Even though South Africa is classed as a third-world country, it is catching up to some of its superior counterparts in the rest of the developed world.
Increased internet connectivity has seen South Africa become more digitally savvy than ever before – and it’s starting to show in the iGaming industry in particular.
Internet service providers are making it easier and easier for people to remain online more often – and with faster upload and download speeds. Fibre is much more affordable than it used to be because competition is stiff and each ISP is trying to outdo the other with stronger deals and subscriptions. It’s not as complicated as it used to be to seamlessly change from ADSL to fibre.
Despite the problems caused by scheduled loadshedding and random power outages aroud the country, South Africans know how to find workarounds for intermittent and relatively permanent hinderances. The emergence of a multitude of brands offering uninterrupted power supplies is testament to this. Nowadays, for a few hundred bucks, you can pick up a decent USP that could power a few devices for a couple of hours during a period of loadshedding.
While a room might not be entirely lit or able to operate at full electrical capacity, a USP will at least allow the fibre modem to remain in operation. This curtailment of energy has effectively seen people turn to their battery-powered and handheld devices more and, in turn, online lottery betting and other versions of iGaming are growing in popularity. But the cost of data, particularly for those who are on a pay as you go arrangement rather than a contract, remains an issue.
“70 percent of consumers in South Africa do not have access to the digital economy, so we’re never actually going to be able to grow from a numbers perspective unless we solve that data issue, where it becomes accessible to everybody, and that’s what we’re trying to do in terms of allowing access to our technology.” said biNu senior business development manager Carl Jordan.
World Bank chief economist for Africa Albert Zeufack added: “The digital transformation can increase growth by nearly two percentage points per year and reduce poverty by nearly one percentage point per year in sub-Saharan Africa alone. This is a game-changer for Africa.”
It’s therefore reasonable to assume that online gaming companies need to keep the data expense of their offerings as low as possible. For instance, colourful and busy online casinos generally eat up a lot more data than, say, a reasonably static but effective online lottery.
Regardless, the popularity of playing the lottery online continues to increase. Fewer and fewer people are entering the local lottery in person, at a store, these days. They prefer to do so on the world wide web – and they’re not limited to only playing local lotteries anymore either. Global lotteries such as the French Lotto, German Lotto, Irish Lotto, MegaMillions, US Powerball and more are available to play online these days, quickly, easily and conveniently.
