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By Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure

LAGOS, June 25 (Reuters) - Online sports betting wagering is expanding in soccer-mad Nigeria largely thanks to payment systems developed by homegrown innovation firms that are starting to make online businesses more practical.

For several years, mobile payments stopped working to take off in Nigeria as they have in nations such as Kenya, where Safaricom's M-Pesa cash transfers have promoted a culture of cashless payments.

Fear of electronic fraud and slow web speeds have held Nigerian online customers back but wagering companies states the new, quick digital payment systems underpinning their websites are altering attitudes towards online transactions.

"We have actually seen significant development in the number of payment options that are available. All that is absolutely changing the gaming space," said Seun Anibaba, CEO of Lagos State Lotteries Board, video gaming regulator in Nigeria's industrial capital.

"The operators will go with whoever is faster, whoever can link to their platform with less problems and problems," he said, including that taxes from sports betting in Lagos State increased 30 percent to 40 percent in 2017 from 2016.

That growth has been matched by a rise in web payments, according to information from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which is owned by the reserve bank and licensed banks.

In 2016, there were 14 million web payments worth a total 132 billion naira ($420 million). Transactions jumped to 29 million worth 185 billion in 2017 and in the first quarter of 2018 there were nearly 10 million worth 61 billion.

With a young population of almost 190 million, increasing mobile phone use and falling data expenses, Nigeria has long been viewed as a fantastic chance for online companies - once customers feel comfortable with electronic payments.

Online gambling companies say that is happening, though reaching the tens of without access to banking services stays an obstacle for pure online merchants.

British online sports betting firm Betway opened its very first African service in Kenya in 2015, followed by Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. It introduced in Nigeria in January.

"There is a steady shift to online now, that is where the market is going," Betway's Nigeria supervisor Lere Awokoya said.

"The development in the variety of fintechs, and the federal government as an enabler, has actually helped the company to flourish. These technological shifts motivated Betway to start running in Nigeria," he said.

FINTECH COMPETITION

sports betting firms capitalizing the soccer craze whipped up by Nigeria's involvement on the planet Cup say they are discovering the payment systems developed by local startups such as Paystack are showing popular online.

Paystack and another regional startup Flutterwave, both established in 2016, are offering competitors for Nigeria's Interswitch which was set up in 2002 and was the main platform used by organizations running in Nigeria.

"We included Paystack as one of our payment alternatives without any fanfare, without revealing to our consumers, and within a month it soared to the number one most used payment option on the website," stated Akin Alabi, founder of NairabBET.

He said NairaBET, the country's 2nd biggest wagering firm, now had 2 million regular consumers on its website, up from 500,000 in 2013, and Paystack stayed the most popular payment option since it was added in late 2017.

Paystack was established by 2 Nigerian computer technology graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early phase financing in Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator programme.

In December 2016, it raised $1.3 million from financiers including China's Tencent and Comcast Ventures in the United States.

Paystack, based in the mad Ikeja district of Lagos, stated the variety of regular monthly transactions it processed increased from about 8,000 in early 2016 to more than 900,000 as of June 2018.

"In early 2016 we were processing about $3,000 a month. Today we process well over $11 million each and every single month," said Emmanuel Quartey, Paystack's head of growth.

He said an ecosystem of developers had emerged around Paystack, developing software to integrate the platform into websites. "We have actually seen a development because neighborhood and they have actually brought us along," stated Quartey.

Paystack stated it allows payments for a number of wagering firms however also a large range of organizations, from utility services to transfer companies to insurance company Axa Mansard.

Flutterwave, co-founded by Nigerian business owner Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, is likewise backed by the Y-Combinator programme along with endeavor capitalists Greycroft Partners and Green Visor Capital and the Omidyar Network. It raised $10 million last year.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

Shifts in Nigeria's payment culture have actually accompanied the arrival of foreign financiers wanting to tap into sports betting wagering.

Industry experts state the sector produces about $1 billion a year and is most likely to grow faster than in South Africa and Kenya where business is more developed.

Russia's 1XBet and Slovakia's DOXXbet have actually both set up in Nigeria in the last 2 years while Italy's Goldbet led the trend, taking a half stake in market leader Bet9ja when the Nigerian firm launched in 2015.

NairaBET's Alabi said its sales were split in between stores and online but the ease of electronic payments, expense of running stores and ability for consumers to prevent the stigma of sports betting in public indicated online transactions would grow.

But despite advances in digital payments, Kunle Soname - chairman and co-founder of Bet9ja - stated it was essential to have a shop network, not least since lots of consumers still stay unwilling to invest online.

He said the business, with about 60 percent of Nigeria's sports betting wagering market, had a comprehensive network. Nigerian wagering shops frequently serve as social centers where customers can see soccer totally free of charge while putting bets.

At a BetKing hall deep inside the dynamic Oshodi market in Lagos, dozens of soccer fans collected to enjoy Nigeria's last heat up game before the World Cup.

Richard Onuka, a factory worker who earns 25,000 naira a month, was fixated on a TV screen inside. He said he began gambling 3 months ago and bets approximately 1,000 naira a day.

"Since I have actually been playing I have actually not won anything but I believe that a person day I will win," said Onuka. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Didi Akinyelure in Lagos; modifying by David Clarke)