HOW TO START A SPORTS BETTING BUSINESS IN NIGERIA (Part 2)

1. Sports book/ platform provider for Nigerian market: A software provider that provides the sports betting interface that customers, agents and members of staffs interact with. The customer will be interested in the UI/UX and the features of the website while the members of staffs will be interested in the back office interface ease of use. For the back office, business intelligence is also essential; it will help you analyze, understand your business and taking certain action plan to help you trigger the interest of customers and reward the loyal ones. The gaming industry is a dynamic industry; this makes the capability of the sports book provider to do UI/UX, features development and integrations of other third party providers very important. There are different types of sports book providers; some provide a white label solution while some provide a full solution. White label solution is usually recommended for small brands without deep pockets. The cost of setup and monthly fee are usually not as much as that that of does that provide a complete solution. Some white label solution however comes with some level of limitations. A lot of work has to be done to get the selection of the sports book provider right because on it lays the success of the other part of the business.

• Other third party providers: Apart from the sports book provider, you will need other third party software providers that will integrate with sports book/ platform provider. Other providers include the odds feeds provider, virtual games providers, payment gateway providers, casino games providers, other business intelligence providers, email and SMS providers for marketing campaigns, other providers to track marketing campaigns and user behavior on your website…the list goes on.

• Operating License: The gaming industry in many parts of the world, require that whoever wants to operate in the market must granted a license for operation. In Nigeria, there are two types of license category, National License and State License. The gaming industry does not have a perfect synergy in terms of regulation in the Country yet so having the national License can cover for your operation if you want to operate online alone. I can also cover for your operation in the FCT. Operation in States might require obtaining a state license.

• Office Space and competent staff: This depends on the kind of business model that you intend to operate. Operating in the online space will require a lesser office space compared to running both online and retail. This because the retail department will need agent relationship managers, field marketers space to store equipment if they intend to provide them for agents. For staffing, they members of staffs will be needed in the risk management department, payment department, customer care, agent relationship management, Management staffs, online marketing and media department, general support staffs…etc. According to Warren buffet, he looks out for 3 things when hiring, “intelligence, energy and integrity”, if you don’t have the last one then the others don’t matter, I strongly suggest that you apply the same.

• Marketing: When the decision on the product has been made the right marketing strategy has to be put in place. The Five P’s of marketing which are Price, Place, Product, Promotion, and People has to be considered in the marketing strategy. The decision on whether to us traditional medium of marketing, digital marketing or both has to be made. Even when the medium has been decided, the channels also need to be streamlined down to programs/ time that will expose the adverts of the company to the target market.

Brand building: Brand building is a step ahead of marketing and might take a while to achieve. One of the ways to build your brand in the gaming industry is to be a market leader in innovation of unique selling point. The gaming industry is so dynamic that what use to be a unique selling point down the line might become an industry norm. Your inability to innovate and keep up with new innovations will make you obsolete. To be one of the leaders in the industry and to ensure sustainability, the following is needed.

1. Value: You need to be able to create value that people want. This can be good products, good customer service, good turn over time for dispute resolution, ease of use…etc.

• Rare: to create a niche for yourself, you need to have a valuable unique product or service that customers are willing to pay for. One you have this, you can leverage on it to push your brand before others can replicate it.

• Inimitable: A lot of third party providers produce their product so they can sell to as many on a B2B basis. This means that a lot of products are readily available once you know the provider, a few meeting, paper work and integration and you have the product on board. But some companies take it a step further to create partnerships, and exclusivity deals that makes them exclusive owners of a product or exclusive owners of a particular feature in a product. This makes them have something that customers need and they cannot get elsewhere, this means that the customers certainly will always come back to them if they like that unique product or feature.

• Non-substitutable: having a unique product without a close substitute that customers like will create a niche for your brand and create brand recognition.

• Trust: The gaming industry is a very liquid industry and you cannot afford to run out of money or delay rewards on correct predictions. Many companies in the past have failed customers and have made it hard for some customers to trust brands that are not perceived as established. Sometimes customers can look for loop holes in the system and try to take advantage of it, it is understandable if the company curbs this but the company must not be perceived to manipulate winners result when they win, delay payment of winnings or make excuses. The currency of the sports betting industry in Nigeria is integrity, if that is lost, all is lost.