The Chief Executive Officer/Founder of Kobobid Games, Victor Muoghalu, speaks with IVORY UKONU about the rapidly changing betting landscape in Nigeria. Excerpts:
Unlike many other gaming platforms in Nigeria, Kobobid Games isn’t a sports betting company, considering the fact that we are a nation of football lovers and gaming companies take advantage of this. Any particular reason why?
This is deliberate because there is already a proliferation of betting companies in the country. Why saturate the market with another solely football betting company? Kobobid has many other interactive and exciting features deliberately designed to fuel interactions, as well as provide alternative ways for people to afford goods that are considered expensive. However, there is a feature called football fantasy which isn’t directly football betting.
Trickery and breach of trust are often the fate of Nigerians who participate in gaming and lottery, with brands failing to deliver on their promise. Is Kobobid like other gaming brands?
No, because Kobobid is not only doing something different from the traditional style where the highest bidder wins within a limit of time, but also because there is no baseline cost for any item put up for auction. The bidders are in absolute control of determining the baseline cost for every item with their bids.
Despite the upheaval in the economy, the gaming industry has continued to defy economic downturns as more and more Nigerians are getting involved in one way or another in it. Why is this so?
If I must answer honestly, that is one of the reasons I relocated. The gaming industry is recession-proof. I did research and what I discovered shocked me beyond my imagination. I did the first research on the American economy, and I found out that 84 percent of the total people that play in the betting market are Africans, the minority.
It all boils down to the religious factor. The more religious you are, the more you are willing to bet. There are more gamblers in the poorest and most impoverished countries in the world than there are in developed societies because people believe in luck, and that their luck will shine. They pray to win and believe God will answer their prayers to win. That is the psyche of gamblers.
So when you look at Nigeria with its economic upheavals, and inflation, some finding it difficult to acquire the basics, coupled with religiosity, gambling will thrive as Nigerians are always looking for the next miracle. Now when the situation becomes better and the income of a Nigerian improves, he could perhaps say one day, ‘oh I have multiple streams of income, I can afford to do this it then becomes just a habit, not because you are looking for a miracle.
So gambling is here to stay, it isn’t going anywhere, not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole. Today, every month, there is a new betting company in Nigeria opening up and I thought if 50 million people bet daily and I get only 1 percent of 50 million people to sign up on Kobobid, that makes me happy.
What do you consider to be the impact of gaming companies on the economy of Nigeria?
With an estimated 60 million Nigerians actively involved in sports betting alone, and over 60 betting sites operating in the country, the betting and gaming industry has, no doubt, experienced a massive surge in Nigeria and it is consequently having a huge impact on the economy. Nigeria is the second largest online gambling market in Africa, after South Africa. The Gross Gaming Revenue is massive.
As at 2018, it was $58 million and it has risen beyond that by 16 per cent. We provide more employment opportunities, with thousands of Nigerians now working for both the local and foreign companies. At Kobobid, we are looking at penetrating the wider African market, thus providing jobs for the unemployed. Apart from employing Nigerians, betting companies create jobs by inviting people to become agents and own physical outlets.
These outlets have become very prevalent in Nigeria and have provided an excellent source of income for their owners. The shop owners also have their own employees, who earn their small share from the gaming and lottery jackpot. At Kobobid, we are starting an agency where anyone can become an agent with no sign-up, registration or retainer fee. That way, Kobobid is able to give back to society by empowering the teeming youths who outnumber the few available job opportunities. And you don’t need to know anyone to become an agent. You just sign up online to become one. Again, betting companies have also aided the Nigerian economy by forming partnerships and signing sponsorship deals with several organizations, both in the sports and entertainment industries.
Betting companies in Nigeria do not operate in isolation, but with other industries, notably the banking, information technology and telecommunications industries. That is more money for these industries which goes right back into the economy. Not also forgetting the huge taxes paid by betting companies into government coffers. So yes, betting companies have a positive effect on the economy of Nigeria. The potential in the industry is huge. We (the gaming industry) have not even scratched the surface at all.
How has it been running Kobobid these past two years?
It has been good, but it has been a learning curve coming to join the fray in Nigeria but with something different. Even though I was in the military, I never managed people and managing people, particularly in Nigeria is a different ball game entirely. But I had to learn, and I am still learning. Also, I made sure I hired people who knew what I wanted and who bought into my vision.
Also, since running Kobobid, I have now come to realise that you start out giving the people what they are familiar with, then you can add other features they are not exposed to, but you believe will be beneficial to them. So, yes, we took the hard risk at first but here we are. We started out with something called Penny Auction, an auction where bidders pay-per-bid for an item and the time increases with each bid. The winning bidder is the bidder who is the last to bid when the timer counts down to 0 seconds. But we eventually settled for Kobobid.
Why did you switch?
Penny Auction requires you to be smart. It requires some thinking skills and we had to think about it in terms of intelligence. Some people won’t just get it. It is like me trying to teach someone who is used to a touch phone how to use an iPhone. The person won’t find it easy to use and would consider it a scary experience and may never get to use it because the person would think he would never get it. So, Penny Auction was not for everyone, and this got us to create Kobobid with different games to capture everyone. On it, there is something for everyone.
Any regrets taking the hard risk?
At the end of the day, experience, they say, is the best teacher. I wouldn’t know what I know today if we didn’t do certain things, made mistakes and learned from it. So in business, you can only figure out what worked, what did not work, why it didn’t work, and what did it work for because there is no right or wrong.
Since returning to Nigeria to set up Kobobid, what would you say has been your greatest achievement so far?
There was a time I thought Kobobid would never be launched. At some point, I didn’t have the tools to get it started or people to run with my vision but finally, it took off and the feeling was like that of a new child being born. It was magical for me as it was what I have always wanted to do in Nigeria. So, launching Kobobid has been my greatest achievement.
What is it about the background that you believe must have significantly shaped you to be what you are today?
My dad. He was in the military and had the greatest influence in my life. My dad wanted me to join the military. It was his dream, not mine, but I obliged him. I attended the Nigeria Military School and the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA). I left in my final year because I was diagnosed with cancer and that cut short my military career. I went through chemotherapy for 13 months in Nigeria. Being at the crossroads of death made me an emotional person. If I had stayed in the Army, I would have become a Brigadier-General by now.
So your military career got truncated because of cancer. What happened next?
I left NDA with one month left to complete, but I never went back even after I was done with chemotherapy. I moved to the University of Lagos and started from the second year and graduated with a degree in History and Strategic Studies. Thereafter, I left for America, and I began working in the hospitality industry. I did that for a number of years, got bored and decided to try something different.
I had had enough and wanted out of the industry. I wanted a new challenge and began thinking of coming back to Nigeria. I came back in 2016 and I saw the whole betting system and how it works and how it had blossomed from when I left and how the internet has really changed the way things work in Nigeria and that’s when I decided that Penny Auction needed to come to Nigeria to be added to the offering in the gaming space.
Yeah, but what piqued your interest in the gaming industry in the first place?
What piqued my interest was the sheer numbers. I did say that as at 2017, over 50 million people in Nigeria place a bet daily. That is massive. So if you think about it in terms of market change, 1 percent of that market is just about 50 thousand people doing the bare minimum daily and that puts one in a situation where one can build and grow the business. And that was when I decided I needed to be a part of this, where Kobobid will become a phenomenon in the gaming industry.
If you wanted something more challenging, why didn’t you show interest in another profession, like say, becoming a pilot?
Oh I did actually
Really?
Yes, I wanted to. I went to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest and most respected university specializing in aviation and aerospace. The university has been at the forefront of ground-breaking aeronautical milestones since the early days of flight. It is in Florida, United States. When I finished having a conversation with a representative of the school, I found out I needed to get $95,000 to get in for flight training.
I didn’t have it and that meant I had to go borrow. And when I finish, I was expected to start making between $35,000 and $40,000 a year if I get employment. And I wondered to myself, so I borrow $95,000 to go to school to make less than half of that a year. And that is no guarantee I will get the job as there are lots of pilots who currently (at that time) did not have jobs, talk more of me coming in at entry level.
The odds were not in my favour but the school representative I was speaking with assured me that despite this, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it didn’t seem that way to me. And I had to think hard to figure out what my passion is. They say if your passion becomes your job, great, if not then you have to change course and what was utmost at that time for me was how to take care of my family. So back to your question. What pushed me was the numbers and the interest in it began as far back as 2011 but I didn’t start until two years ago. Like I said earlier, I am not just joining the fray for joining sake, I wanted to bring something different to the table.
Beyond the numbers and providing employment opportunities, how else do you make your impact felt?
I am very interested in growing the next generation of youths by showing them that you can actually work hard and achieve greatness. They do not have to subscribe to cheap, easy or fraudulent money. They do not have to beg their parents to survive or their friends for handouts. What their parents owe them is a good education and what they end up becoming is a function of how positively they channel their minds and resources.
They have your smart phones, their laptops, and the internet, there is a whole lot they can achieve on the internet by just doing the right thing and gradually moving to the next level. So, beyond Kobobid, that is what I’m trying to build among Nigerian youths. I’m looking for people who are hungry to prove to themselves and show them that they can actually achieve greatness. I do not care where you come from or whether you come from money or not, what matters to me is, are you hungry enough, are you honest enough, do you have integrity?
For someone who is involved in an industry that the youths consider to be their playground, how are you able to advise them to strike a balance, know when to apply the brakes and not go overboard?
Betting is akin to smoking and eating. Anything you do in excess is bound to hurt you. Moderation is key and this is where Kobobid is different. You do not need a lot to bet. The bidding starts at zero naira and each time there is a bid, it goes up by one unit, one kobo which is why it is called Kobobid. But beyond that, I think everyone is entitled to experience a feel-good factor where you get to reward yourself, no matter how little for either a job well done or to uplift your spirit.
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