The Nigerian market is hugely geared towards sports betting. How does a modern-day sportsbook capitalise on this?

Betting in Nigeria has always had a social side to it – the betting shop as a gathering point, people crowding round a screen, action always happening somewhere. Operators know that instinct better than anyone, but replicating it isn’t something you build alone – it comes down to having the right content on the platform.

Real fixtures dry up for hours at a time – early morning, midweek gaps between leagues – and that’s exactly when a bettor goes looking for somewhere else the action hasn’t stopped. As a provider, our job is making sure operators never face that gap: give them products that keep the platform live when the fixture list can’t, and that shop-floor energy keeps going around the clock.

In today’s industry, bonusing alone isn’t the answer. How does a brand avoid over-using bonuses, and what are the alternatives?

Bonusing buys you a login, not a habit. It’s expensive, it trains players to chase the next offer instead of the platform itself and margins can’t sustain it forever. The alternative is content that keeps people engaged without you having to pay them to stay – continuous betting markets, instant-result products for the moments between real matches, simplified casino titles with social features that catch sportsbook users who’d never open a full casino lobby. Retention should come from what’s on 
the app, not what’s in the promo code.

Walk us through the impact of tipsters. How important are they in the Nigerian market?

Tipsters are arguably the single biggest influence on staking behaviour in Nigeria, and it’s not hard to see why. They build huge, tightly-targeted follower bases around specific leagues or bet types, and in a market where trust in community and word-of-mouth is high, a tipster with a track record becomes a more credible voice than any odds board. A well-followed tipster drops a pick and you’ll see stake volume move on that market within minutes – that’s the kind of reach most paid campaigns take months to build. 

Given this background, what is one piece of advice you would give to anyone operating in Nigeria in 2026?

Get ready for everything around the 90 minutes, not just the 90 minutes itself – the pre-match wait, the fixture gaps, the moments a bettor has money in their account and nothing to bet on. That’s where retention is actually won or lost, and it’s exactly why our portfolio is built around covering those in-between moments rather than just the match itself.

Finally, what is the biggest trend to watch out for in Nigeria heading into 2027?

Sportsbook will remain the main vertical in Nigeria and everything we’ve talked about – the always-on content, the tipster dynamics, moving away from bonus dependency – still holds. But casino is the trend to watch. 

It’s already growing, and heading into 2027 the real opportunity is capitalising on the sportsbook audience that’s already there, cross-selling instead of chasing separate acquisition.

That’s how you build real loyalty and retain players without leaning on bonuses, especially in a market with 200+ licensed operators fighting for the same customer. Smart cross-sell, not bigger bonuses, is what will separate the operators still standing in a few years, from the ones burning margin to stand still.