Mybet9ja.com Mobile
For Sadiq Abdullahi, the operator of a sports betting shop at Utako, Abuja, sports betting is about preserving the sacredness of the contract between punters and the operators of the betting sites - paying the punter as instantaneously as he or she wins his / her stake on the basis of the ‘unbreakable’ promise ensconced in the predict-and-stake contract. Wager right, get paid Abdullahi would claim.
yohaig.ngFor 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-earned cash with the instrument of the enticing promises of a manifold reward for passion, as the bet9ja slogan would say, ingrained in a ‘deceit-based’ contract.
So is the case in Abuja, as it may be the case everywhere, Phillips keeps.
Either way, the online sweepstake called sports betting is all about money - the punter dreams of winning millions of Naira, for example, a maximum of 50 million Naira dangled by bet9ja, the acclaimed marketplace leader, by staking merely one, or a few, hundred Naira notes; the operator of the gambling 9jabet Official Website, operating as a legal business enterprise, rakes into his bank account hundreds of millions of Naira seemingly from the stakes set on the flawed forecasts of most of the punters at certain time.
Because it is a government- legalized business enterprise, it is also about money for the authorities in the form of the percent of the collections made by the operators to be remitted to the National Lottery Trust Fund in accordance with the provisions of the National Lottery Regulatory Act.
As at reporting time, the National Lottery Regulatory Commission established by the said Act of the National Assembly was still compiling an all-inclusive list and relevant records of the operators in the FCT "and so we cannot tell you comprehensively who and who are running here, how many of them are operating here, and the absolute number of stores in which they operate," 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 encouraging them to come forth and register their presence with the commission as required by the Act to empower us control and monitor their operations accordingly," Mr. Ekechukwu said additionally, warning, "we are on the brink 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 necessary mapping with us and many of them are responding. On his own any sports betting operator that has not presented himself for mapping will be from July, because that will function as the time when we are going to begin full enforcement of management in accordance with the Act.
yohaig.ngWe have already reached an arrangement with the EFCC that starting from that time any operator not registered with us will be accused of running an illegal financial business, ripping the citizens of their cash off, and the EFCC will pick up him. We need to have a comprehensive record of them to enable us perform our regulatory and monitoring roles and completely enforce conformity with the Act.
The present situation, according majority of the players, underscores the likelihood of grave default in terms of 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 groups required by the Act to be paid to them.
The Act stipulates that the operators of the online game of opportunity pay 50 percent in their collections to the players called punters, remit 20 percent to the Lottery Trust Fund meant for funding such development projects as may be directed by the President of the Federal Republic, while withholding the balance of 30 percent as their increase.
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 business of national lottery in Nigeria along with the establishment of a National Lottery Trust Fund.
It, therefore, empowers the commission to properly regulate the operations of all lottery businesses, which include sports betting business, and protects the interest of players, stockholders and the average man or woman.
With the name of the game being Money, sports betting stores have rapidly proliferated, most noticeably within the last year or two, across the nooks and crannies of the Federal Capital Territory and its satellite towns, with the fire of the desperate money-monger out to crop 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, in terms of the gains and other fortunes achievable with such businesses.
The cash is sourced from the ever- strengthening passion for soccer deeply rooted in the thoughts of the millions of the youthful soccer supporters flooding the FCT and its satellite towns who swarm the foreign leagues to be watched by TV viewing centres after staking and predicting.
A substantial percentage 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 desire for bare sustenance.
As was the pools betting of old, which it replaces for majority of Abuja punters, however, sports betting is all about dependence.
"All games of chance are about dependency; the more you play them, the more you get addicted; and you play them out of compulsiveness, like drinking alcohol, minding not whether you'll win or lose when you are hooked. If you win, you're happy; if you lose, you might be miserable, but despair for loss doesn't restrain you from playing tomorrow," Mustapha Mohammed, a punter at Saharabet, maintains, observing, "I believe this pitiful situation of the player builds the solid basis which the gambling company booms."
Sadiq Abdullahi said Abuja players should not be ungrateful for the operators: "The come, Bet Naija Code, if they win we instantly give them their cash and watch the football matches. Gambling means, the punter comes, tells us the teams she or he needs to gamble.
yohaig.ngHe does the he requests us to do it for him or gaming himself. By the end of the games you see your effect. We give you your ticket." if you win by the result supporting your wager about who wins between your pick teams
He said sports betting company booms in Abuja because, "the folks’s love for football has jumped so high now, partially because a big population of the youth has little to inhabit them, and instead of simply watching matches without gaining anything, they resort to betting. I hope you WOn't be surprised to learn that even women come here to gamble.
"I must confess the business is moving," Abdullahi said, describing, "you can gamble N100 and win N3 million. Is N50 million. With a stake of N100 you are able to win up N49 million. With anything above N100 you are able to win N50 million."
He said the punters playing to hundreds on day-to-day basis in his shop run.
For David Jones, the luck for winning and getting paid that much in the game isn't as sure as Abdullahi painted it: "A punter yesterday in my presence wager seven times at N150 each stake before he could win N20, 000.00, and that is an exceptional luck. You can be playing for a long time without winning anything. Lots of people play simply as they are used to it, but they do’t win anything."
Mohammed Aminu shared views with Jones I began betting two months ago. I play just for the curious of it, but I've never won a dime. I have never won anything, although I wager between N100 and N500; it is possible to see why I said I play due to interest."
blogspot.co.ukShina Phillips blown off sports betting as detrimental to the economy of both the individual player and the state.
It is not developing the market of any country or anybody. It develops the economy of just the operators," ", he said, admitting last year I started, and I have been winning meager amounts but my maximum win so far is N7000. I stake between N500 and N200.
Because it really is a waste of money, I do’t encourage the youth to get hooked on it. I play as much as five times daily with the stakes I simply told before winning anything. Huge inhabitants of the youth gather 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 majority, the operators make their hundreds of millions.
"So I would inform the youth to withdraw from gaming and rely on something else speculative he said. Noel Orerumba is the operator of a SureBet shop.
" I see sports betting as a panacea to social ills. It reduces the rate of perpetrating crimes among the youth, who make up bulk of the criminals in the society. On carrying out unlawful actions as opposed to absorbing their minds, they come here play; some win, some lose; people who win their money are paid by us, which they use to counter their invoices.
It's possible for you to see they get money without carrying out any unlawful activity like robbery or militancy. Someone would wager, say, N300 and at the end wins, say, N5000.
It is, in addition, a very dependable way to obtain employment; a store operator like me can employ four to five others among then teaming unemployed on the streets of Abuja to help the business runs," he said.
Yet, merely extensive records of the inhabitants and operations of these sweepstake sites, agents, subagents and shop operators would ease their appropriate regulation and monitoring according to what the law states, for the good thing about the stakeholders - the operators of the company, the players, the stockholders and authorities represented by the National Lottery Trust Fund.
Sports betting firm, Bet9ja, in line with its set philosophy of rewarding individuals’s love, has again paid out an enormous bonus win of N36,702, 316.98 to another victor Nwakama Uzoma .
Based on the CEO of KC Gaming Network, Ayo Ojuroye, " In line with our assurance 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 Gamble slip Number: B941AQPSTTZQE 21949.
"The winner used our online system by staking just N500.00. I’m happy to inform you the victor was issued with his cheque. We are going to continue to strive to serve our customers to the best of our abilities. We shall consistently run in line with agreed conditions and within the ambit of the regulatory agency."
Affirmed that " Our business is anchored on trust, so we'll continue to serve our customers larger and better."
Talking on his win, Nwakama said "Bet9ja has changed My Naija Bet.com life for good. I did’t believe I could win and be paid immediately. Bet9ja really surprised me and I will always tell people about their integrity."