The Nigerian betting industry has been growing rapidly during the past decade, and Nigeria is now the second-largest betting market in Africa, only behind South Africa in terms of revenue.
The latest statistic to showcase the total betting revenue dates from 2020 and totals above $2 billion. A 2022 survey has shown that 51.73% of the population of Nigeria has been involved in some form of betting activity, and up to 92.8% of bettors have used the internet and mobile apps to place bets.
With a highly regulated and well-established online betting market, Nigeria has placed itself as the region’s leader when it comes to online betting. There are now more than 50 Nigerian bookmakers that hold a valid license issued by either the Lagos State Lottery Board or the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, making for a quite diverse and lucrative online betting market.
And while most of them allow their users to bet via mobile, there are some substantial differences in relation to mobile betting in Nigeria that we’ll discuss in this article.
Do all Nigerian bookmakers offer mobile betting?
The short answer would be yes, all legal bookmakers in Nigeria offer some form of mobile betting. The Nigerian Communications Commission revealed that over 222.5 million of Nigerians use a mobile phone, and with a young population and the popularity of internet services, the number is expected to grow even further.
This factor, combined with the increasing number of Nigerian bookmakers that offer their services to Nigerians, means that any serious betting site operator that intends to attract recurring users must offer some type of mobile betting.
Considering that 86% of Nigerian smartphone users own Android phones, most bookies have made it rather easy to use their service on an Android smartphone.
Mobile betting on Android
Google has strict regulations when it comes to which types of apps can be downloaded from the official Google Play Store, and it adheres to the national laws of each country to determine whether to include betting apps in the store.
Unfortunately, Android users still can’t download betting apps from the Google Play Store, but there’s a solution to this that many Nigerian bookmakers have decided to adopt, including some of the biggest names in the country such as Bet9ja and Betway.
Namely, users can download the dedicated mobile app from the official bookmaker website and manually install it on their phones. The process is straightforward, and we’ll take the Bet9ja Android app as an example.
- Open the Bet9ja website from your mobile phone browser
- Locate the Android app download button
- Click on it, and the download will start. Make sure to change your settings to allow downloading apps from unknown sources
- Click on the APK file you have downloaded to install it
- After the installation process is completed, the app icon will appear on your home screen, and you can use it as any other app
Keep in mind that even though the app can’t be downloaded from the Google Play Store, you should be careful when downloading third-party apps and only install files from trusted sources on your device - in this case apps that you have downloaded from the official betting sites of trusted operators.
Another way to bet on Android is by simply using the mobile version of the website. Most bookmakers have mobile-optimized websites that work well on the mobile screen, and all you need to do is register as a new user or log in with your account details and bet on the go.
Mobile betting on iOS
Up to 13% of Nigerian smartphone owners use an iPhone, and there has been an ongoing iPhone hype that continues in 2023. Contrary to Android users, iOS users can download betting apps from the iOS App Store, which makes it even more convenient. We’ll take the Bet9ja iOS app as an example again:
- Open the iOS App Store from your iOS device
- Locate the Bet9ja betting app
- Click to download it
- Once the download is completed, you can use the app
Users who don’t want to download any additional software to their iPhones can also use the mobile version of betting websites, which usually works exceptionally well when using the Safari browser.
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