What works in Africa: The features global platforms overlook

Africa is frequently touted as the biggest emerging opportunity in iGaming, and it is easy to see why with its young and rapidly expanding population.

Gambling participation rates across the continent of Africa are high, at least by international standards. Betting is widely normalised across adult populations in key markets like Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria – markets where bettor engagement is treated as mainstream consumer behaviour rather than niche entertainment.

However, whether out of ease or ignorance, Africa is often referred to as one market – a grouping that is well wide of the mark and may come with hidden costs. When an entire continent is homogenised into one, much-hyped ‘growth opportunity’, nuance is invariably lost.

Aside from it being structurally unique and largely shaped by demographics and mobile penetration, entrenched behavioural habits in each African market differ from established counterparts across the world.

These factors make tailored platform technology design essential to success in African markets, a range of regional industry experts tell iGB. They collectively warned that treating the continent with an ‘off-the-shelf’ approach is a barrier to successful deployment as operators scramble to deploy in unfamiliar territory.

What makes Africa different?

Gauteng-based Annalisa Emelia, the Africa sales manager for game supplier SYNOT Games, argues many platforms attempting to approach Africa need to rethink their strategy.

She notes that Africa is a collection of very different ecosystems, with each market having its own player behaviour, regulatory framework, payment infrastructure, and of course expectations. She stresses that while the fundamentals — a young population, increasing mobile access, and a clear appetite for betting and gaming products – remains strong, treating the region as one market can scupper chances of real success.

“To understand this properly, you only need to compare three key markets: South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. South Africa is one of the most mature and regulated markets on the continent. Players expect a structured, reliable experience with strong sportsbook functionality and a growing appetite for casino-style content. The regulatory framework shapes how this content is delivered,” Emelia tells iGB.

“Nigeria operates very differently. It is a high-frequency, low-stake market where football dominates. Kenya is one of the most mobile-native betting markets globally. The entire ecosystem is built around mobile money. Betting behaviour is fast, often conducted in short sessions, with a strong focus on in-play and micro-betting.

Africa certainly has its nuances. One of the most interesting is the extent to which social dynamics amplify engagement.

Betting decisions are heavily influenced by peer networks, community groups and informal tipster ecosystems across digital platforms, creating a highly networked and sentiment-driven acquisition and retention loop. This must be taken into account when building technology for the market.

Former Betway Africa Group Director Jon Russell further reinforces this point, maintaining that generic, plug-and-play strategies do not produce the best results. Russell, who served at Betway for over ten years, spearheaded the launch of the very first corporate spread betting operation in Africa, Superspreads, back in 1997.

“What my experience in Africa has taught me, and what the subsequent decades went on to confirm, is that the African bettor has a fundamentally different profile to the European or North American customer,” he stressed.

“This is a market that gravitates toward jackpot products, high-leg accumulators, and transformative payout structures rather than the price-sensitive, value-seeking behaviour that characterises mature European markets. Gross margins in the high twenties to thirty percent are commercially achievable and reflect genuine customer preference rather than operator exploitation.

“So most UK and US operators who enter African markets expecting European margin profiles find themselves structurally misaligned with what the customer actually wants.”

Seasoned industry professional Felix Mulandi, who serves as the head of brand and marketing at Kenya-facing operator Pakakumi, echoed the sentiment of Emelia and Russell, weighing in with the discrepancies in user engagement and market divergence across the key regions of the continent.

“Supported by stronger banking infrastructure and more established formal operators, participation rates in South Africa are as high as 83–90% and a more diversified betting mix that extends beyond football into horse racing, rugby and higher-value wagering.

“If you contrast it with East Africa, particularly Kenya which represents the archetypal mobile-native betting market, 80–85% of activity is sports betting, heavily enabled by M-Pesa, and characterised by micro-stakes, jackpots and high-frequency real-time engagement.

“West Africa, especially Nigeria, operates as a different scale-driven ecosystem. While participation is slightly lower at around 71%, the absolute volume is substantial. Behaviour is more economically aspirational, with a strong preference for high-odds accumulator bets, aggressive bonus usage, and continued relevance of retail betting shops alongside digital channels.”

One size doesn’t fit all

Most iGaming platforms started their lives designed typically for European or other similarly mature markets. Technically they look strong when deployed, but usability in Africa is a different story. For Emelia, these global platforms can work only if they can improve on flexibility.

“Too often, localisation is treated as a front-end exercise; adjusting language, currency or branding while the underlying platform remains unchanged. In Africa, localisation goes much deeper. It impacts many things [like] payments, connectivity, speed, product structuring, compliance, marketing. If your platform cannot adapt to these factors, it will not perform.”

Mulandi, who has garnered over 14 years of continental industry experience including working as operations manager at 22bet, and marketing manager at Sportygroup across several African markets, shares the same opinion.

“The biggest mistake global operators make in Africa is assuming the continent can be served with a ‘lift-and-shift’ model deploying a proven European platform with minimal localisation.” he says.

“Similarly, global platforms often over-index on casino, while in most African market sports, football particularly drives more than 60% of engagement, making a weak sportsbook a critical flaw.”

Emelia went on to stress the importance of seamless payments. “In Africa, payments are not just part of the user journey — they are central to it. If deposits are difficult or withdrawals are delayed, trust is lost immediately.”

The need-to-have features to succeed in Africa

Another important ingredient identified by regional experts is the need for more gamified content. The demand for gamification is by no means unique to Africa, but according to Emelia, it is not always implemented effectively on the continent.

“Many different providers offer their own gamification tools. The problem is that these tools don’t always align, and they’re not always fully integrated when the platform launches. Additional development is often needed, which slows things down. What works better is a centralised approach — a single gamification layer that works across all products from day one.”

Operators should also be able to manage these tools themselves. They shouldn’t need to rely on support teams to launch or adjust campaigns, she warns.

“At the same time, platforms need to be more forward-thinking in how they build marketing capability into these tools. The ability to create new and creative campaigns directly within the platform is becoming more important. There is also a growing need for platforms to offer a complete ecosystem — product, CRM, affiliate systems, and gamification — all working together from the start.”

Mulandi reinforces the idea that gamification and personalisation are essential. He says successful platforms are leaning into ways to individualise recommendations, which is especially fruitful in Africa’s populous markets.

“The most successful platforms will be the ones who lean into gamification and personalisation at scale including missions, streaks, and tailored offers driven by behavioural data, while also expanding into crash games and hybrid casino formats that are now gaining traction as complements to sports,” he says.

Avoiding ‘scaled down versions of global products’

Ultimately, there is a general consensus that success in Africa largely hinges on a platform’s ability to localise and purpose-build for indigenous demands instead of watered-down global offerings.

An evaluative look at the sportsbooks that tend to dominate African markets – Betway, Stake, Bet9ja, 1xBet and the likes – reveals shared common traits. They are mobile-first, light on weight and designed for different levels of connectivity.

“iGaming platforms that do well in Africa must be designed not as scaled-down versions of global products, but as locally optimised, mobile-native ecosystems that reflect how users actually engage with betting across the continent,” Pakakumi’s Felix Mulandi told iGB. “The foundation is mobile-first UX with ultra-light performance, built for low data consumption and intermittent connectivity, combined with seamless mobile money integration at the core.”

Emelia concurs, sharing that alongside the obvious need for mobile-first design, simplicity and speed, it is also important to eliminate friction in the registration process, deposit process and gameplay mechanics.

Again, much of this applies to iGaming globally. But it is perhaps especially important in Africa due to the amount of choice players have in many markets. Close to 70 operators are licensed in Lagos alone – and that’s just the regulated market.

“Casino and crash games positioning must also be intentional,” Emelia adds. “Players do not want to scroll through large libraries. They want quick access to popular and relevant content. Crash games, in particular should be easy to access and clearly visible.”

Entering Africa: A legal perspective

Allan Mzungu, a Kenyan lawyer at MMS Advocates with a range of experience in the gaming industry, has some thoughts on the legal mistakes he sees operators make when entering Africa.

He notes that there is a common misconception that Africa is a single legal or regulatory market, and cautions not to make assumptions that what works in one country will work in the next.

“There is no uniform or harmonised approach to regulating iGaming in Africa. Each country has its own legal framework and regulatory body that governs iGaming activities within its jurisdiction. Some countries have more developed and comprehensive regulations than others, while others have no specific regulations.

“Regulations differ from market to market, some are specific to certain licenses, some deal with different issues including responsible gambling practices, advertising, and financial procedures such as anti-money laundering.”

But it goes beyond that. There is a failure to understand the varying levels and scope of regulation from country to country, Mzungu adds, explaining that regulations can also vary depending on the type and mode of license involved.

Application processes also vary significantly in timing and disclosure requirements across jurisdictions and markets. “Sometimes, operators find themselves non-compliant with local regulations, leading to heavy fines, legal action, suspension, loss of operating licenses, and criminal prosecution.

When asked what an operator should consider in terms of legal compliance before entering any African jurisdiction, Mzungu says they need to refer to the regulatory framework governing that region, including:

→ Both nationwide and local legal framework and regulatory authority
→ Differentiating between various licensing types e.g. remote betting, lotteries, and casino-style gaming
→ Financial regulatory obligations such as tax compliance, KYCs and Anti-money Laundering.

Mzungu explains this is particularly important in Africa because of the regulatory volatility, where new laws and directives can rapidly alter the rules. There is no shortage of examples of this, from Kenya’s sudden 5% levy on withdrawls and Lagos’ abrupt 5% withholding tax on player winnings to Uganda’s and South Africa’s proposed tax hikes.

When these changes happen, they swiftly translate into instant legal and compliance demands, and also affect product viability, pricing and player value.

What does the future of African iGaming platform tech look like?

Sector experts believe that winning in Africa for the long run – not just optimising for short-term success – requires bespoke and flexible technology. As tech, regulations and trends continue to evolve across the continent, the platforms that thrive are the ones that remain adaptable and responsive.

“Africa is not a static market. With new technologies emerging and regulations evolving, player behaviour changes with it,” Emelia says.

“Platforms must be able to adapt to regulatory changes. There is no fixed rulebook across Africa. Regulators are continuously introducing new operational, marketing and product parameters.

“While this can be challenging, it reflects the need to manage risk in a growing industry. There is the need to design to accommodate these changes, not resist them.”

Mulandi concurs, concluding that long-term success will “belong to operators with modular, payment-agnostic, data-intelligent and regulation-ready architectures built for constant change.”

If technology evolves as quickly as the market does, global platform tech providers can prosper in Africa – but only if they evolve from being globally standardised products to locally optimised ecosystems.

The winners will be those who treat Africa not as an extension of existing markets but as a fundamentally different operating environment.

EO

Emmanuel Okpetim

Emmanuel is a Lagos-based sports and gambling journalist with a range of experience in online and print.

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