Exclusive: Winning the Game: Features of a good Gambling platforms in Africa

The African gambling sector is booming with lots of  new market entrants ranging from casino to sportsbook operators with a lot of  investments coming through the countries. As more players try to get into the market, there arises a need for a platform that can work. Therefore it is essential to know what features to look for in the African  gaming market before you can start your operation in any country on the continent. 

In order to find solutions to the above subject matter, iGaming AFRIKA organized a webinar featuring industry experts, Maha Otu, Director at BetWinner Nigeria, Artur Harutyunyan the CEO at BetFounders and Slotpesa and Akinlaja Ayofemi, Founder of Shacks Evolution Studios with the aim of answering the following key questions;

What are the existing competitors offering? 

What are customers interested in or looking for? 

What do they need to know about a sportsbook or casino platform they should have? 

What considerations are important when designing  the user interface for easy navigation and quick  betting selections.

Which features should a  sportsbook platform have to cater for the needs and preferences of an African punter? 

Maha Otu, Director at Betwinner Nigeria felt that the  first thing when setting up a platform is its usability and responsiveness across multiple devices, that is , it has to be a  responsive platform that can be used on any  device whether laptop, tablet, mobile devices. It also has to be able to accommodate any browsers that the user chooses.

Maha further notes the importance of the registration process, together with deposit and withdrawal methods, “Most sportsbooks should have favorable  odds, how easy it is for them to register on the  platforms. Registration should be very easy and  should have several methods of registration in case  one fails,” she said. “How easy it is to make a deposit and withdraw is  also a factor. 

As if that is not all, Maha advised new market entrants to consider the kind of devices used by punters and hence ensure accessibility of their platforms by all players including those with devices that may not be able to access the internet. 

“Every platform should have a light version where  people who have a smaller phone have access to  the platform as well, should not be restricted to  people having high end phones, ” she stated 

Maha Otu couldn’t end her statement without touching on localization, “A mistake most providers make is to bring the same  content for the other market and expect good  results. When we have localized content, games that  people are familiar with, it’s not difficult to identify  with that kind of game or try it out on the platform.”

Artur Harutyunyan, the CEO, BetFounders and Slotpesa observed that the African market is big with about an extremely high number of punters, thus giving investors a variety of options to choose from when selecting their markets of choice to venture into. 

Having over six years’ experience in the African  market, Artur’s advice is that the platform has to operate fast while using low data, lite with easy registration, deposit and withdrawal further complementing the points stated by Maha. He also adds that it is important to require less information during the registration, deposit and withdrawal processes. 

In order to ensure accessibility of a gambling platform in the diverse African market, Maha Otu in her remarks said accessibility and  internet connection in most countries apart from South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya depend on low end  phones. Kenya for instance has SMS betting, where gamers do not need  to use the internet. Moreover, she is of the opinion that providers and operators need to consider having  an offline mode where people can have access to  placing bets or have access to platforms when they  do not have data at the time. 

‘Even in Nigeria, there are some places without a network and others where the internet is not strong, so in such a place, the gamers should have an option of having access to an offline version of the  platform. We should see more innovation across Africa in order to make it easy for clients,” she explains.   

Maha further noted that the idea of placing bets  through SMS is an idea of making the platforms  accessible and making use of it even without data or  high end phones. 

Artur on his end said accessibility is a pain for a lot  of companies operating in most African markets. He seconded Maha that there can be an  establishment of offline mode for games and casino as it is the biggest part of the African market, “There are many clients waiting to play offline, it  would be a good market to tap,” he said 

“On low internet connectivity, we can try to get  games that require less internet, and provide services that  can work with low service connectivity. One of the best solutions is mobile app, especially for Android  which is very easy to download an Apk. Additionally, the app should be able to work with low  internet connectivity,” He also added, “Put attention on internet connectivity and check  whether there’s low or good connectivity, also  introduce SMS betting that doesn’t require any  internet, try to understand the market needs. Be  simple and clear, the speed should also be very  fast,” stated Artur. .  

The moderator of the webinar, Ayofemi Akinlaja the  Founder of Shacks Evolution Studios stressed on the need to understand what customers  want and are using, and if one is able to penetrate  the market 

The other webinar panelist, Mr. Rene Maimo, Head of Marketing and Business Development Unit at DME Systems was keen to note that the issue of  connectivity has remained a preoccupation to most investors and all ideas on how to reduce size of  images to make sure that loading is easy to maximize available connectivity. 

Rene also invited operators in Africa to try out USSD betting as it was not yet fully exploited and was a big opportunity to grab a good share of the gaming population, “The take home message is investors should give a  chance to try out USSD betting to reach the markets where  people want to bet but there’s no internet  connection, especially those in remote villages.”

Abhujeet Sarkar, who was following the discussion  live, was in support of Rene’s point that USSD is under explored in  most countries in spite of the fact that most punters are still working with  feature handsets. 

Lucios Obinna Unegbu, who was watching the webinar online  wondered how betting platforms think about  customer retention considering the competition in  the market. Artur responded by stating that retention is the second most  important part of gambling platforms after  acquisition, “Everyone has to make decisions on how to move on  with retention though it’s not about distributing the players so a lot of features needs to be figured out  that will make players come back and play.”

While responding to a question on methods used to mitigate bonus  abuse, Ayofemi stated that the important thing is being  able to track the particular user as a user opens  multiple accounts to benefit from a said bonus, “If the pipeline of that particular user is tracked, limit  the number of accounts he can create, ” 

Ayofemi emphasized the importance of considering bonus abusers and their strategies even before running any bonuses and promotions. 

Mr. Rene finalized the session by stating the importance of ensuring players have easy access  to customer service, as this would help in customer  retention.