When you are just getting started with sports betting one of the first questions you are going to ask yourself is “where do I actually place bets?”. This will lead you to do some research: you will either Google it or ask a friend if any of them are into sports betting.
Usually, you will end up signing up with some of the bigger and better known brands, which makes sense because they usually have a good reputation and huge advertising budgets. Depending on where you are from you will likely start betting at Bet365, William Hill, 1xBet or a similar brand with a long history or a good PR campaign. This is completely fine because these “top of the food chain” bookies usually give their players a superior betting experience.
As time goes on you are going to learn about more and more different bookmakers and this is the point where another question can be raised: “Why are there so many of them and why don’t everyone just use the biggest ones?”. There are several reasons why one might decide to stick with a smaller or a local betting brand and we are going to look into each one of them.
Usually developing countries have lots of small bookmakers, which nobody has ever heard of outside of that country. This would be a good opportunity to illustrate why people prefer smaller bookies over big brands. We are going to take Nigeria as an example – sports betting is incredibly popular there and you can find a lot of local betting sites. Recent research shows that over 30% of Nigerian engage in sports betting on a regular basis.
Betting Shops
One of the main reasons why one might decide to bet with a local bookmaker is the ability to use betting shops and kiosks. In Nigerian sports betting shops are usually buzzing with people and have an additional “social” role – apart from just betting people come here for a number of different reasons.
Not everyone in developing countries has access to television, so some people come here to watch sports. Some people use betting shops as a place to meet friends and discuss the latest news. Finally, not everyone has access to banking and betting shops provide an easy solution, where one can use cash to place bets and withdraw winnings.
Special Offers
Small bookmakers have to incentivize players to sign up and start betting, so unless they do something to stand out – they are not going to get far. Usually, this point is especially appealing to “bonus hunters”, who may sign up and make a deposit only to claim a welcome bonus. These kind of punters normally bet at several different bookmakers, where they can get weekly / monthly bonuses, free bets and cashbacks.
Smaller betting brands use bonuses as leverage to attract new players, if you take a look at Nigeria – you are going to find quite a few bookies with huge bonus offers. For example, Konfambet have a 300% welcome bonus up to ₦300,000 (~$790) and Booster99 have a 250% welcome bonus up to ₦500,000 (~$1300). You would usually expect to see such bonus amounts in casinos, but these are actual sportsbook bonuses – this is what they have to do to compete with top brands.
Payment Methods
Access to popular online payment methods might be limited for residents of developing countries. In some cases wire transfers might be the only option and transferring money internationally will come at a significant cost. This also drives people towards smaller local betting brands, who usually have an agreement or an integration with local banks. Having such an agreement or even a direct integration allows players to use online payments in situations where they would be only limited to using cash otherwise.
In general, you will obviously pick a bookmaker based on your own criteria and your own requirements, however nothing is stopping you from using several betting sites. While one bookmaker might focus on some specific sports and have better odds, another one might have good bonus offers and promotions. Having an open-minded approach when looking for a good betting site will often help you to find better offers and better odds.