W’Africa Sports Betting Conference

In a bid to discuss the specific strategies of growth and market development for West Africa’s sports betting and lottery sector and look into the challenges and opportunities of entering West African gaming markets, the maiden edition of Sports Betting West Africa conference/Exhibition has been launched.

The exhibition, held in Lagos at Eko Hotel brought together participants representing Africa and European facing sports books, gaming companies and industry experts to discuss the strategies needed to excel in sports betting and lottery markets. The submit also covered the latest online and mobile sports betting innovation, new sports betting regulations, player acquisition approaches for sports betting and the future of gaming in Africa.

While presenting his key note address, Lanre Gbajabi- amila, CEO, Lagos State Lotteries Board, Nigeria disclosed that the conference was brought to Lagos since Lagos state is the pioneer regulator of the gaming industry, adding that a lot of people see sports betting as gambling because they have not been enlightened about what the industry is all about.

Yhaya Maikori, Partner, Law Allianz & President, Nigeria Gaming Association noted that the sports betting business is barely 20 per cent of the market potential as there are many places in Nigeria where there are no betting shops.

According to him, “For Lagos alone, unutilised potential is about N30 to 40 billion annually. The biggest companies in Europe are online, and whether there is legislation or not, people can bet on their phones and make money, while the states are losing.”