Africa Focus
KEEPING
SPORTS BETTING
SIMPLE
Henrik Mandal argues accessibility, not reinventing the wheel,
is the key to accessing the African market
The beauty of sports betting is its many forms of presentation,
from live in-play betting with animated live widget display, real-
time statistics and instant odds updates, to static and printed odds
bulletins and daily odds posted on Facebook, Twitter and via SMS.
In Africa we witness it all, a diversified environment that for many
would seem more confusing than could be considered possible –
except to the African player.
Over recent years I have been heavily involved in the rollouts of
more than 20 sports betting systems across the African continent.
While each project is different, there is always the one commonality:
the unstoppable appetite for betting on football. And you would be
surprised to learn how many ways the African player can place their
bets. What drives this is the myriad ways they can send and receive
money – they can even organise an instant transfer without having
access to the internet, just by accessing the GSM network.
I have realised that sports betting in Africa is very different
from betting in Europe, Central or Southeast Asia, North or South
America. It’s different because the African players adapt to sports
content in a way that is unlike the rest of the world. Other regions
keep inventing more betting markets, faster live betting, cash out
variations and more advanced statistics, but Africa simplifies sports
betting by enabling it everywhere and to everyone.
Similar to betting operators in Europe,
Africa offers betting via mobile phones, or
more specifically Android smartphones.
But they also offer ‘lite’ mobile apps
because network infrastructure is
still an issue in most territories.
With an impressive GSM network
coverage, betting is also offered
via short codes and USSD menus
that are available for anyone
with a GSM signal, even on a
feature phone.
Over the years I have seen
some interesting findings on how
African players are playing on sports. For every bet struck on an
operator’s desktop site, over nine bets are placed via smartphone.
And for every bet from a smartphone, another 16 bets are
placed from a light mobile proxy browser. If we add the bets
accepted via SMS and USSD we learn that the proportion of
bets made on operators’ desktop and smartphone sites account
for less than 35% of the total bets accepted. And this is what
European-focused operator and gaming providers offer in the
African market.
“Africa simplifies sports betting
by enabling it everywhere
and to everyone ”
Perhaps the biggest misconception among operators is that most
African players are in possession of a smartphone. Looking more
closely at how African players are communicating and transacting
with gaming operators, I believe the vast majority of players are
placing their bets from the more primitive, simple interfaces
available to them.
This brings us to the next exciting chapter that will soon unfold
in the African territories. With the emergence of bots and artificial
intelligence and the impact of messenger apps, we have already
started building prototypes where players communicate directly
with text-based messages and onboarding dialogues on SMS or
messenger apps. Except this time we don’t need to use betting codes
or cryptic abbreviations, just native dialogue between the players and
gaming operators.
Sports betting in Africa is not about reinventing the odds markets
or the types of bets you offer players. It’s about making it publicly
accessible and simple. Oh, and onboarding the players to play on
their preferred channel – not yours!
Henrik Mandal is the co-founder and managing director of Motion Tiger,
a provider of gaming systems in fast-growing emerging markets.
With a strong focus on African betting and innovative technologies,
Motion Tiger offers sports betting, gaming platform and mobile money
integrations to licensed gaming operators.
i GamingBusiness | Issue 112 | September/October 2018
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