Lottery generates N1trillion revenue

By AYOOLA OLAOLUWA

An increased number of Nigerians are daily flocking to lottery shops in a desperate bid to win jackpots, Business Hallmark can report.
The rush is a departure from the huge appetite for sports betting which offer winnings through predicting correct scores of live games by Nigerian betters.

In the last ten years, millions of Nigerians, especially unemployed youths, have engaged in betting activities by placing bets on big European teams in the hope of earning income.
The clubs cut across the English Premier League (EPL), Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga and the Spanish La Liga. The customer base of betting firms subsequently broadened to include young middle-class Nigerians seeking to earn more money from sports betting.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose from 27.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, to 33 per cent in the first quarter of 2021.

Further breakdown of the unemployment report shows that unemployed people aged 15 to 24 stood at 53.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020 and at 37.2 per cent for people aged 25 to 34. While the jobless rate for women was 35.2 per cent compared with 31.8 per cent for men.

Also, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, while speaking early in the year at a lecture titled: “Nigeria – A Country of Many Nations: A Quest for National Integration”, disclosed that about 40 per cent of Nigerian youths were unemployed.

This singular factor, it was gathered, had contributed immensely to the rise in sports betting, with many Nigerians who spoke to our correspondent describing it as the easiest way to make money.

Though, there is no specific official figure, different studies by industry experts show that 60 million Nigerians spend over N1 trillion annually on gambling and at least three billion naira is generated daily.

The data also revealed that the over 60 million punters spend an average of N3,000 daily placing bets, with majority of the money going to sports betting.

For instance, Nigerians plough about $5.5 million into sports betting every day, totaling an incredible $2 billion a year.

According to accounting giant, KPMG, Bet9ja, the biggest betting brand in Nigeria, returned a monthly turnover of $10 million in 2016, while NairaBet earned an estimated turnover of $5 million dollars every month.

However, the trend is drastically changing with Nigerian betters now preferring playing lotto (lottery) to sports betting.

According to experts in the lottery and gaming industry, between nine and eleven million Nigerians play lottery, popularity called “Baba Ijebu” daily.

The gradual shift to lottery, experts explained, can be traced to many factors, including heavy advertisements by lottery operators; low betting fees; simple to play and no need for expertise games, as well as the chance of winning mega millions, among several others.

BH checks revealed that the media space had been replete with tales of Nigerians winning several millions of naira since the beginning of 2019.

For instance, a businessman, Sunday Nwachukwu, in November 2019, won the sum of N58.8 million from one of the games he played on Green Lotto terminal.

Nwachukwu also won another jackpot of N72.7 million on the same Green Lotto terminal on January 29, 2021 with N330,000 betting. However, his latest win had not been paid due to some alleged irregularities.

Earlier in August 2018, a 35-year-old engineer from Edo State, Mr Sidney Osahon, had won the ‘Give ‘n’ Take N20m National Jackpot Bonanza.
Lottery firms, however, are not telling Nigerian bettors in their enchanting advertisements that the winners only got lucky after several years of spending huge fortune trying out their luck.

“No doubt, the news of these winnings is attracting more Nigerians to the lottery business”, declared Akinola Bello. an agent of one of the leading lotto companies.

However, unlike in lottery, sports betting rarely afford stakers the chance to win huge amounts.

Sports betters, our correspondent gathered, apart from the rare chance of winning big prizes of between N400,000 and N4 million, hardly win anything substantial.

“What bettors often win is small amounts from N4,000 to N56,000. It is very rare to see players winning above the N100,000 mark, except in exceptional cases.

“Whenever you see a bettor win N1million and above, several millions would have lost billions of naira in betting”, disclosed a kiosk agent with NaijaBets.

BH findings revealed that the biggest winning ever recorded in sports betting in Nigeria was in August 2015, when a professor, Godwin Ighodalo, won N58 million jackpot while betting on English Premier League matches.

Ighodalo, a professor of Computer Engineering at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, won the huge amount with N800 from two bettings of N300 and N500, totalling N800 on 1960BET after over 25 years of trying.

“Since my childhood days, I used to have strong interests in probability, relationships and special intelligence. All these with adequate sports betting research I conducted over the years, helped in making it possible,” the university don had stated.

Unlike lottery where a player does not need to have any expertise to win a jackpot, winning big in sports betting largely depends on forecasting skills, as well as a knowledge of the clubs and players involved in a game.

“When a big club like Manchester City plays against a smaller club like Leeds United, the odds are against Leeds FC to win. So, while more odds (points) like 20 points are awarded for a Leeds win (which rarely happens), a Manchester City win only attracts like 0.5 or 1 point.

“If you put N100 on Man City winning, that means you get only N100 (N1 per point) if Manchester City wins. For you to win anything substantial, you have to pick like 20 teams to win and then boost it with big amounts.

“On the other hand, if Leeds United with 20 odd points wins, you can get as much as N2,000 while betting only N100. But if you can pick up to eight “unrealistic” games like that and boost it with, lets say N1,000, and fortune smiles on you, you can win over N200,000″, said a sports betting enthusiast

Owing to the requirement of having strong knowledge of the sport bettors want to stake on, most Nigerians, especially the illiterates now flock to lottery which require little or nor expertise, just numbers.

“In lotteries, what you need is to pick three numbers and hope that at least two of them will be picked when the machine is rolled.

“For example, if you pick 30, 31 and 32 and the machine ended up with two of the numbers, not to talk of the three, you are in big money. What you win also depends on the amount you stake on the bets”, a lotto attendant explained to BH.
Though, lottery playing cuts across all social classes, findings revealed that it is the preferred game of the poor.

Checks revealed that lottery is popular among the lower class, especially commercial drivers, security guards, market men and women, sellers and even beggars who stake as little as N50 to win huge prizes from N50,000 upward.

A survey conducted in the three South West states of Lagos, Oyo and Ogun indicate that at least one lotto shop with their ubiquitous red terminal is located on every major street.
“Walk down any street in Lagos and you will spot a betting shop. Our youths are being turned to betting addicts.

“If the government did not do something urgent to stop the trend, the social disorder we are currently witnessing in the North East and North West will be a child’s play”, warned Pastor Toyin Sonibare, an assistant pastor of a Redeemed Christian Church of God parish in Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos.

Another factor driving Nigerians to lottery betting is the exponential rise in the numbers of operators in business.

BH checks revealed that many new operators are been granted licenses to operate, thereby giving Nigerians more options.

The new operators come with new innovations and technology which allow many Nigerians bettors to place bets online in the comfort of their homes and offices using their phones or computer systems.

During a visit to a lotto shop belonging to Premier Bet Lotto, owned by lotto billionaire, Chief Adebutu Kessington, popularly called Baba Ijebu in the Fagba, Ijaiye-Ojokoro area of Lagos, on Thursday, many commercial tricycle divers, popularly called Keke NAPEP, were spotted making bets.

During the visit, the average bet a player staked was three, costing N100 each.

Apart from Premier Bet Lotto, other popular gambling outfits patronised by Nigerians include local operators like Golden Lotto, Golden Chance Lotto, Lottomania and Western Lotto. More informed bettors also patronise foreign platforms like Skybet and Bet365 in the UK in the hope of winning in foreign correncies.

Speaking on the development, the Chief Executive Officer, SOFUNIX Investment and Communications Limited, Mr. Sola Oni, said that people are easily lured to lotteries, sports betting and other get rich quick schemes owing to the hardship in the country.

“As economic recession bites harder, it is easy to lure unsuspecting and gullible people into these traps called gambling.

“Gambling is a sport for the rich and not for the poor. I know rich Nigerians who lose money in excess of N10million in gambling joints daily. Yet, they don’t feel it. They are not affected as they make more in minutes to replace it.

“There is a story of a former chairman of Odua Group who used to lose heavily while gambling. But one day, he won a little over N2 million prize.

“The industrialist was so happy that he booked the whole of Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. He ended up spending over N50 million, that was over fifteen years ago, to celebrate the achievement, paying for guests lodgings, foods and drinks.

“These are the people poor Nigerians are trying to copy. It is a pity!”, Oni lamented.