The internet and the dynamics of the tech market has provided hope and opportunity where none existed before.
Africa remains a most intriguing front for expansion of online gambling.
African Expansion is Real
In the notoriously impoverished region, the expansion of online gambling turns remains as realistic as anywhere else, with huge growth potential.
Growth Starts at Zero
Skeptics forget that as recently as fifteen years ago, the majority of American homes did not even have regular access to the Internet. Today, an estimated 3.17 billion people globally have access to the Internet, having grown an estimated 25 million this year to surpass the 3 billion barrier.
Increasing Online Access
Increases in online access within Africa will open African users and vendors to the vast global audience that exists today, rendering it a true emerging market with untapped potential growing fast in the very near future.
Reports confirm that the internet is being brought to all parts of Africa, including the poorest areas, such as the slums of Nairobi, Africa´s largest national economy.
Spillover Abundance
This has been made logistically possible in Africa through the use of old, used and antiquated technological equipment. The spillover from high-powered tech companies continuously running out products front-loaded with features and state of the art capabilities has turned many functional machines into castoffs, keeping in mind that any working machines up to ten years old or more possess online capabilities.
Saving Africa
Today, cast-off computers are far cheaper than medicine, furniture, and many food products that that Africans have traditionally so infamously lacked.
New Cheap Labor Market
Africa at this point represents a cheap online labor market, with users able to earn from five dollars a day to large sums of money, proving task support in easily adaptible areas such as web content writing to filling out online surveys.
Web Access and iGaming
It all starts with the Nigerian model. Nigeria´s first officially recognized online wagering took place in 2004, with the launch of the country’s first official online lottery service. Next, three land-based casinos in Lagos and Abuja opened the doors of land-based gambling to Nigerians for the first time. Limited online casino gambling was allowed by authorities in 2013 with the launch of the first roulette-only Nigerian online casino. Currently, a myriad of online play options for Nigerian players are available via popular Android casino apps to standard desktop-friendly destinations.
Nigerian Play
With the exceptions of backgammon, national lottery, card games and the three licensed casinos, the Nigerian criminal code continues to prohibit betting and gambling. However, the Nigerian government does not block their citizens from playing on international sites, rendering Nigerian players an increasingly attractive segment for international operators worldwide.
Internet Chain Value
Current projections project Nigeria’s Internet value chain up to $5.8 trillion by 2020. While the general internet value chain refers to all online activity, the number of people who find entertainment in online gaming is expected to grow.
Mobile Operations
At this point, 25% of Africa’s population of 1 billion is engaged in mobile and Internet operations. By 2018 the mobile betting market in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria can reach $37 billion, with mobile betting the only online gambling activity South Africa is willing to regulate to this point.
WrB Starts New Era
Growth in Africa was in manywayswas officiallylaunched with the Africa´s first ever iGaming summit, the inaugural World Regulatory Briefing Africa (WrB) in Lagos, Nigeria on April 11-12. Here, representatives of the major iGaming companies in East, West and Central Africa, as well as the continent’s major regulators, introduced the opportunities for iGaming in Africa to an international collection of attendees. Organized by Super Show creator ICE Totally Gaming, the success of the event revealed Africa to be a generational opportunity for iGaming investment.