Nigeria’s online gambling market hits ₦5.6trn as mobile betting becomes everyday finance

Nigeria’s online gambling market has reached an estimated ₦5.6 trillion (about $3.6bn) in 2025, with more than 60 million people placing daily bets via smartphones – a boom driven by mobile payments and football culture, but shadowed by regulatory gaps and mounting social risks.

Nigeria’s online gambling sector has entered a new phase of scale and visibility, with multiple recent studies estimating that the market has grown to around ₦5.6trn in 2025. This figure reflects total betting turnover across sports wagering, virtual games and online casino products, and underscores how deeply mobile betting has embedded itself in everyday financial behaviour.

More than 60 million Nigerians now place bets on a daily basis, mostly through mobile apps and USSD-based platforms. Industry estimates put the daily volume of wagers at over ₦10bn (around $6–7m), with sports betting – particularly football – accounting for roughly 70–75 per cent of all online gambling activity.

The boom has been fuelled by three converging trends. First, smartphone adoption and 4G coverage have lowered entry barriers: more than half of Nigerian adults now have access to a smartphone, and over 90 per cent of online bets are placed via mobile devices. Second, a new generation of fintech payment gateways – including bank apps, wallets and agency networks – has made it possible to fund betting accounts instantly from almost anywhere in the country. Third, an intense football culture, centred on the English Premier League and local leagues, has turned live, in-play wagers into a mass entertainment habit.

Demographic pressures sit at the heart of the story. Nigeria’s population is both young and under economic strain: more than 60 per cent of citizens are under 25, and youth unemployment and underemployment remain persistently high. Surveys and media reports show that many 18–35 year-olds now view betting as a side hustle or an “alternative income stream”, even as counsellors document rising debt, problem gambling and diverted school fees.

The surge is unfolding against a complex and fragmented regulatory backdrop. A Supreme Court ruling in November 2024 confirmed that gambling is primarily a state-level competence, limiting the National Lottery Regulatory Commission’s remit to the Federal Capital Territory. As a result, operators now juggle multiple state licences and compliance regimes while the federal government pushes the Central Gaming Bill 2025 – a draft law that would create a national authority for online and remote gaming, standardise licensing and taxation, and clarify player-protection duties.

In parallel, financial regulators are tightening controls around gambling-linked promotions and payments. The Central Bank recently prohibited banks from using lotteries and prize draws as marketing incentives, part of a wider effort to curb aggressive, chance-based advertising to retail customers. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also warned that the rise of high-frequency betting is pulling retail money away from long-term investment in Nigeria’s capital markets.

For operators and investors, Nigeria’s ₦5.6trn online gambling market offers both scale and risk. The upside lies in a vast, mobile-first user base and strong demand for sports betting. The downside is regulatory uncertainty, dependence on financially vulnerable players and growing political scrutiny of how much household income is flowing into betting apps rather than savings or productive investment. How lawmakers balance these forces – through the Central Gaming Bill and future state rules – will determine whether Nigeria’s digital gambling boom stabilises into a sustainable, regulated industry or remains a volatile, politically exposed growth story.