Sports fans around the world heighten the excitement of watching a game or match by pitting their intuition against bookmakers’ odds — and as our world becomes more and more tech-centric, sports betting is moving online alongside everything else.
Regulations are a concern in every market. When it comes to legislation, online sportsbooks have one big edge over online casinos — there are more countries that prohibit online casino gaming but allow sports betting than vice versa.
With the right products, the right marketing strategies, and (perhaps most importantly) the right odds, a well-run online sportsbook can be a healthy source of revenue.
Emerging markets across Africa are catching the eye of operators and investors. But the Republic of South Africa (SA) has long been established as a prominent, thriving market, one that could provide operators with a solid base to build on while they’re expanding across the rest of the continent into bet-loving countries like Nigeria and Kenya.
While a few decades ago nearly all forms of gambling were banned in the country, today it has a vibrant gambling market, driven in a large part by a well-established land-based casino sector and a substantial and fast-growing sports betting segment. Getting a bookmaker’s license in South Africa is looking like a better idea every day. Check out our list of top rated bookmakers in South Africa.
What do South Africans bet on? Choosing the sports for the South African market
South Africa has the continent’s third-highest GDP, behind Egypt and fellow sports betting hotbed Nigeria. With the country’s widespread love of sports, it’s no wonder that it’s also Africa’s biggest gambling market.
The online gambling market revenue is expected to reach $828.5 million in 2024, and over $1 billion by 2029, showing an annual growth rate of 5.77%. The online betting market is projected to grow to $394.8 million in 2024 — the betting industry generates 44.9% of total industry GGR.
South African players enjoy spreading internet penetration and increasing access to smartphones. In fact, mobile devices are more popular than traditional desktops. The popularity of online gambling is skyrocketing, and sport betting takes a major share of this market — South African bettors are passionate about sports and supporting their favorite teams.
Cultural acceptance of gambling, passion for sports, high rates of mobile phone connectivity, local betting regulation, and unstable financial conditions together make sports betting popular with South African players.
What sports do South African punters bet on?
South African players like sports in general and bet on the same sports that are popular everywhere else around the world. However, they also have their local preferences.
The South African national rugby team, the Springboks, has legions of die-hard fans — and therefore plenty of die-hard bettors. South Africans also place bets on cricket, soccer, golf, basketball, and tennis. Both domestic and international football are also in demand, as well as horse racing, which has a long history in the country; for a long time, it was the only available form of betting. South African athletes are also highly competitive on an international level in cricket and golf, both of which the country’s punters enjoy betting on.
Local players also bet on esports.
Steps to launch a betting business
Starting an online sportsbook in South Africa looks like a great idea from every perspective.But a betting project is not a simple venture; being consistent is a key to success.
Here are the steps we recommend you take:
- Choose your niche and decide what sports you will offer (horse racing, esports, football, basketball, or all of them).
- Decide what business structure is the best for you: White Label or individual licensee.
- Get a betting license.
- Partner with payment systems and sport betting data feed providers.
- Develop a platform and back-end system.
- Create a website design and elaborate its functionality.
- Ensure your platform’s security.
- Write a marketing strategy and launch your marketing campaigns.
How do you choose the business structure of an online sportsbook?
Online sportsbooks, just like other types of gambling businesses, need both software and legal solutions. Operators can go either way: sign a white label agreement or do everything on their own.
White label solution
White label solutions allow operators to work with ready-made software and under their business partner’s sublicense. This is the quickest way to go live, but white label options are normally provided only to experienced operators.
From scratch
Individual solution is an independent business project where the operator organizes the whole process. It’s a more difficult and time-consuming way to launch a sportsbook, but you can save time and money by cooperating with a B2B provider for a readymade platform instead of developing it yourself.
Sportegrator is a complex solution for online sportsbooks that includes the platform, back-end, and data feeds and takes only one integration session. Our sportsbook has a smooth and convenient operating system, a CRM system for effective player retention, a CMS system for content and performance management, and more than 100 payment service operators. With personalized settings, a live sports data feed API with a range of sports, events, bets, and odds, bespoke design, and customizable bonus offers, our sportsbook software will let you offer your players 24/7 betting on the sports of their choice with odds they’ll be dying to try and beat.
Quality platform software is absolutely necessary. This includes a powerful and smooth-running backend that will support high volumes of traffic without glitching and a frontend customized to appeal to the tastes (and native language) of your target market.
Conclusion
South Africa has eleven national languages, but if you can’t offer a version of your site in all of them, you’ll cast the widest possible net with English and Afrikaans. If you can localize your website in Khosa and Zulu, all the better.
A good platform will also have a bonus module to enhance player retention and reporting tools that track, segment, and analyze your business’s performance so you can stay on top of daily operations.
Of course, an online gaming platform is nothing without content — in this case, betting opportunities. To set odds and give players the up-to-the-minute info they’ve come to expect, you’ll need live data feeds covering a variety of sports disciplines. Punters should always have plenty of events to bet on — many bettors enjoy placing several wagers at once.