking a 50 percent stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm introduced in 2015.

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

But regardless of advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - said it was very important to have a shop network, not least since numerous customers still remain reluctant to invest online.

He said the company, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting market, had an extensive network. Nigerian sports betting stores often function as social hubs where customers can watch soccer complimentary of charge while positioning bets.

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

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who makes 25,000 naira a month, was focused on a TV screen inside. He said he began sports betting 3 months ago and bets as much as 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have 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)