Nigeria's betting industry is a fast-growing area of the economy. This industry has further developed with the increase of mobile and internet penetration coupled with the availability of payment platforms provided by Fintech Companies.

Who Regulates Online Sports Betting?

The Lagos State Lotteries Board (LSLB) regulates and controls every aspect of lotteries including Online Sports Betting (OSB) . Consequently, a gaming operator, that intends to operate an Online Sports Betting business in Lagos State, must obtain a license from the Lagos State Lotteries Board regardless of any license or permit previously obtained from any other national or state agency.

Some Online Sports Betting Operators include....

  • BETNAIJA
  • NAIRABET
  • SUPABET
  • 1960BET

Financial and Local Content Requirements

  • Minimum Share Capital of N20,000,000 (Twenty Million Naira): This amount is merely the minimum value of the company shares at the time of registration and shareholders are not required to make financial contributions to this amount.
  • Note that there is a local content requirement for operating an OSB business in Lagos. 100% Foreign ownership is not permitted as Nigerians are required to hold at least 15% of shares in the foreign owned company.
  • Application Fee: N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira).
  • Initial Licence Fee : N50,000,000 (Fifty Million Naira).
  • Annual Renewal Licence Fee: N10,000,000 (Ten Million Naira).

The Licensing Procedure

  • An application is to be submitted together with the required documents and a non-refundable application fee of N500,000.
  • Upon submission of the application, the Lagos State Lotteries Board will conduct due diligence on the application which will take a minimum of 15 working days.
  • An applicant will then be invited to make a presentation before the LSLB, to justify the grant of the OSB Licence.
  • After a successful presentation and upon satisfactory fulfilment of the pre-approval requirements, the Licence fee of N50,000,000 is to be paid.
  • Following this payment, an Approval-In-Principle (AIP) will be issued, which is a temporary Licence granted for a period of 90 days.
  • The final license will be issued upon the fulfilment of all the conditions stated in the AIP.

N.B: LSLB's licence covers all distribution channels including betting centres and outlets the operator intends to deploy in Lagos.

Footnotes

1 You can access our articles on how to obtain a national sports betting license by clicking on this link https://pavestoneslegal.com/tag/national-sports-betting/

Originally published 11 August, 2020

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.