Discover how South African iGaming enthuiasts could be in for a storm as Caroline Kongwa highlights the country’s massive potential. (Photo by Jacques Nel on Unsplash)
The 2024 ICE London gambling trade show has highlighted the growth opportunities present in the African igaming sector.
Ella Williamson from ICE VOX interviewed Caroline Kongwa, Chief Strategic Adviser for South Africa’s National Gambling Board, to gain insights into the country’s appeal for investors.
According to Kongwa, while COVID-19 disrupted many industries globally, gambling in Africa was one sector that continued to expand steadily.
“South Africa is a leading African gambling jurisdiction and has shown great resilience and opportunities, especially in the post-COVID betting sector” she explained.
For more info on regulations and jurisdictions in South Africa, see our SA casinos online guide.
Betting Sector Accounts for Half of Gambling Revenue: Specifically, online betting now accounts for 50% of South Africa’s 47 billion rand gambling industry revenue. “Before the pandemic, betting represented only 23% of revenue, so we’ve seen very strong growth,” said Kongwa.
Other Gambling Remains Steady: However, this betting growth hasn’t reduced profits for land-based casinos and lotteries. “These other gambling modes are still realizing pre-pandemic profits. So while betting’s revenue share grew, the industry as a whole showed resilience,” Kongwa noted.
Concerns Over Problem Gambling: With increased gambling comes worries about addiction and social harm. “More revenue means more taxes, but also likely more problematic gambling that needs monitoring,” Kongwa acknowledged.
Balancing Profit and Protection: South Africa’s National Gambling Board is focused on balancing profitability and public safeguards. “With more people gambling online, we want to harness technology to maintain protections,” said Kongwa.
High Standards for Market Entry: Kongwa also highlighted South Africa’s regulatory certainty and compliance requirements make it an attractive igaming investment environment. “Our longtime gambling laws and licensing strictness give confidence for entering this growing market,” she said.
South African Casinos: Currently South Africa does have localised sports betting with live casino games attached. However, the game portfolios are still not as high as casinos like 20Bet, 7Signs, 22Bet, and 888Starz all of which accept players from SA and also accept crypto or ZAR deposits. For more info, take a look at the our live dealer casinos tests, which review live casinos, how many games the casino has, licensing, bonuses, and currencies as well as payment methods accepted.
Authors Opinion on South Africa’s Current Growth
Naturally, online gambling companies will want to target fast-growing economies. South Africa has long been one of the BRICS countries. BRICS – (B) Brazil, (R) Russia, (I) India, (C) China, and (S) South Africa. However, the likely need to promote gambling in SA right now is because the economy isn’t performing as well as in the past. Although it shows a 2.5% GDP growth rate, in 2021, it was at 4.3%. It is still a growth economy and not stagnant like many European countries.
African Continent Showing High Growth
The African Development Bank says the continent’s gross domestic product – overall economic production – should grow around 4% in 2023 and 2024. That’s way higher than the global average of 2.7% this year and 3.2% next year.
A new bank report shows that although global problems are shaking things up, all African regions hold strong. Their economies look steady in the medium term. But risks are still out there. Skyrocketing food and energy costs, tightening global finance, and countries struggling to pay back debt could derail progress. Wildcards like climate change and elections in some African countries also create uncertainty. The report says African nations need to take bold policy action to stay on course. Help is also needed from regional organizations and the global community.
Africa’s top five economies before COVID-19 are expected to rejoin the world’s 10 fastest growing. Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Benin, Ethiopia and Tanzania should expand over 5.5% annually. Other high-flying African countries include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Their growth forecasts top 6%.
Overall, Africa’s economic growth slowed to 3.8% last year from 4.8%. But 53 out of 54 countries still saw expansion despite the world economy’s hits. The outlook can still be hopeful if the challenges are met head-on.
North America Shows Highest GDP per Capita
A recent report shows North America has the continent’s highest average income per person (GDP per capita). In 2024, the expected average income per person in North America will be $53,478. That’s over four times higher than the worldwide average. Oceania and Europe take the next top spots for the highest GDP per capita.
When looking at which economies are growing the fastest, many top performers come from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, Macao SAR in Asia is projected to have the fastest GDP growth in 2024 at 27.2%. Guyana in the Americas also makes the top list with an expected 26.6% growth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Niger and Senegal lead with expected growth rates of 11.1% and 8.8% respectively. This shows that while places like North America and Europe maintain high average incomes, regions of Asia and Africa are experiencing rapid economic expansion.
The above information comes via report on Visual Capitalist, which also has a neat info graphics showing the fastest growing economy projections for 2024. For iGaming companies this data is important because where there us money, people will gamble, and operators will want to target these regions.
Leave A Comment