Bet9ja Head Office

For Sadiq Abdullahi, the operator of a sports betting shop at Utako, Abuja, sports betting is all about carrying on the sacredness of the contract between punters and the operators of the gaming websites - paying the punter as promptly as she or he wins his or her wager on the basis of the ‘unbreakable’ promise ensconced in the predict-and-stake contract. Bet right, get paid Abdullahi would claim.



nairaland.comFor Shina Phillips, a punter at Garki Area 10, Abuja, sports betting is much more about ‘fooling’ most of the punters to ‘fleece’ them of their hard-won cash with the instrument of the enticing promises of a manifold wages for passion, as the bet9ja slogan would say, ingrained in a ‘deceit-established’ contract.

So is the case within Abuja, as it may well be the case everywhere, Phillips maintains.

Either way, the online sweepstake called sports betting is about money - the punter dreams of winning millions of Naira, for instance, a maximum of 50 million Naira dangled by bet9ja, the acclaimed market leader, by staking just one, or a few, hundred Naira notes; the operator of the gaming site, operating as a legal business enterprise, rakes into his bank account countless millions of Naira seemingly from the stakes put on the flawed forecasts of the majority of the punters at certain time.

"The winner used our on-line platform by staking merely N500.00. I’m happy to notify you the winner has been issued with his cheque. We will continue to strive to serve our customers to the best of our skills. We shall always operate in line with established terms and within the ambit of the regulatory agency."

Ojuroye affirmed that " Our company is anchored on trust, so we'll continue to serve our customers better and bigger."

A substantial percent of these youth apparently rely on the sports betting sweepstake as a ‘veritable source’ of a huge chunk of the cash they may have pursued from wherever they hail to Abuja or, at least, as a ‘veritable source’ of the pittance they need for bare sustenance.

As was the pools gaming of old, which it replaces, for majority of Abuja punters, nevertheless, sports betting is all about dependence.

"All games of chance are about dependence; the more you play them, the more you get hooked; and when you are hooked, you play them out of compulsiveness minding not whether you'll win or lose. If you win, you're joyful; if you lose, you are unhappy, but dismay for loss will not restrict you from playing tomorrow," Mustapha Mohammed, a punter at Saharabet, maintains, observing, "I think this pitiful situation of the player establishes the robust basis which the betting company booms."

Because it is a government- business enterprise that is legalized, it's also about money for the authorities in the form of the percentage of the sets made by the operators to be remitted based on the provisions of the National Lottery Regulatory Act.

As at reporting time, the National Lottery Regulatory Commission created by the said Act of the National Assembly was still compiling a thorough list and relevant records of the operators in the FCT "and so we cannot tell you comprehensively who and who are operating here, how many of them are running here, and the absolute quantity of shops by which they manage," Magnus Ekechukwu, Head Media and Public Affairs of the commission, said.

"We happen to be mapping (compiling records of) the agents and subagents of the operators since April 2015, and we are still motivating them to come forth and register their presence with the commission as required by the Act to empower us regulate and monitor their operations consequently," Mr. Ekechukwu said further, warning, "we're on the verge of compelling them to do so, because the deadline has expired since February 16, 2016."

Mr. Adolphus Joe Ekpe, the Director General of the Commission, stressed: "we're giving all operators up to the next June to come for the required mapping with us and many of them are reacting. On his own any sports betting operator that hasn't presented himself for mapping will be from July, because that will function as the time when we are going to begin full enforcement of regulation based on the Act.

We have previously reached an agreement with the EFCC that beginning with that time any operator not enrolled with us will be accused of running an illegal fiscal business, ripping the citizens of their cash off, and he will be picked by the EFCC up. We need to have a comprehensive record of them to empower us perform monitoring roles and our regulatory and fully enforce compliance with the Act.

The present scenario, allowing bulk of the players, underscores the chance of serious default with regards to the legally-required remittance to the Trust Fund and the fleecing of punters on the part of the operators in terms of the percentage of sets required by the Act to be paid to them.



bellanaija.comThe Act stipulates that the operators of the online game of chance pay 50 percent of their groups to the players called punters, remit 20 percent to the Lottery Trust Fund meant for financing such development projects as may be directed by the President of the Federal Republic, while withholding the balance of 30 percent as their gain.

This Act provides for the operation of the national lottery and the establishment of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission charged with responsibility for the management of the company of national lottery in Nigeria as well as the establishment of a National Lottery Trust Fund.

It, consequently, empowers the commission to properly regulate the operations of all lottery companies, which comprise sports betting company, and protects the interest of stockholders, players and the public.

With the name of the game being Cash, sports betting stores have rapidly proliferated, most clearly within the last year or two, across the nooks and crannies of the Federal Capital Territory and its satellite towns, with the passion of the desperate money-monger out to harvest as huge amount of cash as he could from the giant ‘cash-yielding’ tree called Abuja, said to come close to the country’s commercial capital, Lagos, when it comes to the gains and other fortunes achievable with such enterprises.

The cash is sourced from the ever- reinforcing fire for football deeply rooted in the minds of the millions of the youthful football fans flooding the FCT and its satellite towns who swarm the foreign leagues to be watched by TV viewing centres after staking and predicting.

Sports betting company, Bet9ja, in line with its set doctrine of rewarding individuals’s passion, has again paid out a huge bonus triumph of N36,702, 316.98 to another victor Nwakama Uzoma .

According to the CEO of KC Gaming Network, Ayo Ojuroye, " In line with our guarantee of constantly rewarding our customers’ fire, we just paid a huge winnings of N36,702,316.98 to one of our victor Nwakama Uzoma with My9ja Bet slip Number: B941AQPSTTZQE 21949.



yohaig.ngAbuja players should be glad for the operators Sadiq Abdullahi said,: "The come, gamble, if they win we promptly give their money to them and watch the football matches. Gambling means, the punter comes, tells the teams she or he wants to bet to us.

He does the gaming himself or he asks us to do it for him. By the end of the games you see your outcome. If you win by the result about who wins between your choice teams affirming your wager, we give you your ticket."

He said sports betting business booms in Abuja because, "the folks’s love for football has bound so high now, partly because a sizeable populace of the youth has little to inhabit them, and instead of only seeing matches without gaining anything, they resort to betting. I expect you'll not be surprised to learn that even women come here to Bet 9ja.

"I must admit the business is moving," Abdullahi said, describing, "you win N3 million and can wager N100. Is N50 million. With a stake of N100 you are able to win up N49 million. With anything above N100 N50 million." can be won by you

He said the punters playing to hundreds on day-to-day basis in his shop run.

For David Jones, the chance for winning and getting paid that much in the game is not as certain as Abdullahi painted it: "A punter yesterday in my presence gamble seven times at N150 each wager before he could win N20, 000.00, and that is an exceptional chance. You can be playing for quite a long time without winning anything. Many people play simply since they're used to it, but they do’t win anything."

Mohammed Aminu shared views with Jones I began betting just two months past. I play only Affiliate Code For Bet9ja the curious of it, but I've never won a dime. I have never won anything, although I gamble between N500 and N100; you're able to see why I said I play due to interest."

Sports betting as damaging to the economy of both individual player and the state were ignored by Shina Phillips.

"It isn't developing the market of anybody or any country. It develops the economy of just the operators," ", he said, admitting I started last year, and I have been winning meager amounts like N1000, N3000, N5000, but my maximum triumph so far is N7000. I stake between N200 and N500.

Because it really is a waste of money, "I do’t encourage the youth to get addicted to it. I play as much as five times daily before winning anything at the end of the day with the stakes I just told. Huge inhabitants of the youth assemble morning to evening at the betting shops, but bulk do’t win anything tangible, in fact they do’t win anything," Phillip said, maintaining, "From the misfortunes of this bulk, the operators make their hundreds of millions.

"So I might advise the youth to remove from gambling and rely on something less speculative ," he said. Noel Orerumba is the operator of a SureBet store.

" sports betting as a panacea to social ills are seen by me. It reduces the rate of perpetrating crimes among the youth, who constitute majority of the offenders in the society. Instead of absorbing their thoughts on carrying out criminal activities, they come here play; some win, some lose; those that win their money are paid by us, which they use to counter their statements.

You are able to see they get money without carrying out any unlawful action like robbery or militancy. Someone would wager, say, at the end wins and N300, say, N5000.

It is, in addition, an extremely reliable source of employment; a shop operator like me can use four to five others among then teaming unemployed on the streets of Abuja to help the business runs," he said.



nairaland.comNonetheless, merely extensive records of the citizenry and operations of these sweepstake websites, agents, subagents and shop operators would facilitate their proper Bet9ja Game Code regulation and monitoring in accordance with what the law states, for the good thing about the stakeholders - the operators of the business, the players, the stockholders and authorities represented by the National Lottery Trust Fund.

Talking on his win, Nwakama said my life has altered permanently. I did’t believe I could win much at once and be paid instantly. Bet9ja really surprised me and I 'll constantly tell people about their ethics."