The African iGaming market is rapidly evolving. However, this growth comes with diverse cultural, economic, and regulatory landscapes, making localization essential for operators across different industry jurisdictions.

During an interview with iGaming AFRIKA at SiGMA Africa 2026, Nastia Karmacheva, Regional Market Lead (Africa) at EvenBet Gaming, highlighted how the company, with two decades of global experience, is leading the shift by offering a tailored approach to the African market. She discussed customizing poker for Africa by integrating it with other games to boost retention, providing quick and easy turnkey platforms, and addressing regulatory challenges in the region.

EvenBet’s expansion is centered around the “Power of Adaptation”, which incorporates product innovation, regulatory persistence, and seamless integration into the company’s growth strategy. To maintain a competitive edge in a market dominated by sports betting, EvenBet has pivoted its primary poker product to match the demand for fast content. “Africa is more of a market for casino games, for sports betting, and for very easy and fast content. Poker is a skill game,” commented Nastia.

She detailed how EvenBet invented and customized products like “One-click Poker” and “Spins Poker” to function more like casino games, ensuring they are interface-friendly and accessible for local users. These innovations allow players to bypass the traditional lobby and join a game instantly by directly addressing the regional preference for fast-paced, easy content.  She said, “We are trying to make poker in Africa very customized, very interface-friendly, and very alike this market.”

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Africa’s iGaming industry is characterized by a diverse and evolving regulatory environment that varies significantly across countries. While some nations have established comprehensive frameworks to oversee online gaming, others are in the early stages of developing regulations, leading to a complex landscape. This diversity reflects the continent’s wide-ranging cultural, legal, and economic contexts, which influence how gaming activities are governed. Nastia noted that while South Africa is a very complicated market due to its strict regulations and RNG certifications, these hurdles are solvable through parallel processing and persistence. EvenBet’s strategy involves working on legal certifications and technical integrations simultaneously. “We overcame that part, and we can boast of a portfolio of such clients as Hollywood Bet, Sunbet, Premier Bet, and many more that are now in negotiations and integration.”

Beyond these specialized poker variants, EvenBet’s growth strategy is grounded in flexible integration. For operators not yet ready for a full poker vertical, EvenBet’s portfolio includes spin games and casino content designed for high engagement, an aggregator product that incorporates popular sports betting alongside a wide array of casino games, and turnkey platforms that offer a comprehensive “under one roof” solution, seamlessly integrating poker, casino games, and sports betting into a single user interface. Nastia emphasized that poker should be viewed as a retention tool that keeps players under one roof.

The company’s turnkey solution allows new operators to launch a full-scale casino and poker platform within one to two months through a single API integration, significantly saving time and capital.

With the iGaming AFRIKA Summit set for May 2026 in Nairobi, Nastia is looking toward Kenya as the next frontier for innovation. She concluded, “Kenya is one of the markets for me, which I need to see with my own eyes. I have been to Nigeria, I’ve been to South Africa, I’ve studied a bit about these markets. I’ve been in Ghana, in Botswana, and I know how to operate there, I know some operators. But in Kenya, I have very few perspectives, and that is a market I need to study. But I’m concerned, I’m sure that all our products, both poker and aggregator, and turnkey platforms for those who want to run a new casino would work perfectly there. And that’s actually what I’m going to offer in May.”