Africa has long been a region of significant economic potential with recent years seeing that potential unlocked in several sectors. While Africa’s massive size also comes with a massive potential market, there are a specific number of countries with a larger potential to be hubs for the iGaming industry in the future due to both economic and legislative factors.

While region is well-known for its passion for sports betting, the continent seems to be showing a growing interest in a broader portfolio of gambling niches with online casinos surging in popularity. This growth can be attributed to a wider proliferation of smart phones as well as an increasing coverage from 3G, 4G and 5G networks allowing an ever larger demographic to have access to the web.

In terms of the present, South Africa leads the pack when it comes to iGaming as the nation’s gross gaming revenue should pass $2.3 billion by 2023. While South Africa’s relative prosperity may be the reason behind this, there are barriers towards further growth. South African bettors are currently barred from participating in online casino games which severely hampers the growth of the industry locally.

Further abroad, several other nations are spearheading the industry’s growth with Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Uganda seeing spectacular growth in recent years. Ugandans are calculated to spend over $40 million on gambling per annum. Nigeria’s potential for the iGaming market is staggering with the country’s massive population and large GDP making it the host of the largest gambling market in terms of GGR that accounts for 7 percent of the continent’s total market share. Even more interestingly, we can see a number of nation’s seeking to adopt legislation more friendly towards the industry and more able to generate revenue and contribute to the local economy.

This being said, even the most optimistic analysts doubt that anything could displace sports betting’s market dominance over the content, at least for the time being. While this age-old tradition remains at the top, we are seeing more innovative industries gain ground. Crypto casinos are gaining a larger share of the pie even though the emerging nature of the technology that surrounds it means that it will take some time for this to reach its full effect. Till then, the future seems bright for iGaming’s future in Africa both as a pastime as well as a way of rejuvenating the economy.

Sourced from Ghana Business News

SiGMA Asia 2022

After the exciting set of conferences that was Malta Week 2021, the SiGMA Group plans to take the world by storm with the golden steeples of?Kiev?and the snowy city of?Toronto?being hubs to draw the best and brightest of the iGaming world together. Our next expo takes us to cutting-edge metropoli of the?United Arab Emirates?for three days of networking, panel discussions and festivities. Stay up to date with the latest and greatest through?SiGMA News.

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