Enter the Dragon: Chinese betting giant expands into Kenyan market

A Chinese lottery company has entered Kenyan market setting the stage for more competition in the multi-billion industry, whose growth has been fueled by sports betting companies such as SportPesa, Betin and Betika.

China LotSynergy Holdings Limited announced Ideal Smart, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, has recently entered into co-operation agreement, with Golden Paw Lottery to undertake lottery business in the country.

“This is the third stop of the Group’s entry into African lottery market following the strategic partnership in Ghana and Sierra Leone, marking its full-blown expansion into the African lottery market. It is also another major milestone of the Group’s continued global strategy after successfully tapping into the Southeast Asian market since 2014,” it said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Golden Paw Lottery is licenced by the Betting Control and Licencing Board.

China LotSynergy said it would actively open up further overseas markets in 2018, as stated in the business review and outlook section of its 2017 annual report.

“The African lottery has posted explosive growth in recent years with a growth rate of 3.4% in 2015, and recorded a growth rate of 26.3% in 2016 to become the region with fastest market growth. In the first half of 2017, it again was the fastest growing region around the globe with a growth rate of 5.6%. Meanwhile, Africa has become a “Mobile First” market with mobile phone penetration rate exceeds 70%. According to the “2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money” published by GSMA and the data from African mobile payment portals, there are about 2/3 adults using mobile payment very
frequently in East Africa, such as Kenya. The amount of mobile payment accounts for 60% of Kenya’s GDP. In Ghana, 73% of transaction comes from mobile payment. ,” the statement said.

During the second half of 2017, China LotSynergy organised several field trips to Africa, and
fully realised the huge potential of African lottery market during which it inked co-operation agreements.

The deal between Ideal Smart and Golden Paw Lottery covers all-round services of lottery technology, gaming and operations. Apart from businesses of computer-generated ticket games (“CTG”), single match games, video lottery and scratch cards, both parties will also fully capitalise the advantage of the booming mobile payment market in Africa, and focus on mobile and internet lottery collaboration.

China LotSynergy’s entry into Africa comes against the backdrop of the suspension of online lottery sales in China, which has seen it push the advanced technologies of CTG, video lottery, scratch cards, mobile and internet and products to overseas markets while developing business in china, and
making bold attempts at innovation.

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“The new African lottery market has become a new testing ground for the Group to show its capabilities. The Group has been seizing this historic opportunity to bring in innovation and leading lottery products, technologies and services to Africa, adapting to local conditions, being proactive and innovative, pursuing the advantages of traditional CTG business as well as products and sales of paper-based scratch card, opening up emerging markets of mobile and internet lotteries, achieving shared growth of African lottery market through discussion and collaboration with African governments, lottery authorities and partners,” it said.