The legalization of gambling in Nigeria has resulted in a surge of sports betting platforms across the country. Today, several foreign and Nigerian-owned operators, such as Betway Nigeria, accept bets from Nigerian players, but physical outlets are mostly set up by indigenous sportsbooks, with thousands of outlets nationwide. Needless to state, a huge percentage of the youth populace engage in and even enjoy sports betting in Nigeria.
With this realization, fraudulent people have also consistently sought ways to keep manipulating the system and making millions off it. The result is the system mostly doesn’t allow them to manipulate it, so these con artists turn their attention to players. They typically christen themselves ‘handicappers’ or seasoned ‘bookmakers’ and proffer unrealistic gambling solutions to winnings and profit-making to those that care to look their way.
This post spotlights different scams in the Nigerian betting scene and how you can avoid them to play safely.
Common sports betting scams in Nigeria
Prediction winning software
To professionals, betting has changed from traditional prediction to a well-calculated process aided by research and betting metrics. However, to these scammers, betting involves algorithms and programs that analyze winnings and produce authentic predictions. To market the fake software, they call it ‘sports prediction software’, and they present it as your ultimate guide to winning.
According to them, the software will help you predict the outcome of sports events such as horse racing, football, baseball, and basketball. Unsuspecting bettors will then pay for the software and after winning a few times from it, become drawn to it. The evil in it is that the software doesn’t predict anything and only causes them to lose more in the long run.
Fake sports betting sites
This is a global problem that the Nigerian gambling scene also shares. Some unscrupulous betting enthusiasts power fake betting sites with convincing features, drawing many people in. Starting from the overall designs to the bonuses and betting markets, everything always seems to add up.
After bettors have claimed their bonus and won, they are made to deposit more money in the bid to meet rollover requirements. The deposit happens smoothly, but when it’s time to withdraw, stories and excuses start pouring in until they have made billions off innocent bettors. Once their benchmark profits are attained, the site becomes history. The most damaging part is that bettors risk a breach of their privacy and confidential data by depositing at such platforms.
Expert betting groups
Social media is filled with different self-acclaimed ‘expert bookmakers’, ‘sure odd providers’, ‘accurate game makers’, and all other titles they rack up. They share links and couch nice, appealing promotional messages to lure people in.
They typically ask interested people to deposit upfront so that the supposed experts will stake on the best games on their behalf.
It is usually promised that a percentage of the winnings will be paid back to the bettor. In fact, they may pay out a portion of it, only to make bettors deposit massively more money. In the long run, the bettors lose more to this fraud.
Bookie scams
Bookie scammers also use prediction software to defraud bettors by presenting falsified claims of their software. Most times, bettors are required to pay substantial amounts or buy-in to their software so that the bookie’s system will be monitored.
They promise to provide bettors with the software once payment is confirmed for authentic prediction. A fake software is given to manufacturing untrue predictions, but bettors are drawn even more to it if they win at least once. After placing big bets, players usually don’t get the value they want for their money and end up losing so much.
How to bet safely
You also need to gamble responsibly, as most victims of these scams are usually in a hot chase after wins and profits. As long as your goal is to gamble responsibly within your means, you won’t be scammed. So, we advise having a bankroll always, absorbing your losses; and never trying to recover losses all at once.
Don’t share sensitive information on social media, since that remains their target platform. Any genuine bookmaker that needs your information will contact you via other more secure platforms.
Sources
- mondaq.com
- responsiblegambling.org
