ANDREW EKEJIUBA
President Muhammadu Buhari believes a better organisation will give Nigerian football the best edge against rivals across the globe and instructed the Ministry of Sports and the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) to develop a 10-year game plan for their national football.
According to him, what Nigerian football needs is to maximize grassroots football as well as establish a privatised institution to effectively compete against America and Europe.
To accomplish this, Nigeria can use the growing sports betting industry as one potential revenue source.
Football is the most popular sport in Nigeria and some of the citizens have rising reputation of sports betting in the country. And another driving force is the increase in the use of the internet and cell phones.
According to Nigeria Sports Betting Sector Report 2019/2020, almost $2 billion are spent on sports trading daily.
The most active are Nigerians between the ages of 18 to 40 years. Data also shows a 9% increase in the number of people betting since 2017.
With proper regulations, sports betting can be an alternative revenue source. As more firms are built, an increase in Nigeria’s GDP growth is to be expected. In return, the development will provide sports betting brokers with more licensed and regulated betting exchanges as well as higher security as they trade.