FEATURE
EMERGING MARKETS
AFRICA
With affiliates and operators finding established iGaming markets increasingly saturated, attention is
turning elsewhere. Ian Barnes, CTO of premium gaming solutions provider BetTech, examines the
challenges and opportunities in Africa.
Gambling markets in Africa:
What’s legal online, and where
The appetite for gambling in Africa is huge,
and governments across the continent
are beginning to realise the opportunities
and benefits in having a regulated market.
While the process is a long and often trying
one, a handful of countries are leading the
way in regulation; they are driving it hard
and beginning to enforce it strictly.
South Africa, for example, has very
tough online gambling laws, with only
sportsbetting, including pool and totaliser
bets, permitted. Online casinos, or games
of chance, are banned.
Earlier this year, however, regulators
announced that they are looking at effective
ways to change legislation in order to clamp
down on illegal activities, better manage
and benefit from taxation, and at the same
time protect players and offer them more
choice. Currently, all manufacturers go
through a lengthy approval process – both
initially and for each software version – and
all operators have to submit tax reports and
payments on a weekly basis.
As you might expect for a continent
that is so popular with tourists, casinos are
the most common facilities for gambling,
from Egypt down to South Africa, and
there is a culture and tradition of betting
shops in many places. South Africa is
leading the charge when it comes to
moving online, but it is by no means the
only place where the process is underway
– we work with customers in a number of
countries, including Tanzania. It recently
saw the launch of its first online operation,
iplay8casino.com, which is run by the Dunia
Casino and has a sportsbetting and casino
offering. Kenya is also well regulated and
allows both online sportsbetting, including
pool and totaliser bets, and online games of
chance, such as casino and virtual games.
Growth in gambling
As the most advanced market in Africa,
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has
extensively researched South Africa.
The figures highlight a population that is
increasingly demonstrating a propensity
to gamble and it is reasonable to have
positive expectations about the rest of
Africa based on the company’s findings.
PwC’s report recorded gross gambling
revenue of ZAR16.4 billion (€1.2
billion/$1.6 billion) in 2012 and stated
that there is still huge potential for growth
across all verticals in both the land-based
and online environments.
Wagering is part of the make-up of
society – whether it is at the race track, in
the casino or the betting shop, and we are
seeing, as with so many other parts
of life, that consumers increasingly prefer
to go online and transact from their
mobile devices.
iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
71