Eyes on the prize in Africa

Africa is widely seen as the online gambling industry’s next great frontier, but the continent is by no means new to the sector. Unlike more recently emerged markets like Brazil and other parts of Latin America, legal gambling is not new to Africa. Early entrants such as Super Group’s Betway have participated in the region since the early 2000s.

Therefore, as demand and interest in Africa grows, a number of legacy brands, which laid the foundations in the continent’s four core markets, are already reaping significant returns from a largely young and male population who in recent years have gained much better access to cellular internet.

Early winners have emerged among both operators and countries, where pragmatic regulation and legacy land-based gaming have propelled them to the forefront in terms of market share and overall market size.

Today, the biggest online market on the continent is South Africa. By H2 Gambling Capital numbers, the market’s gross win across 2025 topped $5.2 billion (£3.9 billion), making it almost five times the size of Africa’s second largest gambling region, Nigeria ($1.6 billion 2025 gross win). Online accounted for 63% of that overall gross win at $3.26 billion.

South Africa sits behind Romania

South Africa is H2’s 22nd biggest global market by revenue, sitting just behind Romania’s $5.56 billion 2025 gross win on the global leaderboard. This growth trajectory is expected to continue, with H2 estimating the online market will near $5.9 billion by the end of 2030.

The opportunity for operators is clear, but as Peter Kesitilwe, CEO for continent-wide trade body the African iGaming Alliance (AIA), observes, Africa comes with serious challenges, despite its rapidly growing digital entertainment economy.

“What I would see as the biggest risk to the African market is not regulation,” Kesitilwe tells iGB. “The issue is the policymakers, [as] they are now coming up with a lot of over-regulation that drives consumers offshore.”

The AIA, established in 2025, aims to enhance cooperation across Africa between regulators and operators, tackling the sector’s biggest issues, including the growing black market and problem gambling.

Olabimpe Akingba, AIA board member and head of responsible gaming at sportsbook tech company PawaTech (operating BetPawa), points to rising taxes as a key driver of increased black market activity across Africa, with withholding taxes for players becoming a common theme across the continent.

She believes these are especially damaging for licensed offerings. “One of the taxes that really drives people to the black market is those levied on the customers, because those are especially hard to enforce on black market operators. With taxes, we are really driving players out to the black market as the market becomes unfair to licensed operators.”

“You’ll find that regulators in South Africa can block illegal operators, but then another regulator in Tanzania doesn’t have such tools. So if they were to cooperate, these are some of the things that one would adapt to their markets,” Kesitilwe explains.

South Africa remains king

South Africa’s competitive environment will likely continue to heat up, but by today’s metrics Super Group’s Betway Africa and HollywoodBets are battling for the top spot in terms of online market share. It is “by far” the biggest of Super Group’s eight African markets, according to group CFO Alinda van Wyk. Betway Africa entered the continent in 2006, securing South Africa as one of its initial markets alongside Ghana.

The operator’s African revenue hit $267 million in Q1, up 33% from the same quarter of last year. In South Africa, it has leveraged long-standing partnerships with Premier League clubs Manchester City and Arsenal via its UK brand.

Super Group’s competitive edge in Africa

Van Wyk believes sponsorship has given the Betway brand a competitive edge in South Africa as football accounts for 94% of its revenue on the continent. “We associated foo