At the Affiverse Bootcamp next Wednesday, 21st March, a panel of experts made up of leading affiliates, operators and service providers will discuss one of the most dynamic emerging sports betting markets – Sub-Saharan Africa. Chaired by Income Access VP of Strategy Sarafina Wolde Gabriel, the ‘Destination Africa’ panel at 4:00 p.m. will look at how affiliates can enter this emerging market and overcome its challenges – to succeed.
Ahead of the panel, Wolde Gabriel sat down with its four marketing experts to hear their top-level thoughts on why the African market represents an important promotional opportunity for global affiliates.
Mathew Symmonds, Director of Web Analysis Solutions (Africa-focused affiliate)
Africa is one of the largest emerging markets when it comes to sports betting. Unlike other regions of the world that have been talked about in the past few years, sports betting revenues in Africa are a reality and not just speculative.
Many larger affiliates are already making significant revenues in Africa. Africa is also largely an untapped market, unlike saturated and highly regulated markets in Europe. With the rapid growth in mobile phone penetration, data speeds, and the appetite that Africans have to move online in retail, betting and other sectors, the growth in African betting online can only go one way in the coming years – upwards.
Mark McGuinness, CMO, BetOLimp.za (South Africa-facing brand)
Africa is like the UK was 10 years ago, when online gambling was gaining adoption and growing. Margins derived from betting in Africa are double-digit, bettors are less price (odds) sensitive and less sophisticated in terms of “the knowledge” as to how to beat the bookie!
Sure, average revenue per user (ARPU) may be lower, due to economic factors, but, as the old adage goes, profit is sanity and turnover is vanity. So why wouldn’t you avail of markets where operators can share more of the profits with affiliates?
Florian Guede, Head of Marketing at mybet (Ghana-facing brand)
While the brand and product landscape is growing rapidly in the West African market, the affiliate landscape is still tiny or non-existent. Branding and fairly classical marketing channels are the main tools of our competitors, making them highly independent from affiliation over the mid-term.
The market works in a very similar way to central Europe in terms of customer interest and betting. So from a content perspective, it is football, football, football – things we know how to deal with at mybet.
Player stickiness for our brand is very high still – after three months, over 50% of players are still active on our platform. So while average stakes are low, affiliates entering now can grow with the market.
Sarah McChesney-Gordon, Client Services Director, Fresh8 Gaming (Marketing Tech Provider)
The pace of gambling growth within the African markets right now shows the sheer potential to new and existing affiliates. Despite taxation impositions and political instability, reports are still estimating African sports betting to be an approximately R3 billion market in South Africa alone by 2019, so there’s a real opportunity for new affiliates to grow alongside African operators.
Operators are screaming out for affiliates that can help drive their acquisition and brand awareness forward, particularly those that can provide a mobile-first approach. So for any affiliates looking for new market opportunities, the African market should be top of that growth list.
As African operators join well-known affiliate platforms such as Income Access to provide stability to their affiliate growth, there’s a significant opportunity for established affiliates in European markets to diversify into other African countries.
You can hear even more in-depth insights from Sarah, Florian, Mark and Mathew by registering for the Affiverse Bootcamp here. Visit the event website for the full agenda.
