As organizers, what are your expectations for this second edition of SBC Digital Africa?

SBC Digital Africa is the premier online event for the betting and gaming industry in Africa, and features a two-day conference, an interactive exhibition, and a number of networking opportunities. It will bring together industry professionals already working in markets across the continent, along with people from the wider international industry who are looking to expand into the region. It’s a great forum for those people to connect, exchange ideas and talk business.

And there’s a lot for them to discuss. Africa is one of the most exciting regions for the international betting and gaming industry, as it is home to a number of high-growth regulated markets that offer great opportunities for operators, suppliers and affiliates. It also has a number of nations yet to pass legislation to establish regulated online gambling markets, but where there is strong demand from sports fans who want to bet via their smartphones, creating further potentially lucrative opportunities for the industry.

Sports betting has exploded in the last decade in the continent. What are the main markets in Africa, and what are the main challenges and opportunities for the near future?

South Africa is the best-established market and has strong retail and online sectors, but other countries have made rapid progress.

Nigeria’s sports betting industry has grown quickly in recent years, in part because of its favourable regulation and the willingness of the regulator to work closely with operators. Online is particularly popular with the 18-40 demographic, to the extent that the biggest operator Bet9ja has Nigeria’s second most-visited website - it even has more traffic than Facebook!

The biggest issues facing the industry in Nigeria are how to keep those younger customers engaged and how to ensure that it develops the right safer gambling strategies.

Sports betting is also hugely popular in Kenya and Tanzania. However, governments in both nations have amended gambling legislation in the last two years, which has presented operators with new challenges related to taxation and advertising to tackle if they are to continue to thrive.

One other market to keep an eye on is Ghana. The country boasts one of the world’s fastest growing economies and also has well-established online and retail sports betting sectors. While there is already strong competition, there is also a feeling within the industry that not all the opportunities in Ghana have been properly explored and that there is lots of potential in the market.

What will be the main issues to be discussed at the upcoming conferences?

The agenda focuses on the best opportunities in Africa’s regulated betting and gaming markets, and how to overcome the obstacles operators are likely to encounter on the road to success in those territories.

We have a whole track dedicated to the industry in South Africa, with a particular focus on the future of its brick-and-mortar casinos and the lottery sector. There are also sessions on the latest developments in the key markets of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, and the prospects for liberalisation of the market in Côte d'Ivoire.

The conference has a line-up of 60 high-level speakers with on-the-ground experience of doing business in African markets, who are ideally placed to share the kind of in-depth information that is typically very difficult to find.

The speaker roster has a host of senior representatives from operators, including BetMonsta CEO Dolan Beuthin, Parimatch International CMO Dmitry Belianin, Sahara Games Managing Director Jeff Halloran, Westernlottobet’s Managing Consultant Johnson Adewale Foye, 10bet CMO Gadi Shoshani, BetLion’s Regional Managing Director Spencer Okach, and LiveScore Group’s Managing Director - Nigeria Simon Burrell.

What are the trends that have emerged due to the pandemic? (online gaming, technology, etc)

This is one of the issues that we’ll look at during the conference sessions on the various national markets.

We know, for example, that live dealer casino games started to take off in South Africa during the pandemic and that virtual sports grabbed an even bigger share of the market in a number of countries. Our expert speakers will examine whether these short-term trends are likely to become permanent changes to the markets.

What can you comment about the interactive product display area?

The interactive product display area proved very popular with delegates last year and we know that a number of the exhibitors signed deals with customers they met at the event.

We expect more of the same at SBC Digital Africa 2021, as we have a selection of the industry’s most innovative international suppliers taking part. Delegates looking for new platform technology and games content will be able to see the latest innovations for local markets from companies such as BetConstruct, BetGames.TV, Digitain, Ezugi, FIM, and SoftSwiss.