At this point in Nigeria’s sports betting industry, it’s no exaggeration to say that most adults have either placed a bet or can name at least five betting brands offhand. This reflects how deeply the industry has embedded itself in public life and how rapidly it continues to expand, write Nseobong Okon-Ekong and Iyke Bede

With growth come complications. Expansion fuels innovation, but it also exposes blind spots. These grey areas are often exploited by bad actors. From money laundering and cybersecurity breaches to underage gambling and irresponsible betting, the risks are widespread and persistent.

For regulators and operators, the challenge is steep. Regulators define the rules and attempt enforcement, but their reach remains limited. This often shifts the burden to operators, who must take proactive steps to safeguard their platforms and protect users.

During a recent visit to BetKing, Managing Director Gossy Ukanwoke pulled back the curtain on how the betting giant is addressing these challenges. He outlined the company’s layered approach to fraud prevention and cybersecurity, including stringent KYC protocols, real-time transaction monitoring, and AI-driven threat detection. He also highlighted BetKing’s focus on responsible gambling, pointing to partnerships with third-party watchdogs and internal tools designed to flag high-risk betting behaviour.

According to Ukanwoke, the future of the industry will be driven not only by innovation but also by the level of accountability maintained by all stakeholders involved.

“In gaming, the level of regulation is also as high as a lot of financial technology sub-industries because there is management of people’s information,” Ukanwoke stressed the role of regulators in ensuring operators are compliant. “That’s why we do the level of KYC we do. That’s why you have to get people’s ID, you have to verify their identity and all of that, confirm that they’re 18 and above.”

With the rise of online betting, identity verification is no longer just a compliance checkbox. It plays a central role in how operators protect their platforms and users from fraud, impersonation, and underage access. For BetKing, KYC is tied directly to its broader fraud prevention strategy.

“We are actually the most compliant betting company in Nigeria,” said Ukanwoke. “Quote me a hundred percent, because it’s something that regulators have said to me, it’s something that other operators say to us.”

Fraud prevention, Ukanwoke said, requires forward planning and constant vigilance.

“You cannot be in our business without thinking so far ahead about fraud and security. Whether it’s internal, whether it’s on the customer side, whether it’s on a bad actor side. You have to know who these customers are,” he stated.

He added that the presence of issues isn’t necessarily a failure. What matters is how they are handled.

“The issue is not the problem happening. The issue is how quickly you can address it and fix it. Because you cannot get better if you don’t get issues,” Ukanwoke explained. “If you don’t have issues of fraud, you don’t have issues of potential phishing or whatever, it cannot get better if it doesn’t happen.”

Artificial intelligence is also shaping how the platform detects threats and supports user experience.

“AI is coming in now. It’s given a lot of customers predictive analysis,” he added. “Customers are able to do predictive analysis on their own because they have AI models that are available to them to predict.”

Rather than seeing AI as a competitive edge for operators alone, Ukanwoke believes everyone benefits.

“The good thing about AI is that it’s available to everybody,” Ukanwoke stressed. “Company, provider, customer, let everybody take advantage of the technology to be able to make the best for themselves out of it.”

He explained how BetKing applies this by personalising betting options for users based on their preferences, stating, “We can also predict what a customer is more likely to want to bet on, so we present it to them.”

Underpinning all of this is the company’s technology infrastructure, which Ukanwoke describes as the backbone of its entire operation.

“Gaming is technology. There is no gaming without technology. You pay money to a wallet using technology,” he pointed out. “You do transactions in that wallet. It’s money in, money out.”

He said BetKing continues to invest in digital tools that give customers a seamless experience that mirrors physical shops.

Ukanwoke added, “We made a lot of investments in our technologies to be able to find ways to get access to customers that gives them an experience similar to going to a shop but they’re not necessarily going into a shop.”

That level of readiness was tested during a major phishing attack that affected another betting company. Ukanwoke said BetKing took quick action once they realised they might be next.

“I remember a few years ago one of our players in this industry got a very serious phishing attack where their site was down for a couple of days, like four or five days,” he stated. “And we knew we were next in line. But we had to take action very quickly to make sure that we did our vulnerabilities were properly protected and covered up for.”

He said the experience served as a wake-up call.

Alongside security and innovation, BetKing has also made responsible gambling a visible priority. Rather than bury the issue in fine print, the company took its message to mainstream media.

“We actually put out ads on TV that say, don’t bet. We had a campaign called Kings Know When to Stop, where we encourage bettors to have personal responsibility,” said Ukanwoke.

BetKing also lends its support to independent efforts tackling problem gambling.

“We support GambleAlert and every other initiative that helps people with problem gambling,” he said.

Ukanwoke’s approach points to a betting future shaped not only by smart technology but also by a sense of duty to the customer.

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