Online Casino Games Advances Coming from Africa

The pace of diversification in the gaming world is moving quickly, and nowhere more quickly than in Africa. Gaming operators who had not even considered online casino games activity or esports involvement are now investing heavily in those sectors in an effort to keep bettors happy with online wagering alternatives.

Some of the latest steps in Africa’s thrust into spearheading online gaming diversification include: 

Nigeria

The Nigerian government has committed to supporting sports betting operators who continue to operate and expand in Nigeria. The government has promised the operators that it will take responsibility to ensure that the industry will continue to operate during the pandemic shutdown. The Nigerian government sees the gaming industry as one that is vital to Nigeria’s economy and it wants to make sure that, when the pandemic is over, the industry will be ready to get up and running quickly.

Recently, Lanre Gbajabiamila, Director General of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) spoke to sports betting permit holders. He assured the licensees that the government is determined that the Nigerian gaming industry -– and in particular, the sports betting sub-sector of the industry -– will not suffer from the closures.

Gbajabiamila called the meeting because he wanted to hear from the licensees about their concerns and needs. “As your regulator, we feel obliged to touch base with you, find out the challenges you are facing in your business and see how we can continue to work together, despite the difficulties occasioned by this ugly pandemic,” he said. “Let me assure everyone that government will do the best it can to protect every business within the industry, we cannot fold our arms and watch our industry with the huge investment therein go down the drain.”

Gbajabiamila expressed his optimism that the Nigerian federal government would give the industry as much support as possible. “Ours is a peculiar industry,” Gbajabiamila said, expressing his believe that, if properly harnessed, the gaming industry can adequately shore up the much needed revenue for the government.  “Yours is to ensure that you all play by the rule, while on the part of the government, we will do all it takes to give needed support for all business to remain viable,”

South Africa

BetGames, one of the world’s leading betting games suppliers for live gaming platforms, has expanded its partnership with the Bet.co.za online and mobile sports betting brand. Thanks to the new agreement the Bet.co.za technology will integrate with the BetGames platform to give the gaming operator SBTech compatibility. 

Bet.co.za will be able to continue to access BetGames.TV’s titles along with recently optimized lottery products. Bet.co.za’s partnership with BetGames is only one of its recent strategic alliances which is geared to help it to expand its global reach. In the meantime, its presence in the South African market will be enhanced.  

BetGames COO Richard Hogg said: “Bet.co.za is a highly respected operator and we’re thrilled to help expand its live betting offering with our cutting-edge suite of games. As an established South African market leader, we are always excited to boost agreements with existing partners and we look forward to working alongside them in the months and years to come.”

Nigerian Lottery

The Quanta blockchain company has acquired a stake in the Nigerian lottery in a deal that aims to reform and regenerate the traditional lottery.  The International Lottery and Gaming Limited (ILGL) signed a contract with Quanta in which a blockchain company would acquire a traditional lottery operator.

There are different types of blockchain companies including large corporations such as IBM which invest in cybercurrency research. Other blockchain companies focus their efforts on the development of blockchain facilitating transactions, mining, storing, testing, deploying and scaling blockchain frameworks. 

Thanks to the new deal with ILGL, blockchain company Quanta is now taking over a quasi-government enterprise in order to make it more efficient and more revenue-producing. The Nigeria lottery is a major source of revenue for the Nigerian government. The government is exploring ways to use cybercurrency transactions to increase its effectiveness as a revenue-producing entity.

Charbel Saadeh, Managing Director of Naija Lottery added that, "ILGL has provided popular and entertaining games to the Nigerian players; we are very excited to collaborate with Quanta to create an even more compelling experience to optimize lottery playing for the 200-million Nigerian market."

Kostas Farris, Group CTO of Quanta said, "This acquisition will usher in an era when innovation compliments tradition, injecting the power of blockchain technology into the lottery business. We are confident that we can make blockchain popular and this acquisition represents a significant base for Quanta to target other emerging markets in Africa and other Continents." 

Tanzania

The WinPrincess casino operator, which has 32 casino venues on 4 continents, is bringing its brand online as it focuses on providing gamers with options to play both on-site (when the casinos reopen after the pandemic subsides) and online.  WinPrincess Tanzania is partnering with the BtoBet iGaming platform provider which will allow it to incorporate digital gaming options into its retail business strategy.

WinPrincess decided to focus on Tanzania because there is a high percentage of gambling enthusiasts in the country and the population of Tanzania is growing quickly. But the company is launching the online platform in Tanzania with an eye on expanding to its other casino sites around the world.

Guven Eraslan, WinPrincess Group Executive Coordinator, said that the decision was purely pragmatic. "Land-based casinos should crisis-proof their operations and diversify online." WinPricess chose BtoBet because the platform provider had extensive experience in integrating video gaming titles into their Neuron 3 platform.

“Like any other company we need to grow to continue to exist,” said Eraslan. “Therefore, we cannot afford to miss any of the opportunities that lie ahead of us……Moreover three of the fastest growing cities in the world are in Tanzania, and thus we firmly believe that Africa is a safe bet if you need a good start in the igaming industry.”