Do you still underestimate gambling potentials in Africa

The continent is relatively underdeveloped; the gambling industry in Africa is still emerging as the whole compare to other parts of the world. Then again, many involved in the industry would be happy to tell you the emerging gambling industry is just another way to say” tremendous opportunities.”

Indeed, there are clear signs that the African region is full of pent-up demand for gambling, however, in the last decade, they have been some significant shake-ups of regulations amendment and legislations in some African countries. Although over the next five years the industry will evolve beyond the imagination of stakeholders in the industry, Africa is proportion at an advantage with demographics, as well as the number of young people in the world. However, in terms urban areas Africa is definitely in the mix though, as people continue to grow, an increase in numbers of people are moving to the cities in the hope of securing better living conditions, Africa is currently the least urbanized continent.

Still, currently, 472 million people are in cities, its urbanization rate of 11.3 per cent in 2010 per year is the fastest in the world and will double over the next 25 years. The global share of African urban resident is projected to grow from 11.3 per cent to 20.2 per cent by 2050, according to the UN. However, the gambling industry is developing the same as the numbers of young people in the region are striving to have other sources of income. These could say the majority of the people in urban areas are involved in one form of gambling; mainly, sports betting is popular in the continent. Therefore aspect to the growth is the economic situation of the region, which is the critical burner to the growth of the gambling industry. Thus, across the region economy situation is expected to boost in the next five years with new agreement met by 54 African countries.

The initiative of the deal is the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AFCTA) envisioned as the world’s largest free trade zone. This, will unite 1.3 billion people, create 3.4 trillion economic blocs and boost trade within the continent itself and heat commerce in the region and which will commence in July 2020. Tourism is another sector in the area which expected to further boost gambling industry by 2030 Africa expected to reach USD 261.77 billion compared to the USD 137.87 billion more than 2015, which is from 1998-2015 according to statistics report Africa Union Agenda 2063.

For example, in South Africa, Kruger National park in Johannesburg received over 1.7 million people visitors the park in 2018 alone. Another good example, recently, the Ghana government which lay down a 15-year long-term tourism plan that seeks to increase the annual number of tourists to Ghana from one million to 8 million per year by 2027. Further, the growing gambling industry will not be a reality without significant developments and mobile penetration in Africa. Therefore it has predicted that the number of unique mobile subscribers will rise from the 641 million as seen in 2018 to 871 million by the close 2025, which is a 6 per cent increase according to GSMA. It is also projected across the region a new set of digital generation of 44 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population equivalent to just over 450 million people will own a mobile phone by 2025. Source GSMA.

Though, internet penetration and connectivity in the region is well growing at a swift pace both in rural areas of the continent according to Internet World Stats 40.8 per cent of internet penetration as well as the inevitable 5G network that set to lunch in Africa by 2021 in the region. 5G network will further open other gambling opportunities in Africa gaming space, removing the slow latency of live streaming on gaming platforms. However, the industry expected to worth billions of dollars in the next decade.

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