Tsogo Sun Hotels, the major hospitality group in South African, is moving closer to acquire Betcoza, the popular online betting platform in the country.

Tsogo Sun will acquire a 50.1% share in Betcoza (popular name for bet.co.za)  for a price of R49m. This will give a foothold for the hotel giant in the online gaming sector. Betcoza possesses retail sports betting rights for operation in Gauteng and Limpopo.

A press statement from Tsogo Sun confirmed the development: “The acquisition represents a strategic opportunity for Tsogo Sun Gaming to enter the online betting space via an existing, developing business.  The loss attributable to the net assets that are the subject of the acquisition was R3.5m for the year ended March 31 2020.”

The acquisition is significant for two reasons.

First, Tsogo Sun’s main competitor  Sun International has developed a robust online gambling platform called Sunbet, offering live games and betting from last month.

Second, Tsogo Sun’s from its core hotel sector has witnessed a massive fall owing to the Covid-19 restrictions.

A move into gaming sector was anyway imminent following the company’s split into Tsogo Sun Hotels and Tsogo Sun Gaming. The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated the move.

Leading developer and supplier of casino games Spinmatic and innovative iGaming bookmaker platform BetStarters have signed an agreement to offer Spinmatic high quality video slots.

This partnership will help Spinmatic strengthen its presence in Africa and Latin America, specially in Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Brazil, Peru and Paraguay.

“We are profoundly proud of the partnership with one of the most important leading developers and suppliers of casino games. With Spinmatic we make the difference enriching our portfolio and offering the highest level of games to our clients,” mentioned Salvatore Messina, COO of BetStarters.

“Africa and Latam are two huge countries that we find key markets for Spinmatic. We are very happy to be partnering with BetStarters and to provide their customers with our amazing video slots,” explained Gianfranco Arrichiello, Spinmatic’s Sales Manager.

BetStarters clients will now be able to offer Spinmatic engaging titles, such as Latam’s preferred games “El Fuego,” “Lama Glama,” “Plata o Plomo” and “Danza de los Muertos,”and the latest releases “Fall of the Beast,” “Mafioso” and “Shaolin Twins,” among others.

The “Africa Gaming Market – Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020-2025)” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

The gaming industry is expected to register a CAGR of 12% during the forecast period (2020-2025). The most recent trend is the growing availability and popularity of multi-functional gaming console, which is emerging in the market and helping in growing the market of video games in the region.

Africa is the only region in the world where the youth population is increasing. By 2050 Africa’s young people, i.e., those aged between 0 and 24 years old, will increase by nearly 50 percent. Africa will have the most significant number of young people. Africa’s youth are critical to the continent’s future when it comes to mobile and gaming as a whole.

African studios are making new inroads by launching original locally produced content on Netflix. Several local content productions have been nominated for several global awards, including the Oscars. The Annecy Festival in 2020 will be focusing on animation from Africa. In addition to this, government initiatives in the region are adopting gaming solutions for educational purposes. Developments such as these will provide opportunities for the gaming industry in the area.

During the lockdown, the Entertainment streaming and gaming industries are thriving. The global suspension or cancellation of most sporting events has left punters without live games to bet on, aside from re-runs of filmed matches. The knock-on effect is that sports betting, which accounts for most of the industry’s revenue, has crashed to almost nil.

While the traditional gambling industry is facing unparalleled losses, online gambling sites have reported a surge in activity since the national lockdown came into effect on 27 March 2020. While online casinos worldwide have reported a sharp increase in gambling, as lockdown periods are extended, and financial stresses intensify, people may become increasingly hesitant to spend money on non-essential pastimes, such as gambling.

Key Market Trends

Mobile Gaming Segment Expected to Have Major Market Share

• Mobile gaming generates close to half of the revenue that the gaming industry gets annually. More than 200 million Africans are below 35 years, and this figure might double in a decade. Africa has a huge market for gaming and smartphone companies.
• Mobile gaming is gaining popularity in remote parts of Africa. For example, more than 290 million people in North Africa use mobile phones. The mobile market in the region generates $90 billion annually.
• One of the major drivers for the growth of mobile gaming is the potential to spawn a massive real-money gaming industry around the continent. Mobile tech spreads around the continent, large swaths of Africa are also paving the way for legal betting and gaming.
• However, acceleration in network rollouts by mobile operators in Sub-Saharan Africa has been a vital driver of the reduction in the coverage gap. Infrastructure deployment in Sub-Saharan Africa increased 3G coverage from 63% in 2017 to 70% in 2018, extending access to more than 80 million people. 3.3 billion people live in areas covered by mobile broadband networks but do not use mobile internet – this usage gap’ is more than four times greater than the coverage gap. Such factors might harm gaming companies operating in the region.

Issues Such as Piracy, Laws & Regulations, and Concerns Relating to Fraud During Gaming Transactions will Impact the Growth of the Market

• Most African countries have gaming commissions and laws that regulate gambling. South Africa has clear gaming laws and regulations. It was the first country to create gambling regulation in the continent. Also, online casinos are popular in the country.
• In South Africa, several legislative attempts to further restrict online gambling and payment transactions of unlicensed operators have been postponed in recent years. However, some legislators and regulators at the provincial level have called for a less restrictive regime.
• There is currently an ongoing political and religious debate on the perceived high number of minors accessing gambling. As a result, in May 2019, the minister of finance urged the National Gaming Board (NGB) to stop issuing gaming and betting licenses immediately. The government restricted gambling advertising as of January 2019. Additional measures to ensure responsible gambling and revenue collection to the state budget are on the list.
• A new advocacy organization designed to collaborate, coordinate, partner, build and sustain the growth of esports on the continent has been formed. ESFA or The Esports Federation of Africa is established by a community of both private esports entities, and national federations. WESCO affiliates it. With the launch of the ESFA, African gamers now have a voice, an advocate, an organization with grassroots developments of players at its core. These will provide better opportunities and therefore strengthen the local market in the region.

Competitive Landscape

The gaming market is fragmented as the demand for online games, and increasing penetration of mobile applications across the region will help attract new players in this market over the next few years. Recent developments in the market are:

• In May 2020, Sony announced new PlayStation Studios branding for its first-party PS5 games. Sony will be using the new PlayStation Studios brand for its first-party exclusives going forward as a way to let customers know that a game comes from one of Sony’s in-house development teams.
• In August 2019, Konami Digital Entertainment BV announced that the mobile version of e-Football PES 2020 would be released in October, and it represents a complete overhaul of the current PES 2019 mobile game. The latest major update to the PES Mobile series, which celebrated over 200 million downloads earlier this year, brings many of the critical features and licenses already announced for e-Football PES 2020 on PC and console.