Casinos and endless entertainment are primarily what Las Vegas in the US is known for.
But back home in Nigeria, those involved in casino and sports betting are discriminated against by the larger society. In an interview, Yahaya Maikori, the president of the Nigeria Gaming Association (NGA), speaks on the success and challenges of the industry back home in Nigeria. Excerpt.
Betting is becoming very popular in Nigeria with the likes of Naija Bet, 1960 Bet amongst others.What is fueling this revolution as far sports betting is concerned in Nigeria?
Yes. It may seem revolutionary but it is not entirely a new thing. It started with pools betting which has been around even from when we were children. However the revolution you talk about is now fueled by several things which include access to media, technology and the internet, which have now brought sports even to our mobile phones. Also, the emergence of big brands like the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, etc.
Some of these companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars have in the process of building their brands embarked on some form of evangelization attracting massive followership across the globe. The passion sports evokes has contributed immensely to the popularity of sports betting. Sports betting means to bet on a sporting event. Since Nigerians are sports loving people, getting people from just enjoying a game to staking cash on what they are passionate about is really easy.
Tell our readers what they might not know about the Nigeria Gaming Association (NGA).
The association started about five years ago when we started having issues with some of the government regulatory bodies. First we started as Association of Casino Operators of Nigeria (ACON), and as time went on, we started to notice the growth of other areas like sports betting, online, etc.
So, we decided to broaden the association to cover the whole gaming industry. Currently, our trustees represent different sectors of the industry. The idea is to create a platform for the advancement of our common interest as well as liaise with relevant institutions particularly government to build an economically viable industry for all stakeholders.
The manner in which you talk about ‘gaming industry’ suggests to me that we have an industry here in Nigeria. In actual sense, do we really have gaming industry yet?
Oh we have a very big gaming industry, probably bigger than what you imagine. In an interview some time back I stated that sports betting were a N40 billion industry annually. But with the information currently available to me now, I know sport betting in Nigeria is much bigger than that and that is only one side of the story. We have casino, we have lottery, promos, poker, video games and apps, etc.
The Nigerian Lottery Act defines lottery to include “any game of chance or game of skill”. If you use that definition, you will find out that the issue is gone beyond your traditional perception of the industry. It also means that promos sponsored by corporate organizations fall into this space; these include those by telcos, banks, FMCGs, etc.
Traditionally, when we talk about the gaming industry, we tend to limit it to only when people stake money but it goes way beyond that. When you text for the purpose of winning something or when you play Candy Crush or Angry Birds on your phone or laptop it means you are actively engaged at some level in the industry.
Yahaya Maikori
In terms of size, sports betting alone is conveniently over N100 billion in revenues annually. There is a report that says Nigerians stake N1.4 billion every day on sports betting, although I don’t know the basis of that report. But that begins to give you an insight into how big the industry possibly is. Even looking at some of the information I am privy to reinforce those projections. We haven’t even talked about lottery, which is surprisingly still bigger than sport betting.
