The Rise of Betting in Africa
From time immemorial, betting has been a part of the activities in human lives. As with many things today, betting has evolved as a result of technology. Betting has different forms but sports betting has gained more traction in Africa betting. As a result, the focus of this exposition will be on Africa betting as it relates to sports.
Betting has transcended from when punters placed bets during Gladiator fights to the present time, where a gambler can involve in betting activities right from his home.
In Africa, the betting space is experiencing a trajectory growth. Experts even revealed that Africa betting can contribute to positive change in the economy of the continent.
To fully cover the rise of Africa betting, this exposition would take us through the present state of Africa betting, factors affecting its growth, the advent of online betting, and the influence of online betting to the rise of betting in Africa.
Its Present State
As pointed out earlier, sports betting is more popular in the Africa betting space. Precisely, bets on horse racing and soccer is the main focus of Africa sports betting. Since the 15th century, the people of North Africa have gathered a lot of interest in horse racing activities.
As it relates to football betting, Africans have more than 70 years in the practice. Today, sports betting in Africa has spread steadily than it did five years ago. The advent of online betting has also contributed to the high rise.
Before we look into that, let’s go over some factors that have led to the rise of Africa betting in general.
Factors Leading to the Rise
When a survey on betting was carried out by the government of South Africa, the results revealed that over 50% of adults in South Africa are involved in sports betting activities. Even in Nigeria, research has shown that more than 60 million Nigerians within the ages of 18 and 40 are involved in different sports betting related activities.
It was also discovered that on a daily basis, an average of 15 USD is spent on sports betting activities. What could be the factors affecting the steady growth experienced in the Africa betting space? Let’s look at a few of them:
- The Love of Africans Towards Sports
It is no news that Africans are really enthusiastic and participatory when it comes to sports. In the continent, football is one of the most loved sports that triggers a lot of participation.
Apart from football, sports like running, rugby, horse racing, and cricket, have also gathered a lot of attention from the African people.
In the area of football, Africans always show their undying love for d support for European leagues and other events hosted by FIFA. During time for live football matches, all local bars and viewing centres are always filled with people who are keenly following the events that unfold in the matches.
Not only do they just watch the games, they also have the opportunity to place bets on them. These various leagues have also introduced opportunities through which football fans can also place their bets on the outcome of the game. In this way, the football fans are also opportuned to get earning rewards from their passion.
African punters usually go for top European leagues when they want to place their bets, because they possess more earning power. Examples of those top European leagues include La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and EPL.
Apart from these listed ones, UEFA Europa and UEFA Champions League are other European tournaments that punters can utilize to express their betting power.
- Massive Youthful Population in Africans
The rate at which Africa betting is growing is largely based on the population of its youths. This is due to the fact that, majority of participants in sports betting are youths. According to reports, more than 200 million people in Africa are between the ages of 18 and 24. As a result, this has led to the rise of betting in Africa.
- Increased Unemployment Rates
In Africa today, there is an alarming increase in the rate of unemployment. So many unemployed youths have increased in their numbers in Africa. Even in countries like Nigeria and Ghana, there are still cases whereby highly educated youths still lack employment. As a result, these youths are forced to find earning opportunities, which may eventually lead to betting.
Betting presents earning opportunities for young people. Therefore, the increase of the rates of unemployment in the continent have pushed youths to save into betting in order to make a living. Punters in Africa can place bets with as small as $1 and this makes it easily accessible to unemployed African youths in the society.
As local and foreign companies have gained entrance into the betting space, these youth can easily get involved in mobile sports betting. To them, this is an earning opportunity through which they can make a living from the comfort of their homes. This presents the power of technology in the introduction of online betting.
Advent of Online Betting
The entrance of mobile betting into the gambling industry has led to a massive growth in the industry. This presents convenience and also reduces the crowd at betting houses, which has discouraged some persons from participating. With the intrusion of online betting sites like Beltway, Africans are not left behind in this new technology.
Africa is one of the continents that has a rapidly growing number of sports betting fans. Though there are certain sports associated with Africa betting, there is also a new wave in sports betting, mostly associated with the advent of mobile betting. It is common knowledge that in Africa, football is the most popular of all sports.
In addition to football, there are other sports that have become popular in Africa betting. Some of those sports include volleyball, boxing, rugby, athletics and basketball. The advent of mobile betting platforms has led to easy access by Africans to place their bets.
These mobile betting sites has onboarded many fans who have been active participants in Africa betting. These international online betting sites enable African users to create their own user account and easily place their bets through their mobile phones.
Youths in Africa have easy access to their smartphone through which they can leverage on these platforms. For this reason, international betting platforms have taken advantage of the market potential through their sports betting sites. Most of these platforms also carry out operations in other continents of the world.
The intrusion of smartphones and the dogged marketing strategies by betting companies has led to the increase of online betting. Several wagers have also been placed on sporting events that always attract punters. Over the last few years, more sportbooks have entered into the African betting space.
Influence of Online Betting in Africa
Majority of betting enthusiasts in Africa have registered accounts on foreign online betting platforms. Most of these platforms have operated in different jurisdictions but have experienced tremendous growth in Africa. Online betting has greatly influenced the growth of Africa betting and these are some of the reasons:
- Availability of Mobile Betting Platforms
There are numerous mobile betting apps now available on both Android and iOS betting platforms. Many African punters have leveraged on the use of these mobile betting platforms. In Africa, a very large number of its population who are above 18 years have access to mobile devices, whether they own one or not.
Easy access to these mobile devices has also made it possible for punters to have accounts with one or more betting platforms. The ease of betting on sports events from the comfort of your location as a result of Mobile betting has also led to the rise of Africa Betting.
- Mobile Money and its Convenience
Africa has experienced numerous developments and the significant growth of money has been a great deterrent. Mobile money has caused ease of transaction in many marketplaces, and the betting industry is not left out. Through mobile money, people can easily place their bets online without necessarily having cash at hand.
Launched in the early 2000s, M-Pesa from Safaricom has become a turning point for different industries through their mobile money services. Together with other mobile money platforms, M-Pesa has collaborated with several betting platforms to provide users with quicker means to carry out payment services.
Other payment options like Skrill, MasterCard and Neteller have also given online punters the liberty to easily place bets on their favourite games.
- Proliferation of Multiple Betting Companies into Africa
Over the years, many local and foreign betting platforms have been introduced into Africa. This has led to competitions from the different betting companies to gain customers. For this reason, marketing and advert campaigns from the betting companies have been on the rise.
As a result of the aggressive marketing strategies employed by these companies, awareness has been created among the general public. Many Africans are sports enthusiasts, therefore, advertisements through the use of different media has played an active role in increasing participation.
Some betting companies also offer lots of amazing bonuses which entices multitude of sports fans into the betting journey.
- Favourable Gambling Guidelines and Regulations
Gambling regulations in Africa betting are different from the ones present in America and Europe. In most Americans and European countries, their gambling regulations are so strict that betting companies find it hard to proliferate into the market.
The reasons for these regulations are to protect customers against frauds and cyber attacks. As most of these African nations are categorised by their third-world economies, the environment has become welcoming to foreign investments. As a result, betting companies can easily proliferate into the African market.
For over 7 decades, Africans have participated in betting practices. Even as technology and the convenience of mobile money has increased Africa betting, more innovations will also arise to make betting a more appealing venture.
The growing penetration of the internet, coupled with love for sports, Africans will continue to participate in betting events. On this premise, the rise of Africa betting has no end in sight.
This is why Africa is a top destination for companies or individuals who want to enter into the gaming industry or who already are in the gaming industry but seeking new markets.
Countries like Tanzania have a great potential as the government are looking to encourage foreign investments to improve the economy.
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