The eyes of the international betting sector are firmly fixed on the opportunities and intricacies of the developing Latin American sector. Whilst the potential of the South American markets, particularly Brazil, are undoubtedly huge, they are not the only areas of focus for some operators.
Take 888AFRICA, for example. The joint venture went live in 2022, and has built up a strong presence across some of Africa’s biggest betting jurisdictions – Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Operating in this range of markets does not come without its challenges though – particularly when it comes to payments.
Speaking to Payment Expert for SBC Leaders earlier this year, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer Alex Rutherford and Head of Payments Emmanuel Mwaisoloka, highlighted two defining characteristics of African betting payments. These are the significant role of telecoms companies, which Rutherford states “are the local payments industry”, and the preference for mobile money among customers across most markets, with the notable exception of Angola.
“It’s mobile money and there’s various flavours,” Rutherford explains. “What you’ve got is a continent where there are something like 350 mobile wallets, and they’re all offered by the telcos.
“Whether we offer it via a direct connection or through aggregation via a mobile wallet, it’s all the same thing. That tends to be the most popular, that’s what is in DRC, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique.”
Mwaisoloka elaborates: “I think the main thing is that people are not that interested in banks, that’s why mobile money is the best option for people to use. The slow pick up of banks is causing mobile money to pick up better.”
When lightning strikes
Maintaining a steady payments network across a broad African betting landscape is no easy task, and infrastructural problems are frequent. Issues with individual mobile networks, ageing technologies and hardware are just some of the challenges 888AFRICA has faced.
Challenges are often the result of conditions out of any operator’s control. For example, flooding and bad weather in Mozambique knocked out a number of the telcos that betting firms are dependent on for payment service.
“If we leave aside the outages, usually post-integration support is crazy,” Mwaisoloka adds. “Just to get someone to assist on fixing something or at least to understand what the problem is and fix it, it’s usually a mess that might take even weeks just for them to get back to you on support.”
Dealing with these issues is a day-to-day task for operators like 888AFRICA. It is also a day-to-day task for bettors across their broader lives as well, however, and Rutherford observes that customers will often have multiple payment methods at hand.
Regardless, as in any betting market, not meeting a customer’s payment demand will have negative consequences for any bookmaker. Citing Tanzania as an example of a particularly busy market, Rutherford explains that customers can often “bounce around” different operators when facing a payments issue with one.
This happens despite the fact that most operators will be relying on the same telcos for payments infrastructure, therefore the issue will be affecting everyone. Eventually, when the issue has been fixed, the customer may have landed on one of your competitors.
“We’re constantly looking at ways we can make sure customers get as broad a range as possible and ensure that at least their service with us is disrupted as little as possible,” he says.
Bouncy customers
The African betting markets also benefit from local innovation and technological development. Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region may be some of the geographic leaders in fintech, but Africa is home to its own thriving industry.
“There is a hell of a lot of innovation on the ground and some really exciting stuff that you don’t see to the same degree as in Europe,” Rutherford says about local paytech industries.
“You’re working with emerging technologies and there’s a lot of enthusiasm, dynamism around how we can make things better for the customer. Everything is done with customers front of mind.
“There are a lot of highly innovative start-ups working in technology. Customers vote with their feet, if it adds value for them they will adopt it very quickly. If it doesn’t, it’s very easy to tell when people have had a good idea but the only thing they’ve thought of is their own success and not how it will improve customers’ lives. It’s easy to spot that.”
To balance against challenges and prevent customers from being acquired by rivals due to payments difficulties, communication is also essential to 888AFRICA’s operations, through customer service teams and onsite messaging.
Communication extends beyond the customer however and across the breadth of wider national payments ecosystems – again, the telcos are extremely important here, but equally important are regulators.
Maintaining a close relationship with both the telcos and regulators is essential for 888AFRICA’s country managers. As Head of Payments, meeting with and cultivating good partnerships with both is also a key priority for Mwaisoloka.
Rutherford remarks: “We’re dealing with markets which are often less mature than European markets, and in some cases they are shaping their regulations.
“We’re able to bring learnings from a more mature market into helping them shape regulations. At the same time we are acting with responsible gaming, KYC and AML at the top of our considerations.”
Ultimately, the main consideration operators must have in mind when meeting the payments requirements of African bettors, whatever the market, is to ensure that people get paid, that money is deposited back in their accounts.
Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and with a passionate sports culture and large young demographic, the potential of its betting markets cannot be understated. Technological development, including in payments, will be vital in driving these sectors forward.
“This is a very dynamic, very exciting and fast-changing landscape,” Rutherford concludes. “I think it is extremely fragmented and what we will see is a large amount of consolidation among both the technologies and the major players in these spaces, which will probably squeeze out quite a bit of the Innovation particularly when you’re looking in the aggregation space, but it’s a very fast-moving and exciting place to be.”
