Bet on the stars

The industry emerged unannounced, taking off from the ashes of previously popular football pools.Today, sports betting or gaming, as it is called locally, is big business in Nigeria.

In the past five years, the industry has grown in leaps and bounds, attracting new entrepreneurs and higher patronage.

With outlets now numbering over 300, scattered across the country, most entrepreneurs in the business are Asians (particularly, Indians and Lebanese) who see the opportunity in a country where there is much love for sports.

Information on the Lagos State Lottery Board’s website indicates that there are eight gaming enterprises in Lagos alone, with more than 102 outlets.

Across Southern and Central Nigeria, as is the case with Lagos, most gaming outlets are in metropolitan centres where office space is scarce and expensive.“What we did was to repackage something that has always existed. We made it a more refined and sophisticated endeavour,” says Olu Makinwa, the managing directors of an outlet in the Ojuelegba area of Lagos. “Many of our clients love sports and are interested in getting more out of it, so we offer them the opportunity to do so.”

There is evidence that gaming is posting positive returns, especially for those who run the business.

These days, young managers clad in three-piece suits run several gaming outlets,synchronising activities (across five to 20 outlets in different locations),with internet enabled computers. Outlets are often fitted with large flats screen TV sets and air-conditioners.

Also, it is common to see big buses wrapped with advert materials promoting the industry; full page adverts and billboards have been adopted for advertising.

In recent times, the yahoomail login page has been used to spread the word as well. “Each customer comes in with as little as N200 or as much as N10,000. In some cases, the amount they stake is more and the customers continue to increase.

Most of our customers make money, betting on stars and established patterns in sports history,” says an operator. “During the work week, I receive between 60 to 100 clients daily, while on weekends, an average of between 180 and 200 patronise us,” says Makinwa. “But this is apart from those who bet remotely,” that is, those that place bets directly from their homes using phones and computers. “No matter where they are, they have to come to our office to register as new entrants, after which they can place bets from wherever they are in the world,” adds Makinwa. This he followed with an anarchical grin, in demonstration of how well the industry has deployed technology.

Their customers are young men and women who are either working class or tertiary institution students who have a common interest in games, especially soccer. They see sports betting as a better alternative to lotteries organised by state governments and other institutions.

“Lottery is about placing money on the probability that a set of number will occur when randomly selected or the probability that an event will occur. With sports betting the options are endless, different scenarios which are often predictable can be betted on even as the game is being played,” says Mutiu Taiwo, a customer. “And what’s more interesting is that you see and understand what’s going on, you are actually rewarded for guessing right about events which will occur in a live match which everybody is watching,” he says.

Most of the players believe that a combination of knowledge of the sport, the risk taking appetite of a player,and ability to read the game, make the difference. They believe that winning is a matter of clear understanding.

Over the years, the government has made effort to regulate gaming; there is the age restriction, as only adults are allowed. Also betting house are under obligation to inform players of the risks. In 1990, the government passed the Criminal Code Act to clarify what exactly constitutes illegal gambling and what does not.This law is the basis of how betting business is run currently and has served as the benchmark for most states,though states have modified it to suit their environments and tax purposes.

Though the development of sports betting has not been even across the country, most states have their lottery boards that regulate betting activities.

Most states government have regulations on their websites. Each state has imposed its own rules to make the activity well regulated.

In Lagos,betting companies pay N5 million as annual licence fee, the state also takes 2.5 percent of gross income monthly, while in Rivers State, annual licence fee is N2 million, and a fixed charge which is collected from time to time also applies.

At the company’s level, clear posters in betting offices indicate the official age for participants (and warn youngsters to stay out), the risks to potential customers. They also highlight the fact that the best gamers are those who calculate the cost/benefits of their actions before taking steps.

There is no clear estimate of the value of betting going on in Nigeria, but the number of new betting companies springing up, their sophistication and the number of transactions they execute, signal that the industry has grown steadily.

Though religious debates around betting still rage, “it has contributed to employment and government finances,”says Tunji Akiolu, who manages a betting business. “Look at these young people in our employment,” he says, pointing to his workers, “most of them were jobless when they first came here, today, they have a means of livelihood.”

But the impact of betting on the economy will probably not be clear in the near future. This is not the case in other climes.

A report by Deloitte indicatesthat in the United Kingdom, sports betting now accounts for £2.3 billion(N639.4bn) in Gross Value Added and 38,800 full-time equivalent jobs. In most of the Eurozone, the contribution of gaming to GDP has inched up from lower than 1 percent to almost 5 percent.

This is enormous considering the sizes of most of the economies in the zone.In 2001, a report by the Financial Times of London indicated that “Singapore’s two casinos generated revenues of $5.9 billion, just behind the $6.1 billion earned by casinos in Las Vegas.The contribution of the industry in Nigeria will remain unknown because records are still scare and scanty.