- December 07, 2022
African Online Gambling Industry in Need of Regulation
With the boom in the online sports betting industry in Africa in recent years, the need for open customer protection laws has become very urgent.
A football fan reacted when Nigeria and Argentina missed a goal at a public observation center in Lagos, South Africa, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Following the Nigerian Sports Book, MSport changed its policy overnight earlier this month to avoid paying bettors the winnings they won. As a result, the industry was immediately met with backlash.
Many bettors believe this is an excess on the company's part.
The famous account @MayorofTwitter of the sports betting scene in Nigeria has issued what insiders call the "game of yes."
The sports betting industry has transformed its transactions from brick-and-mortar to a fully online model.
Of course, the game is almost certain to win the prediction. After years of monitoring sports and their results, popular bettors in the field often make these predictions by announcing their qualifications as experts and increasing their bragging rights in the field. Sometimes, they share certain games with their followers on Twitter or blogs for a fee. Other times they do it as a giveaway.
With the rise of Telegram chat rooms in the field, the sports betting community in Nigeria has built a community of bettors who passes codes to each other to make predictions, with a good chance of winning millions of Naira (NGN), Nigeria's currency.
With the power of this network, the betting code with 440 odds went viral online, wagering NGN 7,500 and guaranteeing voucher bettors to win up to NGN 5.5 million, including bonuses.
This game won many bettors at the same time. However, MSport, the sports betting platform that played the game, changed its policy overnight. After the match was played and won, the expected win rate dropped significantly to below NGN 1.5 million.
Now, it's not uncommon for sportsbooks to lower match odds when bettors place bets. When it is clear that many users are playing with one odd, it is standard practice for them to lower the odds at which they bet.
Unusually, the betting company changes the odds after the end, and the outcome is known. This is what happened to MSport, which caused many Nigerians to be outraged on Twitter.
As a result, the "MSportScam" hashtag became popular on Twitter.
Turning point
After claiming that MSport fraudulently bettors bubbled to the top of Twitter's trending table, the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLCR) invited the company with a promise in a tweet that "MSport will pay all winnings as soon as possible and unlock all blocked accounts within a short period of time." NLCR is a federal agency responsible for licensing Nigerian gaming companies.
The situation was a turning point for MSport. NLCR met with MSport's representative, Funmilola Akingbelu. After that, it announces that bettors will receive their winnings as soon as possible. The incident occurred on social media, with NLCR Director General, Lanre Gbaja, promising an investigation into the matter.
Gbaja tweeted, "The NLRC is responsible for dealing with issues related to this complaint, and we strive to resolve all issues amicably among the various stakeholders. Rest assured, the Commission has been focused on tackling illegal practices and fraudulent activities in the gaming industry."
As bettors began to receive NLCR's claims, an apparent resolution was passed after the meeting.
Violation history
Just last year, in Cameroon, sports betting company 1xBet refused to pay a user who won a USD 22 million bet. This strategy has become all too familiar to the average bettor and it sparked riots in the country.
Similarly, in March this year, another Nigerian bookmaker, SportyBet, changed its terms to reduce the maximum prize from NGN 30 million to NGN 25 million after users won a claim of around NGN 7 million.
Strategies like this have made sports betting a controversial issue worldwide. For example, sports betting has been outlawed entirely in Germany. Then, the decision to regulate the sports betting industry in the United States has been bombarded by states.
Moreover, the debate over regulations is still ongoing in the United Kingdom, where sports betting is booming. For example, those in the football industry currently, such as players, coaches, club owners, etc., are banned from betting on football in the United Kingdom.
GamCare is an independent charity in the United Kingdom. It provides information, advice, and support to anyone affected by gambling problems across the United Kingdom to ensure sportsbooks follow best practices.
Some bettors have reported that their accounts are emptied after they use their debit cards to pay odds on the sportsbook platform.
However, little has been done to protect them or ensure they get answers. It may be because the industry is not closely monitored by the government and is often regulated by toothless regulators to uphold best practices.
NLRC's New Move
The NLRC's new move to rein in the power of these sportsbooks, led by Lanre Gbaja, feels like a long-awaited pause from the seeming irregularities that have occurred in the space for years.
"Our voices were heard. What we want is a fair and safe gambling environment. There was no cheating," LouieDi13, another popular in the online gambling industry, tweeted about Gbaja's move.
Moving Forward
While this move is crucial in determining the future of Nigeria's sports betting industry, the NLRC still needs to get the job done before it can boast a safe and healthy betting environment in the country, as requested by its users.
However, the regulation of the industry is not only about how bookmakers behave in the field. It must also include how bettors behave in the field.
The NLRC also needs to find ways to ensure that the odds system is fair to all parties involved. Therefore, there is still a lot of work to be done. NLRC is just taking its first steps.