Sports Betting in Africa – What are the trends?

The boom of sports betting in Africa

It is well known that the African market is expanding fast, and showing no signs of stopping. In fact, in South Africa, government statistics show that more than half of the adult population is participates in gaming activities, mainly sports betting and virtual sports betting, on a regular basis.

Africa represents an incredible continent and one of the world’s most exciting opportunities for sports betting and virtual sports betting operators. Actually, Golden Race’s African customers represent several millions of tickets every day and this has been our main market for years. The growing popularity of sports betting in Africa is a fact and online sportsbooks such as Golden Race’s are expanding quickly into the African market.

However, there are local challenges in various African countries that can be overwhelming to overseas operators trying to stake their claim. Fortunately, Golden Race have extensive regional and global expertise, and we have worked closely with our Africa operators to tailor our existing solutions for the African market and for their specific demands.

Great football fans

Africa is a sports crazy continent–especially European Football leagues. And offering virtual sports betting only gets better for them since they can play anytime or season based on traditional rules so they do not have to wait for the real game to take place –they customise it at their will!

In terms of product, Golden Race virtual football is an undisputed champion, it can drive more than 80% of the stakes or of the bets. Betting on major European soccer leagues, as well as local and national teams, has become an industry that is worth millions of dollars. Golden Race has worked very hard on our “King of Virtual Sports” 3D Football League, which is used in more than 90% of shops in Nigeria, and along with the rest of the winning suite of games, is proving to be extraordinarily popular across the whole African continent.

Although football (soccer) takes the lead with the highest number of fans on the continent, there’s also a huge following for other sports such as horse racing, fighting and basketball that offer identical betting rules to the traditional established.

The preferred betting markets

Moreover, the most popular markets in Africa are the combined bets. They represent half of the volume of tickets, players combine generally two, three or four bets. Other important markets are the Match Result and Correct Score (also very popular in Europe). In the case of race games (especially dog racing) the preferred betting markets are the Winner and the Trifecta.

Mobile use in Africa

Today, more and more Africans enjoy sports betting not only on their desktops, but also on their smartphones and tablets. For example, in South Africa, more than 50% of people now subscribe to a mobile broadband service. This fact in addition to the licencing of more online betting services will continue to boost sports betting.

In general, consumers now have an easier access to online sports betting services even in remote areas. Countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, DRC and Ghana are seeing a huge expansion in sports betting and other forms of gambling. For that reason, we have upgraded our online platform in terms of design and usability. This upgraded version includes new game releases like Speedway and Motorbike races, as well as casino games such as Spin2Win, which is offered ‘On Demand’, and Live Mega 6 with live draws 24/7.