SBTech CEO warns gambling firms will rue missing out on Africa opportunity
Richard Carter believes the continent’s potential demographic growth will make it a sports betting battleground in the coming years
SBTech chief executive Richard Carter has urged gambling firms to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by Africa’s burgeoning market.
Speaking during an executive panel organised by Continent 8 at ICE yesterday, Carter confirmed the sports betting supplier had been focusing heavily on Africa to inspire growth.
Carter acknowledged some stumbling blocks when launching in Africa – poor network coverage, limited technology and high tax rates among them – but insisted the pros outweighed the cons.
“There is tremendous demographic growth in Africa,” said Carter. “At the moment it is about 17% of the world’s population and in 2040 it will be about 25% of the population.
“There is also double-digit GDP growth versus the rest of the world and pretty good mobile penetration now.
“I really do believe that if businesses don’t focus on Africa, they will look back several years from now and think they’ve missed out on something big,” he added.
Source: iStock/ktsimage